Whole note

Figure 1. A whole note and a whole rest.

In music, a whole note (American) or semibreve (British) is a note represented by a hollow oval note head and no note stem. Its length is equal to four beats in 4/4 time, that is the whole 4/4 measure (or bar). Most other notes are fractions of the whole note (e.g., half notes and quarter notes are played for one half and one quarter the duration of the whole note, respectively).

The symbol is first found in music notation from the late thirteenth century, and its British name derives from the semibrevis of mensural notation, which is the origin of the British name. The whole note and whole rest may also be used in music of free rhythm, such as Anglican chant, to denote a whole measure.

Description

Comparison of duple note values ( = 2×, etc.)

A whole note (American) or semibreve (British) is a musical note represented by a hollow oval note head—like a half note (or minim)—and no note stem (see Figure 1). Its length is equal to four beats in 4/4 time, that is the whole 4/4 measure (or bar). Most other notes are fractions of the whole note. Half notes last for one half the duration of the whole note, quarter notes (or crotchets) last for one quarter the duration, and a double whole note (or breve, hence the British name semibreve) lasts twice as long as ), and twice as long as a half note.

A related symbol is the whole rest (or semibreve rest). It usually applies for an entire measure, but may occasionally mean a rest for the duration of a whole note. Whole rests are drawn as filled-in rectangles generally hanging under the second line from the top of a musical staff, though they may occasionally be put under a different line in more complicated passages, such as when two instruments or vocalists are written on one staff, and one is temporarily silent.

Other lengths

The whole note and whole rest may also be used in music of free rhythm, such as Anglican chant, to denote a whole measure, irrespective of the time of that measure. The whole rest can be used this way in almost all or all forms of music.

History

The symbol is first found in music notation from the late thirteenth century.(Morehen and Rastall 2001)

Etymology

The whole note derives from the semibrevis of mensural notation, and this is the origin of the British name. The American name is a calque of the German ganze Note.

The names of this note (and rest) in different languages vary greatly:

Language	note name	rest name
Arabic	المستديرة	سكتة المستديرة
Catalan	rodona	silenci de rodona
Chinese (中文)	全音符 (pinyin: quán yīnfú)	全休止符 (pinyin: quán xiūzhǐfú)
Danish	helnode	helnodepause
Dutch	hele noot	hele rust
Estonian	täisnoot	täispaus
French	ronde	pause
German	ganze Note	ganze Pause
Greek	olokliro (ολόκληρο)	pafsi oloklirou (παύση ολοκλήρου)
Italian	semibreve	pausa di semibreve
Japanese	全音符 (zen onpu)	全休符 (zen kyūfu)
Korean	온음표(-音標 oneumpyo); 전음부(全音符 jeoneumbu)	온쉼표(--標 onswimpyo); 전휴부(全休符 jeonhyubu)
Lithuanian	pilnoji nata	pilnoji pauzė
Persian	نُت گرد	سکوت گرد
Portuguese	semibreve	pausa de semibreve
Polish	cała nuta	pauza całonutowa
Romanian	notă întreagă	pauză de nota intreaga
Russian	целая нота	целая пауза
Serbian	cela nota / цела нота	cela pauza / цела пауза
Spanish	redonda	silencio de redonda
Swedish	helnot	helpaus
Thai	โน๊ตตัวกลม	ตัวหยุดตัวกลม
Turkish	birlik nota	birlik es
Vietnamese	nốt tròn	lặng tròn
Welsh	hannerbrif	saib yr hannerbrif

The Catalan, French and Spanish names for the note (meaning "round") derive from the fact that the semibrevis 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".

See also

• Musical notation

References

• Morehen, John, and Richard Rastall. 2001. "Semibreve". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.