Whole note of mensural notation, and this is the origin of the British name. The American name is a calque of the German . The Catalan, French and Spanish names for the note (meaning "round") derive from the fact that the was distinguished by its round stemless shape, which is true as well of the modern form (in contrast to the double whole note or shorter values with stems). The Greek name means "whole". Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese names mean "whole note". Whole note In music, a whole note (American) or semibreve (British) is a note represented by a hollow oval
Time signature note), in contradiction to the literal meaning of the phrase, it still indicates that the beat has changed to a longer note value. Time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value is equivalent to a beat. In a music score, the time signature appears at the beginning as a time symbol or stacked numerals, such as or (read "common time" and "three-four time", respectively), immediately following the key