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Subject:
From:
Santu Desilva <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 30 Jun 1999 17:02:15 -0400
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Someone replied to my question (Why are Semibreves called Whole notes?)
with the information that there are Breves whose duration is two
semibreves.

This is certainly true, but shouldn't these Breves be called Whole Notes,
and the semibreves (since "semi" denotes "half", from presumably a latin
root) be called half notes? At any rate, the question was asked
facetiously.

I suppose it's all rather arbitrary, and one could just as easily have
called an eighth note a whole note.  But all this was, as we know, before
Einstein.  (Or Doppler!  Heh heh)

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