Whole note Whole note In music, a whole note (American) or semibreve (British) is a note represented by a hollow oval note head and no note stem. Its length is equal to four beats in time, that is the whole measure (or bar). Most other notes are fractions of the whole note (e.g., half notes and quarter notes are played for one half and one quarter the duration of the whole note, respectively). The symbol is first found in music notation from the late thirteenth century, and its British name derives from the "semibrevis" of mensural notation. The whole note and whole
Clavier-Übung III we trust, Protect Christ's congregation, His everlasting truth assert, All evil graciously avert, Lead us to life eternal.</poem> BWV 675, 66 bars long, is a two-part invention for the upper and lower voices with the "cantus firmus" in the alto part. The two outer parts are intricate and rhythmically complex with wide leaps, contrasting with the "cantus firmus" which moves smoothly by steps in minims and crotchets. The time signature has been taken to be one of the references in this movement to the Trinity. Like the two preceding chorale preludes, there is no explicit "manualiter" marking, only an ambiguous