Sixty-fourth note

In music notation, a sixty-fourth note (American), or hemidemisemiquaver or semidemisemiquaver (British) is a note played for half the duration of a thirty-second note (or demisemiquaver), hence the name. It first occurs in the late 17th century and, apart from rare occurrences of one-hundred-twenty-eighth notes, (semihemidemisemiquavers), it is the shortest value found in musical notation (Morehen 2001).

File:Hemidemisemiquaver.svg

Sixty-fourth notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight note stem with four flags. The stem is drawn to the left of the note head going downward when the note is above or on the middle line of the staff. When the note head is below the middle line the stem is drawn to the right of the note head going upward. Multiple adjacent sixty-fourth notes may have the flags connected with a beam.

File:Semifusas unidas.png

Numerous sixty-fourth notes beamed together

A similar, but rarely encountered symbol is the sixty-fourth rest (or hemidemisemiquaver rest, shown on the right of the image) which denotes silence for the same duration as a sixty-fourth note.

Notes shorter than a sixty-fourth note are very rarely used, though the hundred twenty-eighth note (otherwise known as the semihemidemisemiquaver or quasihemidemisemiquaver), and even shorter notes, are occasionally found.

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

Language	note name	rest name
Basque	erdifusa
Catalan	semifusa	silenci de semifusa
Chinese	六十四分音符 (pinyin: liùshísìfēn yīnfú)	六十四分休止符 (pinyin: liùshísìfēn xiūzhǐfú)
Danish	fireogtresindstyvendedelsnode	fireogtresindstyvendedelspause
Dutch	vierenzestigste noot	vierenzestigste rust
French	quadruple-croche	seizième de soupir
German	Vierundsechzigstelnote	Vierundsechzigstelpause
Greek	εξηκοστό τέταρτο	παύση εξηκοστού τέταρτου
Italian	semibiscroma	pausa di semibiscroma
Korean	64분음표(六十四分音標 yuksipsabun eumpyo)	64분쉼표(六十四分-標 yuksipsabun swimpyo)
Norwegian	sekstifiredelsnote
Polish	sześćdziesięcioczwórka	pauza sześćdziesięcioczwórkowa
Portuguese	semifusa	pausa de semifusa
Russian	шестьдесят четвертая нота	шестьдесят четвертая пауза
Serbian	šezdesetčetvrtin(k)a / шездесетчетвртин(к)а	šezdesetčetvrtinska pauza / шездесетчетвртинска пауза
Spanish	semifusa	silencio de semifusa

"Semifusa" derives from the mensural notation corresponding to the modern sixteenth note.

References

• Morehen, John. 2001. "Hemidemisemiquaver". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

Further reading

• Taylor, Eric. The Associated Board Guide to Music Theory (Part 1) (England: The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (Publishing) Ltd, 1989) Chapter 3 (Continuing with Rhythm), pp. 15–20.