Re: Is "note value" unambiguous?

Christopher Heckman <[email protected]> writes:

> On Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 10:03 AM <[email protected]> wrote:
>> At 15:45 on 11 Jan 2025, Dan Eble wrote:
>>
>> Saul Tobin wrote at
>> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-devel/2024-12/msg00048.html
>>
>>  > In English, I would also use the term "note value"
>>  > ...
>>  > to describe something like "dotted quarter."
>>
>> I have been surfing the web reading about duration and I find sources
>> pushing me in different directions about whether "note value" refers
>> strictly to a power-of-two fraction of a whole note or also includes a
>> number of dots.  For example, the notes { c4 c4. } have different
>> durations; do they also have different note values?
>>
>> I can't tell whether people disagree about the meaning of the term or
>> it's just being misused in some cases.
>
> A note is not just a duration. It also consists of a pitch and volume
> (dynamic), as well as maybe a few other parameters I'm forgetting at
> the moment.
>
> So, to answer the question in the subject line: No.

I've just did a switch to German, and "Notenwert" would be pretty much
the duration.  I cannot rule out that for native English speakers, "note
value" has the right connotations.  However, for "computer English"
speakers, "value" may have more of a specific meaning/connotation,
making the term more problematic for an international audience than a
native English one that is used to, well, compounding compound words.

-- 
David Kastrup