Longa (music) Longa (music) A longa (pl. "longe" or "longae"), long, quadruple note (Am.), or quadruple whole note is a musical note that could be either twice or three times as long as a breve (Am.: double whole note, or double note), four or six times as long as a semibreve (Am.: whole note), that appears in early music. The number of breves in a long was determined by the "modus" or "mode" of a passage. Sections in perfect mode used three breves to the long while sections in imperfect mode used two breves to the long. Imperfect longs, worth two breves,
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