Is it correct that the first note here is a 64th while the others are 32th? Or is the first note just an 8th? This mixing of writing 'wavy' notes with beams confuses me.
It's from Franz Liszt's 'La Campanella'. The '3' is just the finger.
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Sign up to join this communityThe note on the second space up is a quaver (1/8th note) and a demi-semiquaver (1/32 note). It's actually written in two parts - sort of top half of SATB, if you will. The stems' or tails' direction is important, as the note in question has stems up and down. It's like the stems up are one voice, stems down another. And it's tidier to write it out like this. The first note will be kept on until all four have been played. I guess the rest of the bar (measure) is similar.
No, tails and beams aren't additive. We've got two 'voices' here - the upper one is a full-length 8th, cobering the lower one's four 32nds.
But there's a lot of questions to be asked about this fragment! For a start, there's a triplet '3' over FOUR notes! What's that meant to mean? And then the upper-voice 8th is marked stacatissimo, which somewhat contradicts its length!
I can see (I think) what is intended. The first note is to be 'brought out' as the melody, but isn't to be prolonged. But we need more information. Is it preceded and followed by similar figures? What period? What instrument is it written for? Piano? Violin? When asking a question, try to give us a bit TOO much information, not just the bare minimum.