Brevis: musical educational program

Breve is a musical duration containing two whole notes. In the music of the classical-romantic period and modern times, brevises are used relatively rarely. A striking example from musical literature is the play “Sphinxes” from the piano cycle “Carnival” by R. Schumann.

Curiously, the very word brevis translated from Latin as “short”. Remember the famous expression: Vita brevis, ars longa (Life is short, art is eternal). In the Middle Ages, the brevis was one of the most common short durations, and the modern “whole” note was called a semibrevis, that is, half a brevis, two brevises together (or four integers) formed a duration longa (long – long).