A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Semicroma

by William Smyth Rockstro

SEMICROMA (Lat. Semichroma; Eng. Quaver, or Semiquaver). The Italian name for the Semiquaver. Old writers, however, sometimes apply the term Croma to the Crotchet, and Semicroma to the Quaver; and, so vague was once the distinction between the two, that even Baretti, writing as late as 1824, makes the word 'Croma' signify 'a Crotchet or Quaver.' The etymology of the word Chroma is derived from the very early custom of using red notes intermixed with black ones. The red notes being sung more quickly than the black ones, the duration of a red Minim was a little longer than that of a black Semiminim (or Crotchet); and the note was called Chroma on account of its colour. [See Semiquaver, Semifusa, Semiminima, Quaver, Notation.]

[ W. S. R. ]