quadruplet four notes in the time alloted for three. The notes are tied and a "4" written above them. Similar in construction to a triplet. While the textbooks say that the notes should be played as written, folk musicians often take liberties in order to reproduce a particular musical style (for instance, the four notes in a jig (6/8 time) might be played as eighth-sixteenth-sixteenth-eighth).
quartal pertaining to a harmonizing system based on the interval of a fourth. The sacred harp music is quartal harmony.
quaver see notation, British.
quid in British slang, a pound.
quire an archaic spelling of "choir". Thomas Hardy recorded that the early 19th-century quires in small churches used local musicians playing brasses and woodwinds and performing hymns set to local folk tunes.
quodlibet two or more songs or tunes performed together to produce a polyphonic effect. An example might be Amazing Grace with "When the Saints Go Marching In". See also bitonal, round, polyphonic.
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Appendix