A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Large

by William Smyth Rockstro

LARGE (Lat. Maxima, Old Eng. Maxim). The longest note used in measured music. In ancient MSS., the Large appears as an oblong black note, corresponding with the Double-Long described in the Ars Cantus Mensurabilis of Franco of Cologne. Franchinus Gafforius, writing in 1496, figures it as an oblong white note, with a tail descending on the right hand side; which form it has retained, unchanged, to the present day.^[1]

In the Great Mode Perfect, the Large is equal to three Longs: in the Great Mode Imperfect, to two. [See Mode.] The Rest for the Perfect Large stretches, in a double line, across three spaces; that for the Imperfect Large, across two.

In Polyphonic Music, the final note is always written as a Large: and, in that position, its length is sometimes indefinitely prolonged, in the Canto fermo, while the other voices are elaborating a florid cadence. In Plain Chaunt, the Large—or, rather, in that case, the Double-Long—is sometimes, but not very frequently, used, to indicate the Reciting-Note.

[ W. S. R. ]

1. In modern reprints, the tail is sometimes made to ascend; but it is indispensable that it should be on the right hand side. See innumerable examples in Proske's Musica Divisa.