Look at the chart below to see how the quaver in music relates to other notes. It shows that two quavers (½ beat each) make a crotchet (1 beat). Going up through the chart from the quaver you can see that this must mean that four quavers make a minim (2 beats).

Quavers Cheese Snacks Crisps | Morrisons Walkers Quavers Cheese Snacks Crisps | Morrisons

In the Baroque period keyboard instruments like the harpsichord could not sustain notes for as long as the piano and this is reflected in music written for keyboard. They tend to feature lively runs of quavers and semiquavers. Music has been a feature of most cultures for thousands of years, but the earliest examples of written music using musical notation were written in around 1400 BC in modern-day Iraq. Although the notation used was much different to the sheet music we're used to seeing today, it shows that humans have always been interested in finding ways to represent and preserve music through writing it down. However, it was in the 11th century that staves with multiple lines were introduced. Guido D'Arezzo, an Italian music theorist, was the first to introduce standard form for all notes and a four-line staff with more lines being added in the 12th and 13th centuries. Thanks to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, sheet music was then more widely available and allowed more people to learn to read music. Baroque music is somewhat characterised by lots of quavers and semiquavers - even in vocal pieces! For an example listen to Cesare's aria 'Empio, dirò, tu sei' from Handel's Giulio Cesare in which the singer sings mostly quavers and semiquavers.There is also a kind of rest which lasts as long as a quaver in music. Look at the helpful chart below to see a quaver and quaver rest as they appear on the staff (the horizontal lines which music is written on).