Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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QUAVEE
QUEISSER
Comique, Paris, July IS, 1844, and at the
Princess's Theatre, London, as 'The Castle of
Aymon, or The Four Brothers,' in three acts,
Nov. 20, 1844. G.
QUAVER (Ger. Achtelnote, whence American
eighth note '
; Fr. Oroche ; Ital. Oroma). A
'
note which is half the length of a crotchet,
and therefore the eighth part of a semibreve ;
hence the German and American names. It
is written thus I*, its Rest being represented
by T
The idea of expressing the values of notes by
diversity of form has been ascribed by certain
1 There were really five, iacludinff the Large, which Morley calls
the Double Long.
^ It ia worthy of notice that in the ancient manUHCrlpt hy English
authors known as the Waltham Holy Cross MS., a note is
mentioned, called a 'simple,' which has the yalue of a crotchet,
but is written with a hooked item like a modern quaver. That a
note half the value of a minim should at any period have been
written with a hook may help to account for the modern name
crotcha, which, being clearly derived from the French croc, or
The subdivision of the quaver into semiquaver
and demisemiquaver followed somewhat later.
Gafurius, in the work quoted above, mentions
a note ^ of a minim in length, called by various
^ 1
names, and written either * or 4, but the true
semiquaver or semichroma, the earliest form of
Q
which was »
, does not appear until later, while
the demisemiquaver must have been a novelty
writers to De Muris .(about 1340), but this is
as late as 1697, at least in this country,
undoubtedly an error, the origin of which is
judging from the 13th edition of Playford's
traced by both Hawkins (Hist, of Music) and
Tntrodiiction to the Skill of Musick, in which,
F4tis (art. Muris ' ') to a work entitled L'antica
after describing it, the author goes on to say
Musica ridotta alia modema Prattica, by Vicentino
(1555), in which it is explicitly stated that
'but the Printer having none of that character
by him, I was obliged to omit it.'
De Muris invented all the notes, from the Large When two or more quavers (or shorter notes)
to the Semiquaver. It is, however, certain that
occur consecutively, they are usually grouped
the longer notes were in use nearly 300 years
together by omitting the hooks and drawing a
earlier, in the time of Franco of Cologne [Notation,
vol. iii. p. 399], and it seems equally
j^jj.
thick stroke across their stems,
[This grouping, which had been in use for
clear that the introduction of the shorter kinds
centuries in MS. music, was one of the great
is of later date than the time of De Muris.
difficulties in the way of printing from musictypes
; it was not overcome until about 1690,
The fact appears to be that the invention of
the shorter notes followed the demand created
when John Heptinstall brought it into use.
by the general progress of music, a demand
which may fairly be supposed to have reached See Heptinstall, and Music-Pkinting.]
f In vocal music, quavers which have to be
its limit in the quarter-demisemiquaver, ox ^'fi sung to separate syllables are written detached,
of a quaver, occasionally met with in modern "
while those which are sung to a single syllable
music.
The Quaver, originally called Chroma or Fusa,
sometimes Unea (a hook), was probably invented
some time during the 15th century, for Morley
are grouped ; for example :
(1597) says that 'there were within these 200
"The peo-ple that walk-ed in dark
ncas, that
years ' (and therefore in 1400) 'but four ' (notes)
F. T.
known or used of the musicians, those were the One quaver of historical importance deserves
Long, Breve, Semibreve, and Minim ; '
and mention, that which Handel added in pencil to
Thomas de Walsingham, in a MS. treatise
the quintet in 'Jephtha' in 1758, six years
written somewhat later (probably about 1440), after he is supposed to have lost his sight, and
and quoted by Hawkins, gives the same notes, which in Schoelcher's words shows that by
and adds that ' of late a New character has
' looking very closely at a thing he was still
been introduced, called a Crotchet, which would able to see it a little.' G.
be of no use, would musicians remember that QUEEN OF SHEBA. (i.) La Rbine de
beyond the minim no subdivision ought to be Saba, in four acts ; words by Barbier and
made. ' Franehinus Gafurius also, in his Practiea
Carre, music by GounojJ. Produced at the
Musicae (1496), quoting from Prosdocimus de Op^ra, Feb. 28, 1862. Adapted as 'Irene' by
Beldemandia, who flourished in the early part H. B. Famie, and produced as a concert at the
of the 15th century, describes the division of Crystal Palace, August 12, 1865. The beautiful
the minim into halves and quarters, called
Airs de ballet contain some of Gounod's best
respectively the greater and lesser semirainim, music. G.
and written in two ways, white and black
(ii.) See KoNiGiN von Saba.
(Ex. 1). The white forms of these notes soon QUEISSER, Carl Tbaugott, a. great trombone
fell into disuse, and the black ones have become
player, was born of poor parents at Dtiben,
the crotchet and quaver of modern music. ^ near Leipzig, Jan. 11, 1800. His turn for
music showed itself early, and he soon mastered
all the ordinary orchastral instruments. He
ultimately confined himself to the viola, and
to the trombone, which he may really be said
crochet, a hook, is somewhat inappropriate to the note in its present
form, which has no hook.