Musical note standardised at 440 Hz, lying in the octave containing notes from C (middle C) to B. The lowest note on most pianos is A, the highest C. The MIDI system for electronic musical instruments and computers uses a straight count starting with note 0 for C at 8.1758 Hz up to note 127 for G at 12,544 Hz. A written note can also have a note value, a code that determines the note's relative duration. In order of halving duration, they are: double note (breve); whole note (semibreve); half note (minim); quarter note (crotchet); eighth note (quaver); sixteenth note (semiquaver).;
Note value renaissance music, and the terms of Latin origin had international currency at that time. Obviously, "longa" means 'long', and the rest rarely indicate relative shortness. "Breve" is from Latin "brevis", 'short', "minim" is from "minimus", 'very small', and "quaver" refers to the quavering effect of very fast notes. The elements "semi-", "demi-" and "hemi-" mean 'half' in Latin, French and Greek respectively. The chain semantic shift whereby notes which were originally perceived as short came progressively to be long notes is interesting both linguistically and musically. However, the "crotchet" is named after the shape of the note, from the Old