Double whole note Double whole note In music, a double whole note (American), breve (international), or double note (; ) is a note lasting two times as long as a whole note (or "semibreve"). It is the second-longest note value still in use in modern music notation (; ). In medieval mensural notation, the "brevis" was one of the shortest note lengths in use —hence its name, which is the Latin etymon of "brief". In "perfect" rhythmic mode, the brevis was a third of a "longa", or in "imperfect" mode, half a "longa" . In modern notation, a breve is commonly represented in
Two hundred fifty-sixth note (1800), to notate rapid scales. Another example is in Mozart's Variations on "Je suis Lindor" (1778), where four of them are used in the slow ("molto adagio") twelfth variation. A further example occurs ("Grave.Adagio non troppo") in Jan Ladislav Dussek's (1760–1812) Fifth Piano Sonata, Op. 10 No. 2. They also occur ("Largo") in Vivaldi's (1678–1741) Concerto, RV 444, and in bar 15 of François Couperin's "Second Prelude" from "L'art de toucher le clavecin" (1716). The next note value shorter than the two hundred fifty-sixth note is the five hundred twelfth note with seven flags or beams; it is half as