Editing Dotted note (section)

==Double dotting==
{{Image frame|content=<score sound> {
    \relative c'' {
        \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"violin"
        \key bes \major
        \time 2/4
        f8.. es32 d8-. d-. 
        d( es) c4
    }  }
</score>|width=330|caption=A fragment of the second movement of [[Joseph Haydn]]'s [[List of string quartets by Joseph Haydn|String Quartet, Op. 74, No. 2]], a [[variation (music)|theme and variations]]. The first note is double-dotted. Haydn's theme was adapted for piano by an unknown composer.[[File:Meditation -- Josef Haydn.mid|thumb|233px|center|(3.7&nbsp;[[Kilobyte|kB]] [[MIDI]] file)]]}}
A double-dotted note is a note with two small dots written after it. Its duration is {{frac|1|3|4}} times its basic [[note value]]. The double-dotted note is used less frequently than the single dotted note. Typically, as in the example to the right, it is followed by a note whose duration is one-quarter the length of the basic note value, completing the next higher note value. Before the mid-18th century, double dots were not used. Until then, in some circumstances, single dots could mean double dots.<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Eric|title=The AB Guide to Music Theory Part I|year=2011|publisher=[[ABRSM]]|isbn=978-1-85472-446-5|page=18}}</ref>

In a [[French overture]] (and sometimes other [[Baroque music]]), notes written as single dotted notes are often interpreted to mean double-dotted notes,<ref>[[Adam Carse]], ''18th Century Symphonies: A Short History of the Symphony in the 18th Century''. London: Augener (1951): 28. "Contemporary theorists made it clear that the dotted note should be sustained beyond its actual value (the double dot was not then in use), and that the short note or notes should be played as quickly as possible."</ref> and the following note is commensurately shortened; see [[Historically informed performance]].