I understand that each of these words mean the same thing: half or partial. But what do they mean when used together? 1/2 * 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/8?
The usage came up often in Patrick O’Brian novels. One example I partially remember was in reference to royalty or the crown.
Googling also shows me that hemi-demi-semi quavers are 1/64th notes (a quaver being an 1/8th note).
Also, is the order used consistently? Is it always hemi, then demi, then semi?
I’ve only seen it with quaver, and I can’t tell you which end it starts with. That is, If you wanted a 1/32 note, would you lop off the hemi, or the semi?
Thanks, I should have thrown this link in for fun. It asks what do you call half a semi-hemi-demi quaver? The answer asserted is semi-hemi-demi-semiquaver.
I’ve remember long ago seeing the prefixes combined in relation to the globe or the celestial sphere. The whole earth is a sphere (approximately). Everything north of the equator is one of two hemispheres of the earth. Everything north of the equator and west of the prime meridian to the 180th meridian is one of four semihemispheres of the earth. Everything north of the equator and west of the prime meridian to the 90th meridian is one of eight demisemihemispheres of the earth. I’m not 100% sure I have the prefixes in the right order.
There’s two different systems for naming the notes, the American/German system and the English/classical system. The American/German system names the notes to show the mathematical relationship amongst them. The classical system gives distinct names to the notes that don’t necessarily show the mathematical relationship:
**American/German British/Classical**
Double whole note Breve
Whole Note Semibreve
Half Note Minim
Quarter Note Crochet
Eighth Note Quaver
Sixteenth Note Semiquaver
Thirty-second Note Demisemiquaver
Sixty-Fourth Note Hemisemiquaver
(The demisemiquaver is common in piping.)
1 hemi-semi-demi = 1 RCH*
*For you non-military folks, an RCH is a red cunt hair.
while we’re at it, what’s the etymology of these three words? how do you get three rhyming words all meaning “half”, differing just by the initial consonant?
Many words of Greek origin got an initial H turned into an initial S in Latin: Compare also “helios” and “sol”, or “hex” and “sex” (meaning “six”). I don’t know where the d comes from, though.
Etymology: Homework Help and Textbook Solutions | bartleby
Edit: Wikipedia offers ‘quasihemidemisemiquaver’ as an alternative to semihemi…', which suggests to me the scarcity of the need for the word suggests there isn’t a clearly established usage. Hundred twenty-eighth note - Wikipedia
Wiki article on Note Values, including the origins of the name of the note:
Curious - while poking around in wiki, I see that there’s an article on Dotted Notes, but there doesn’t appear to be one on Cut Notes (although there is an example of a cut note in the illustration of beamed notes in the Note Values article).
They’re not really of equivalent importance, I suppose - augmentation dots have been in use for much longer, with a fundamental role in rhythmic notation, whereas details of beaming are as much a matter of notational style (albeit a thoroughly standardised one) rather than being an axiomatic building-block of western music. If they were to be described, I think cut notes (a term I’ve not heard before, FWIW - is it really ever used?) would belong in the article on beaming, at present a stub.
cut notes are used extensively in bagpipe music, since there can’t be any rests - combinations of dots and cuts are one of the ways to introduce rhythm to pipe music. I’ve only heard them called cut notes; is there some other term for them?
and I think cut notes would be more analogous to dotted notes than to beaming, wouldn’t they? As you say, beaming is a matter of notational style, while cut notes have a role in the rhythmic notation.
Ahh, I thought you were specifically referring to the format of the beaming of the third note in that Wikipedia example. (By ‘cut note’, you are referring to that note?) If you simply are asking about ‘the note which follows the dotted note in a dotted rhythm’, then no, I’m not aware of any particular term for it in any more widespread music theory.
yes, I’m referring to the third note in that beaming illustration, with the little flag on it to show that it’s to be played at less than its normal rhythmic value. we call them cut notes in piping. I wasn’t aware that term was unique to piping.
also, is it always the case that the cut note follows the dotted note? sometimes in piping scores the cut note precedes the dotted note; see this score for Bonnie Dundee.
Are cut notes a similar concept to grace notes (very short notes which immediately precede a different, longer note)?
The little flag doesn’t quite indicate that - it’s a truncated second beam, the notation of a single semiquaver/16th note (i.e. exactly half the value!) within a beamed group.
no, cut notes are in the main tune, associated with a dotted note. The dotted note is held for a longer time than its note value would normally suggest - 1½ its normal value. The cut note, which normally follows a dotted note, is cut by the proportionate amount, so it has ½ its normal value. So in 4/4 time, a dotted quarter note is held for 1½ beats, followed by a cut quarter note held for only ½ beat. Together, they still have two beats, just as if they had not be dotted and cut, but it introduces a bit of rhythm or swing to the melody.
The grace notes (in piping at least) are demisemiquavers (32nd notes) and are not dotted or cut; they’re just inserted into the bar and don’t count for the beats. As wiki notes about grace notes, grace notes in piping tend to be played before the beat, while in other forms of music they tend to be played on the beat.
If you look at the score to Bonnie Dundee that I linked to above, you’ll see all the grace notes are printed in smaller sizes, while the dotted and cut notes are in the main melody. In Bonnie Dundee, the cut notes tend to precede the dotted notes, which introduces an interesting rhythm, meant to simulate the galloping of Dundee as he flees Edinburgh to raise the jacobites. Most other pipe tunes that I’ve checked have the cut notes following the dotted notes.
As well, you can have dotted notes without cut notes, but I don’t think I can recall a cut note without a dotted note.
That’s a rather over-emphatic Wikipedia editor at work - they are variously used both ways in classical music.
