Whole note they may occasionally be put under a different line (or ledger line) in more complicated polyphonic passages, or when two instruments or vocalists are written on one staff and one is temporarily silent. The whole note and whole rest may also be used in music of free rhythm, such as Anglican chant, to denote a whole measure, irrespective of the time of that measure. The whole rest can be used this way in almost all or all forms of music. The symbol is first found in music notation from the late thirteenth century . The whole note derives from the
Concerti grossi, Op. 6 (Handel) seventh concerto is the only one for full orchestra: it has no solo episodes and all the movements are brief. The first movement is a "largo", ten bars long, which like an overture leads into the "allegro" fugue on a single note, that only a composer of Handel's stature would have dared to attempt. The theme of the fugue consists of the same note for three bars (two minims, four crotchets, eight quavers) followed by a bar of quaver figures, which with slight variants are used as thematic material for the entire movement, a work relying primarily on rhythm. The