Which of these musical notes has the shortest duration?
An eighth note (American) or a quaver (British) is a musical note played for one eighth the duration of a whole note (semibreve), hence the name. This amounts to twice the value of the sixteenth note (semiquaver). It is half the duration of a quarter note (crotchet), one quarter the duration of a half note (minim), one eighth the duration of whole note (semibreve), one sixteenth the duration of a double whole note (breve), and one thirty-second the duration of a longa. It is the equivalent of the fusa in mensural notation (Morehen and Rastell 2001).
Eighth notes are notated with an oval, filled-in note head and a straight note stem with one flag note flag (see Figure 1). The stem is placed to the right of the notehead and extends upwards if the notehead lies below the middle line of the staff, and to the left of the notehead extending downwards if the notehead lies on or above the middle line of the staff, in instrumental notation. In vocal music, a middle-line notehead extends upward instead of downward. A related symbol is the eighth rest (or quaver rest), which denotes a silence for the same duration (Anon. 2016).
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