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Dotted Note




In Western Musical Notation , a dotted note is a Note with a small dot written after it. The dot adds a half as much again to the basic note's duration. If the basic note lasts 2 beats, the corresponding dotted note lasts 3 beats.

Any note value may be dotted.

The use of a dot for Augmentation of a note dates back at least to the 10th Century , although the exact amount of augmentation is disputed; see Neume .

More than one dot may be added; each dot adds half of the duration added by the previous dot, as shown in example 1.


DOUBLE DOTTING

A double-dotted note is a Note with two small dots written after it. Its Duration is 1¾ times (1 + ½ + ¼) its basic Note Value .

The double-dotted note is used less frequently than the dotted note. Typically, as in the example below, it is followed by a note whose duration is one-quarter the length of the basic Note Value , completing the next higher note value.

Example 2 is a fragment of the second movement of Joseph Haydn 's String Quartet , Opus 74, No. 2, a Theme And Variations . The first note is double-dotted.

  • Haydn's theme was adapted for piano by an unknown composer; the adapted version can be heard (3.7 kB MIDI file).


In a French Overture (and sometimes other Baroque Music ), notes written as dotted notes are often interpreted to mean double-dotted notes, and the following note is commensurately shortened; see Authentic Performance .


TRIPLE DOTTING

A triple-dotted note is a Note with three dots written after it; its Duration is 1⅞ times (1 + ½ + ¼ + ⅛) its basic Note Value . Use of a triple-dotted note value is not common in the Baroque and Classical periods, but quite common in the music of Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner , especially in their brass parts. See '''example 3'''.

An example of the use of double- and triple-dotted notes is the ''Prelude'' in G Major for piano, op. 28 No. 3, by Frédéric Chopin . The piece, in Common Time (4/4), contains running semiquavers in the left hand. Several times during the piece Chopin asks for the right hand to play a triple-dotted Minim (lasting 15 semiquavers) simultaneously with the first left-hand semiquaver, then one semiquaver simultaneously with the 16th left-hand semiquaver.