In music notation, a sixty-fourth note (American) or hemidemisemiquaver (British) is a note played for 1/64 of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). It lasts half as long as a thirty-second note (or demisemiquaver).
Sixty-fourth notes are notated with a filled in oval note head and a straight note stem with four flags. The stem is drawn to the left of the note head going downward when the note is above or on the middle line of the staff. When the note head is below the middle line the stem is drawn to the right of the note head going upward. Multiple adjacent sixty-fourth notes may have the flags connected with a beam.
A similar, but rarely encountered symbol is the 64th rest (or hemidemisemiquaver rest, shown on the right of the image) which denotes silence for the same duration as a sixty-fourth note.
Notes shorter than a sixty-fourth note are very rarely used, though the hundred twenty-eighth note (otherwise known as the semihemidemisemiquaver or quasihemidemisemiquaver), and even shorter notes, are occasionally found.
The names of this note (and rest) vary greatly in European languages:
| Language | note name | rest name |
|---|---|---|
| Dutch | vierenzestigste noot | vierenzestigste rust |
| German | Vierundsechzigstelnote | Vierundsechzigstelpause |
| French | quadruple-croche | seizième de soupir |
| Italian | semibiscroma | pausa di semibiscroma |
| Spanish | semifusa | silencio de semifusa |
| Polish | sześćdziesięcioczwórka | pauza sześćdziesięcioczwórkowa |
| Portuguese | semifusa | pausa de semifusa |
| Russian | шестьдесят четвертая нота | шестьдесят четвертая пауза |
"Semifusa" derives from the mensural notation corresponding to the modern sixteenth note.
|
Read more about Sixty-fourth Note: Reference and Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the word note:
“Glorious bouquets and storms of applause ... are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys. But to move an audience in such a role, to hear in the applause that unmistakable note which breaks through good theatre manners and comes from the heart, is to feel that you have won through to life itself. Such pleasure does not vanish with the fall of the curtain, but becomes part of one’s own life.”
—Dame Alice Markova (b. 1910)