Hundred twenty-eighth note

Beethoven used 128th notes in the first movement of his Pathétique Sonata (Op. 13)

A hundred twenty-eighth note with stem facing up, a hundred twenty-eighth note with stem facing down, and a hundred twenty-eighth rest.

4 hundred twenty-eighth notes beamed together.

In music, a hundred twenty-eighth note (American) or semihemidemisemiquaver or quasihemidemisemiquaver^[1] (British) is a note played for 1/128 of the duration of a whole note (hence its American name). It lasts half as long as a sixty-fourth note (or hemidemisemiquaver). It has a total of five flags or beams.

Notes this short are very rare in printed music, but not unknown. They are principally used for brief, rapid sections in slow movements. For example, they occur in the first movement of Beethoven's Pathétique Piano Sonata (Op. 13), to notate rapid scales. Another example is in Mozart's Variations on Je suis lindor, where many of them are used in the slow twelfth variation.^[2][3]

These five-beamed notes also appear occasionally where a passage is to be performed rapidly, but where the actual tempo is at the discretion of the performer rather than being a strict division of the beat. In such cases, the aggregate time of the notes may not add up exactly to a full measure, and the phrase may be marked with an odd time division to indicate this. Sometimes such notation is made using smaller notes, sized like grace notes. One rare instance where such five-beamed notes occur as acciacaturas occurs in the final measures of No. 2 of Charles-Valentin Alkan's Trois grandes études, Op. 76.

Hundred twenty-eighth rests are also rare, but again not unknown. They are most commonly used as replacements for breath marks. One is used in Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 13 "Quasi una fantasia".

The names of this note (and rest) vary greatly in European languages:

References

1. ↑ Both given, with usage examples, in Dmitri A. Borgmann, Beyond language: adventures in word and thought, p.205
2. ↑ Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. 12 Variations on 'Je suis lindor', K.354. p. 10, fourth system, last bar. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Werke, Serie 21. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1877-1910. Plate W.A.M. 354. 'Je_suis_Lindor',_K.354_(Mozart,_Wolfgang_Amadeus)
3. ↑ http://www.mail-archive.com/lilypond-devel@gnu.org/msg14425.html

v t e Musical note values Note and rest lengths Octuple whole note (maxima) Quadruple whole note (longa) Double whole note (breve) Whole note (semibreve) Half note (minim) Quarter note (crotchet) Eighth note (quaver) Sixteenth note (semiquaver) Thirty-second note (demisemiquaver) Sixty-fourth note (hemidemisemiquaver) Hundred twenty-eighth note (semihemidemisemiquaver) Two hundred fifty-sixth note Variations Dotted note Grace note Swung note Tuplet