Half note Half note In music, a half note (American) or minim (British) is a note played for half the duration of a whole note (or semibreve) and twice the duration of a quarter note (or crotchet). It was given its Latin name ("minima", meaning "least or smallest") because it was the shortest of the five note values used in early medieval music notation . In time signatures with 4 as the bottom number, such as or , the half note is two beats long. However, when 2 is the bottom number (including "alla breve", ), the half note is one beat
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