music-score/docs/musicxml-spec/elements/divisions.md

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source: https://www.w3.org/2021/06/musicxml40/musicxml-reference/elements/divisions/

downloaded: 2026-01-30T08:40:39.128Z

The element | MusicXML 4.0

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divisions

The element

Parent element:

    <attributes>

Musical notation duration is commonly represented as fractions. The element indicates how many divisions per quarter note are used to indicate a note's duration. For example, if duration = 1 and divisions = 2, this is an eighth note duration. Duration and divisions are used directly for generating sound output, so they must be chosen to take tuplets into account.

Using a element lets us use just one number to represent a duration for each note in the score, while retaining the full power of a fractional representation. If maximum compatibility with Standard MIDI 1.0 files is important, do not have the divisions value exceed 16383.

Content

positive-divisions

Attributes

None.

Examples

This element is used in the following examples:

and , , and , and , , , , (Lines), , , , , Tutorial: Après un rêve, Tutorial: Chopin Prelude, Tutorial: Chord Symbols, Tutorial: Hello, World, Tutorial: Percussion, Tutorial: Tablature