Thirty-second note
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In music, a thirty-second note (American or "German" terminology) or demisemiquaver (British or "classical" terminology) is a note played for 1/32 of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). It lasts half as long as a sixteenth note (or semiquaver) and twice as long as a sixty-fourth note (or hemidemisemiquaver).
Thirty-second notes are notated with an oval, filled-in note head and a straight note stem with three flags or beams. As with all notes with stems, thirty-second notes are drawn with stems to the right of the notehead, facing up, when they are below the middle line of the musical staff. When they are on or above the middle line, they are drawn with stems on the left of the note head, facing down. Flags are always on the right side of the stem, and curve to the right. On stems facing up, the flags start at the top and curve down; for downward facing stems, the flags start at the bottom of the stem and curve up. When multiple thirty-second notes or eighth notes (or sixteenth notes, etc.) are next to each other, the flags may be connected with a beam. Similar rules apply to smaller divisions such as sixty-fourth notes.
A related symbol is the thirty-second rest or demisemiquaver rest (shown to the right), which denotes a silence for the same duration.
The names of this note (and rest) in European languages vary greatly:
Language | note name | rest name |
---|---|---|
German | Zweiunddreißigstelnote | Zweiunddreißigstelpause |
French | triple-croche | huitième de soupir |
Italian | biscroma | pausa di biscroma |
Spanish | fusa | silencio de fusa |
Portuguese | fusa | pausa de fusa |
"Fusa" derives from the mensural notation corresponding to the modern eighth note.
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