A quarter note (American) or crotchet (/ˈkrɒtʃɪt/KROTCH-it) (British) is a musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem usually points upwards if it is below the middle line of the staff, and downwards if it is on or above the middle line. An upward stem is placed on the right side of the notehead, a downward stem is placed on the left (see image). The Unicode symbol is U+2669 (♩).
A quarter rest (or crotchet rest) denotes a silence of the same duration as a quarter note. It typically appears as the symbol
The note derives from the semiminima ('half minim') of mensural notation. The word "crotchet" comes from Old Frenchcrochet, meaning 'little hook', diminutive of croc, 'hook', because of the hook used on the note in black notation.
The quarter note is played for half the length of a half note and twice that of an eighth note. It is one beat in a bar of 4 4.
The term "quarter note" is a calque (loan translation) of the German term Viertelnote. The names of this note (and rest) in many other languages are calqued from the same source; Romance languages usually use a term derived from the Latinnegra meaning 'black':
The Catalan, French, Galician, and Spanish names for the note (all of them meaning 'black') derive from the fact that the semiminima was the longest note to be colored in mensural white notation, which is true as well of the modern form.
The Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Serbian and Slovak names mean "quarter" (for the note) and "quarter's pause" (for the rest).
^Examples of the older symbol are found in English music up to the late 19th century, e.g. W. A. Mozart Requiem Mass, vocal score ed. W. T. Best, pub. London: Novello & Co. Ltd. 1879.
References
^Rudiments and Theory of Music Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London 1958. I,33 and III,25. The former section shows both forms without distinction, the latter the "old" form only. The book was the Official ABRSM theory manual in the UK up until at least 1975. The "old" form was taught as a manuscript variant of the printed form.
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