Maxima
Largest mensural note value, double the longa.
What it means
The maxima is the largest note value of mensural notation. It stands at the top of a series that leads down from it through the longa, the brevis, and the semibrevis to the shorter values. Its relation to the longa is not fixed once and for all but depends on the prevailing mensuration: depending on the indication, it comprises two or three longae. This duality of value is the actual hallmark of the mensural system — the same sign can mean different things, and only the mensuration sign decides.
In the notation
The maxima is written as an elongated rectangle with a stroke on the right side; in the older, black notation the head is filled in, in the later, white notation it is not. It appears singly or as part of ligatures. A dot beside or above a value — the punctus — can change its duration or mark off a grouping, which makes reading additionally difficult.
Musical use
The maxima has its place above all in the lower voices of polyphonic settings of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, where a given melody lies in large values while the upper voices move quickly. There it carries, as it were, the framework of the setting. With the transition to modern notation it fell out of use; today's whole note goes back to the semibrevis, that is, to a value far down in this series. Little has remained visible from the old order — for instance the brevis, which in modern form occasionally still appears as a double whole note.
Performance practice
When working with facsimiles it holds: first clarify the mensuration sign, then read the values — without this information the signs are not unambiguous. For study, rely on a modern transcription and consult the original for checking. If you sing or play a part in large values, keep the pulse of the more mobile voices along internally, otherwise the long note starts to drag.