They say music is the universal language. This week, however, I discovered a break in its all-embracing communication. You know when you listen to someone speaking English and then they throw in a word from another world and it seems to fall from your ears? Well, that happened to me a few times this week before I piped up and said, "Um, excuse me, I'm from Canada. What's a 'crotchet'?"
I have since learned that there are two systems of defining musical structure, just as there are various ways of measuring distance and temperature and weight. Allow me to educate:
MUSICAL TERMS: CANADA vs AUSTRALIA
(which I believe is actually America vs. Britain)
Whole note = Semi-breve
Half note = Minim
Quarter note = Crotchet (aha! the image in my head was a crotch rocket, not a black dot with a stem...)
Eighth note = Quaver
Sixteenth note = Semiquaver
Thirty-second note = Demisemiquaver
Sixty-fourth note = Hemidemisemiquaver
Hundred twenty-eighth note = Quasihemidemisemiquaver (oh yes)
You know, for a country that likes to shorten their words, they certainly know how to complicate musical terms. I vote Canada on this one.
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3 comments:
Oh my!!! That would be like learning a new different language!!
Oh my gosh! Those words do border on ridiculously long! How do you say them without giggling? :)
I forgot about the different terms :)
I guess it's all about what is familiar! Have fun.
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