whole note

American  

noun

Music.

1. a note equivalent in duration to four quarter notes.

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whole note British  

noun

1. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): semibreve.  a note, now the longest in common use, having a time value that may be divided by any power of 2 to give all other notes

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Etymology

Origin of whole note

First recorded in 1590–1600

Example Sentences

“A whole note could represent four bars, eight bars, 12 bars, 16 bars,” but the “glue has to be harmonic” — “has to be spinning out the triad and spinning out the harmony.”

From New York Times • Nov. 28, 2021

I maintain that it's mixing pronouns if the whole note is from him, but we both sign it.

From Washington Post • Aug. 19, 2021

Looking from one score to another, Mr. Chen tried to explain the odd situation: “Her whole note equals our dotted half.”

From New York Times • May 30, 2017

But in the interest of trying to spread the gospel of their terribleness, I thought I should share the whole note that I actually sent them, not just the bit they quoted:

From MSNBC • Sep. 25, 2014

So a dotted half note, for example, would last as long as a half note plus a quarter note, or three quarters of a whole note.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones