Maxima (music)

A maxima, duplex longa, larga (in British usage: large), or octuple whole note was a musical note used commonly in thirteenth and fourteenth century music and occasionally until the end of the sixteenth century.

Before around 1430, the maxima was written with a solid, black body.

Over the course of the fifteenth century, like most other note values, the head of the maxima became void.

[2] In most early sources the duplex longa had twice the body of a longa, but before 1250 there is often no clear difference of shape and the presence of the duplex longa is instead merely suggested by a greater distance between the notes in the tenor (in score notation), caused by the greater number of notes in the upper parts.

[4] In modern theoretical contexts, it is occasionally called an octuple whole note.