Protip: Rhythmic Values of Notes and Rests

By A-R's house editors

In general, all the rhythmic values in an A-R Recent Researches edition should be transcribed in the same values and rhythmic proportions as in the source—that is, in a 1:1 transcription ratio. This has long been standard in editions of Western music of the common-practice period, and it has also become the norm in editions of early baroque and pre-baroque music, in contrast to the former approach of halving note values in archaic meters to resemble more modern meters.

Despite this general rule, it is almost always necessary to make small graphical adjustments to some notes and rests, both for conformance to modern engraving conventions and—more importantly—ease of use by modern performers. (For instance, one important principle—for notes and rests alike—is that the two halves of a measure should be clearly distinguishable.) Here is a quick guide to A-R house style for the graphical presentation of notes and rests.

Note values

Certain notational adjustments may need to be made depending on the type and time period of the source. When transcribing music from sources with few or no barlines, note values that extend past a barline in the transcription (which in the vast majority of cases should use regular, modern barring) should be split accordingly and connected with a tie:

Conversely, when tied notes appear within a measure, they should be combined into a single note value when appropriate:

Note, however, that there are some cases when mid-measure tied notes can be kept as they are:

Rests

There are many rules for the graphical presentation of rests in A-R house style. For an entire measure of rest, use a whole (semibreve) rest only when the measure length is less than two whole notes. For time signatures whose measure length is two whole notes or more (e.g., 4/2, 2/1, 3/1, 6/2), a double whole (breve) rest should be used for resting measures:

In these time signatures, a whole rest can be used to represent a portion of a measure (e.g., a half or third of a measure):

Whole rests may not be used this way in time signatures with measure length less than two whole notes, where they may only be used to represent an entire resting measure:

Half rests should be used only for a rest of two quarter-note beats in 4/4 (but never to span the midpoint of the measure), or for a rest of one half-note beat in 2/2, 4/2, and similar meters:

They should not be used for a rest of two quarter-note beats in 3/4, as there they obscure the tripartite division of a measure:

The analogy extends to 3/8 and 3/2 as well: for two-beat rests in those meters, use two eighth rests (in 3/8) and two half rests (in 3/2):

In 4/4, do not use a dotted half rest for a rest of three quarter-note beats—use a half rest plus a quarter rest at the beginning of the measure, and a quarter rest plus half rest at the end of the measure.

Similarly, avoid using dotted quarter rests in any simple meter—use a quarter rest plus an eighth rest instead (again, note the different order based on the different placement):

There are different rules for the way rests are shown and distributed in compound meters (like 6/8, 6/4, 9/8, and 12/8), because in these meters the measure is divided into groupings of three notes rather than groupings of two. For example, in 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8, use a quarter rest for the first two eighths of a main beat and two eighth rests for the last two:

In 6/8, use a dotted quarter rest for the first half (i.e., the first three eighth notes) of a measure and a quarter rest followed by an eighth rest (in that order!) for the second half of a measure:

Similar rules apply in 6/4, 9/4, and 12/4, with analogous rest values:

However, meters with 9 and 12 in the numerator—like 9/8 and 12/8—behave like “dotted” versions of 3/4 and 4/4 (and other simple triple and quadruple meters), with rests on main beats distributed similarly:

Finally, note that any of these rules may be suspended if a fermata is present: