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Music Figures
The indication of the duration of sounds and silences is represented graphically through a series of symbols termed music figures. Obviously, even for sound durations it is necessary to have a unit of measurement, such as there exist some for space (meter), weight (gram), etc. This unit of measurements is called whole. However, it has no absolute value but depends on the indications that you can find at the beginning of the music text (e.g., Allegro, Adagio, etc.).
Each music figure corresponds a rest (time of silence) of an equal temporal value.
In the following table you find a list of music figures with their relative rests and indications of values.
NAMEFIGURERESTVALUE
BreveBrevePause Breve2 Two wholes
WholeSemibreve1 A whole
Half noteMinim1/2 A half
Quarter noteSemiminimPause semiminim1/4 A fourth
Eight noteQuaverPause quaver1/8 An eighth
Sixteenth noteSemiquaverPause semiquaver 1/16 A sixteenth
Thirty-second notePause bisquaver1/32 A thirty-second
Sixty-fourth notePause semibisquaver1/64 A sixty-fourth
Hundred twenty-eight notePause fusa1/128 A hundred-and-twenty-eighth
The whole is commonly indicated with the indication 4/4. Accordingly, the breve with 8/4 and the minimal with 2/4.
The rest of one eighth Pause quaver can be confused with the one of one fourth Pause semiminim present in some ancient editions.
There exist some graphic signs allowing to augment the duration of music figures. They are:
  1. tie,
  2. dot,
  3. coronated dot.

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