half noten.

a1577 G. Gascoigne Grief of Joye iv. xix, in Compl. Wks. (1910) II. 551 Whiles I searcht, the semyquaver toyes, The glauncing sharpes, the halfe notes for the nones.

1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 3 The ♭ cliefe..is made thus ♭, or thus ♮, the one signifying the halfe note and flatt singing: the other signifying the whole note or sharpe singing.

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §105 After euery three whole Notes Nature requireth, for all Harmonicall vse, one Halfe-Note to be interposed.

1763 J. Brown Diss. Poetry & Music v. 64 The modern Chromatic Kind is an incidental Ascent or Descent by Half-Notes, with a variable Intervention of whole Notes.

1838 W. M. Higgins Philos. Sound & Hist. Music 168 If the intervals mi to fa, and si to do, are only half notes, half notes may be introduced between the whole tones, and the musical scale will consist of twelve equal steps, or thirteen notes.

1892 Musical Opinion Jan. 143/3 When at operas or concerts a celebrated vocalist says..that he would feel obliged if the part or song could be a note or half note lower or higher.

1955 N.Y. Times 23 Feb. 29/5 A new bell, larger and a half-note lower in pitch, replaced it.

2003 J. H. Jacobson Classical Music Experience 225 If we choose to go only a half note higher, and on the piano keyboard striking a black key carries this out, that note is called C-sharp.

1783 tr. A. Bemetzrieder New Lessons Harpsichord Introd. p. vii/2 I represent the notes of the first pause by semibreves or whole notes; those of the second by minims or half notes.

1841 J. Monk Musician ii. 8 Q. What character shall I write for a Half Note? A. A round open O with a Stem.

1895 Demorest's Family Mag. Apr. 340/1 Suppose we have a half-note with a dot; the half-note is to be held as long as a half-note and a quarter-note.

1955 Generation 6 59 Over a steady pattern of half-notes the chief motifs..are restated and worked into the musical fabric.

1999 Mus. Educators Jrnl. 85 8/3 I once saw an eighth grader yell at his friends in a keyboard class, ‘It's a half note, you idiots!’

1761 Public Ledger 17 Dec. 1204/3 One of the half notes so seized, was the half of one of the 1000l. notes I had from you, and you know was my property.

1872 Scotsman 17 July 4/6 He then withdrew a large number of letters from his pockets, among which were two half-notes of the Bank of England of the value of £5.

1963 Financial Times 20 Aug. 8/4 Did your correspondents stop to consider whether the head offices would relish the task of matching hundreds of thousands of half notes before presenting them to the Bank of England for redemption?

2007 Econ. Hist. Rev. 60 605 The latter [sc. rents] were usually forwarded to the firm by local agents in the form of half notes, the other halves being sent on acknowledgement of receipt.

1929 Aberdeen Press & Jrnl. 3 Jan. 2/2 (advt.) Exceptional opportunities for your purse—It is literally an occasion for turning a half-note into a pound.

1952 in Sc. National Dict. at Half adj. Ma grannie wis aye i' the wey o' giein's a half-note on oor birthdays.

1975 J. Ryan Remembering how we Stood viii. 66 Brendan would come in for a fag, or a ‘lend of a loan’ of a half note.

1991 M. Curtin Plastic Tomato Cutter (1996) xi. 89 We knew that there were twelve pennies to the shilling, twenty-four to the florin, thirty to the half-crown, one hundred and twenty to the half-note and two hundred and forty to the pound.