Hi all,

What does it mean if there is a quarter rest directly above a half note?

Thanks.

It might be for another voice in a polyphonic work. Any particular piece of music are you talking about?

It would be helpful if you could post a scan of the measures in question. But a "quarter rest above a half note" most commonly means that there are two voices notated on one staff and one of the voices is playing a half note while the other voice rests for one beat (and will probably play something on the next beat).

Think of two singing voices written on one staff: each voice needs to be written separately with notes and rests that are independent of the notes and rests for the other voice (except they need to sound good together, of course).

Thanks the replies. The problem I have is in the 25th,26th and 29th bars of Bach's Minuet in G Major:

http://www.pianostreet.com/bach_minuet_in_g_114_psu.pdf

There is sort of a middle voice there. The quarter rests are an indication that the middle voice is resting, as suspected.