semibreve Mus.
(ˈsɛmɪbriːv)
Also α. 6–7 semibriefe, –7 -eefe, 7–9 -ief. β. 6 sembreefe, 6–7 -iefe, 7 -ief, -eefe, -eve.
[f. semi- 6 c + breve n. 2, brief n. 8, after obs. F. semibreve (14th c.) or mod.L. sēmibrevis.]
A note having half († in the greater prolation, one third) the length of a breve: in modern music the longest note in ordinary use. (Its figure is now an open oval {semibr}.)
| α 1594 Barnfield Sheph. Content (Arb.) 25 No Briefes nor Semi-Briefes are in my Songs. 1601 Holland Pliny x. xxix. I. 286 [The nightingale] one while, full or her largs, longs, briefes, semibriefes, and minims; another while in her crotchets, quavers, semiquavers, and double semiquavers. 1696 Derham Artif. Clock-maker ii. 49 The first note in the 100th Psalm is a Semibrief. 1779 Sheridan Critic i. i, The signors and signoras..sliding their smooth semibreves, and gargling glib divisions. 1849 W. Irving Goldsm. xxxiv. 290 He pretended to score down an air as the poet played it, but put down crotchets and semi-breves at random. 1883 W. S. Rockstro in Grove's Dict. Mus. III. 459/2 Until the beginning of the 17th century, the Semibreve represented one third of a Perfect Breve, and the half of an Imperfect one. |
| β 1591 J. Farmer Diuers Waies B i, 2. parts in one in the fourth, a sembriefe after the other. 1602 Campion Art Eng. Poesie 1 In Musick we do not say a straine of so many notes, but so many sem'briefes. 1609 Ev. Woman in Hum. i. i. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, I spend my breath to thee, and thou answerest me an houre after in a sembreve. a 1646 J. Gregory Posthuma (1649) 48 If there stood Minim or Sembrief in the upper part, there stood another against it in the lower and inner parts. 1678–1706 in Phillips. |
b. The ‘space’ of a semibreve.
| 1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xvii, Great red coals roll out on the hearth, sparkle a semibrief,..and then dissolve into brown ashes. |
c. attrib., as
semibreve rest;
† semibreve time, (
a) common time with two beats in a bar; (
b) the time occupied by a semibreve.
| 1591 J. Farmer Diuers Waies C iij, The plainsong beneath beginning at the end, & so forward sembreefe time. 1598 E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 14 All his talke's of crotchets and of quauers, His very words to sembriefe time doe fall. 1609 Dowland Ornith. Microl. 88 A perfect Mood is inwardly noted by a rest of 3. times. A perfect time by 2. Semibreefe Rests, placed with a Semibreefe. 1661 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 2), Sembrief, a slow time in Musick. 1662 Playford Skill Mus. i. x. (1674) 34 The Dupla or Semibreve Time (but many call it the Common Time, because most used). 1669 Cokaine Poems 79 His Life was but a Minum, till his prime; When as old Age should last out Sembrief-time. 1818 Busby Gram. Mus. 70 note, A Semibreve Rest forms..a whole bar's rest in any time, or measure. |
Hence
† ˈsemibreved a., punctuated as with semibreve rests.
| 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies, Yealous Neighbour 189 He fetcheth a deepe sigh, semi-brev'd in these words. 1641 ― Eng. Gentlew. 288 Their discourse is semibrev'd with sighes, their talke with teares. |