Semihemidemisemiquaver

Before we get down to business, I must declare emphatically how much I absolutely love this word! It is so much fun to say, if you don't trip over your tongue in the process. 

semihemidemisemiquaver

(sihm-ee-hihm-ee-dihm-ee-sihm-ee-kway-ver)

Now, as to what, exactly, it means—here goes: this is one of the fastest notes in music. It is a hundred-twenty-eighth note. So a semihemidemisemiquaver is 128 times faster than a whole note!

Most music you probably study in school is rooted in whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, and a few eighth notes. I'm not going to pretend I know music, only that I love to listen to it. But I will tell you I know math and a sixteenth note is fast, a thirty-second note is really fast, a sixty-fourth (hemidemisemiquaver) is extremely fast, and a hundred-twenty-eighth note (semihemidemisemiquaver) is darn near impossibly fast! 

To show you an example, here is the great Daniel Barenboim playing Beethoven's Sonata No. 8, C Minor, Opus 13—Pathetique. It begins slowly and just after the two-minute mark, it takes off into space at a rate of speed you won't even be able to detect. Watch this man's fingers as he "tickles" the ivories, as some would say.

​Can you even believe how fast that is? I can't!