In music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, a hundred twenty-eighth note (American) or semihemidemisemiquaver or quasihemidemisemiquaver (British) is a note

Note

In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself....

 played for 1/128 of the duration of a whole note

Whole note

thumb|right|250px|Figure 1. A whole note and a whole rest.In music, a whole note or semibreve is a note represented by a hollow oval note head, like a half note , and no note stem . Its length is equal to four beats in 4/4 time...

 (hence the name). It lasts half as long as a sixty-fourth note

Sixty-fourth note

In music notation, a sixty-fourth note or hemidemisemiquaver is a note played for 1/64 of the duration of a whole note . It lasts half as long as a thirty-second note ....

 (or hemidemisemiquaver). It has a total of five flags or beam

Beam (music)

A beam in musical notation is a thick line frequently used to connect multiple consecutive eighth notes , or notes of shorter value , and occasionally rests...

s.

Notes this short are very rare in printed music, but not unknown. They are principally used for brief, rapid sections in slow movement

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

s. For example, they occur in the first movement of Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

's Pathétique Piano Sonata (Op. 13)

Piano Sonata No. 8 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, commonly known as Sonata Pathétique, was written in 1798 when the composer was 27 years old, and was published in 1799. Beethoven dedicated the work to his friend Prince Karl von Lichnowsky...

, to notate rapid scales

Musical scale

In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...

. Another example is in Mozart's Variations on Je suis lindor, where two of them are used in the slow eleventh variation.

These five-beamed notes also appear occasionally where a passage is to be performed rapidly, but where the actual tempo

Tempo

In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...

 is at the discretion of the performer rather than being a strict division of the beat

Beat (music)

The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...

. In such cases, the aggregate time of the notes may not add up exactly to a full measure, and the phrase may be marked with an odd time division to indicate this. Sometimes such notation is made using smaller notes, sized like grace note

Grace note

A grace note is a kind of music notation used to denote several kinds of musical ornaments. When occurring by itself, a single grace note normally indicates the intention of either an appoggiatura or an acciaccatura...

s.

Hundred twenty-eighth rest

Rest (music)

A rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a sign indicating the length of the pause. Each rest symbol corresponds with a particular note value:The quarter rest may also be found as a form in older music....

s are also rare (but not unknown). They are most commonly used as replacements for breath mark

Breath mark

A breath mark or luftpause or, for bowed instruments, a bow lift , is a symbol used in musical notation. It directs the performer of the music passage to take a breath or to make a slight pause . For bowed instruments, it means to lift the bow...

s. One is used in Beethoven's piano sonata Op. 27 No. 1

Piano Sonata No. 13 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 1, composed in 1800–1801, has four movements:#Andante - Allegro - Andante in ternary form, ABA...

Quasi una fantasia.