You learn something new every day...well almost

I am happy to report that in 2011 I have been able to rejoin the Chiswick Chorale, since participation in the choir during 2010 was downright impossible given the family events of last year.  There is something that is good for the soul about going to the choir rehearsal every Tuesday night for two hours and doing something that is totally unrelated to work or personal responsibilities.  It is quite reassuring to join 150 other like-minded souls for a chorale rehearsal where we sing some of history's most beautifuol music.

For our spring concert, we are performing Mozart's Requim, a piece I have never had the pleasure of performing.  For that matter, anything by Mozart is always uplifting and inspirational.

I like to think of myself as a fairly astute amateur singer, but I must confess to being bumfuzzled when last week two musical terms were trotted out in rehearsal for the first time I could ever remember.  Frankly, I had never heard these terms before.  Maybe it is a UK choir thing, but as I looked around at my fellow singers, there were nods of acknowledgement as if to say, "OK, got it!".  As for me, it was like speaking a foreign language.

Thank heavens for Google and Wikipedia, as I quickly looked up the terms during a break in rehearsal, or tried to anyway.  No way was I going to admit to my fellow singers that I did not know these terms...

By now, your curiosity is getting the better of you, so here are the terms...and please no additional remarks if those reading this post actually knew the musical vocabulary:

*  dotted crotchet
*  quevo (sp???)

And the answers:

A dotted crotchet or dotted quarter note is a crotchet/quarter note that has been lengthened by half; that is, it has the length of three quavers/eighth notes. In x/4 time signatures, the dotted quarter note is worth 1½ beats and is normally followed by an eighth note.  In 6/8 time, the dotted quarter note is thought of as one "big beat"; often perceived as one beat rather than the natural 3 beats.

As for the second term, I cannot find it, partly because I am not sure of the spelling, and partly because none of the online musical terminology dictionaries have anything remotely similar to the spelling...of any sort. It sounds like "cuevo", "cueva", "queva", although cueva is spanish for cave.  So, I am out of luck on this word.

Can anyone solve the mystery?