A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Large

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.