promissory note, unconditional written promise to pay a certain sum of money at a definite time to bearer or to a specified person on his order. Promissory notes are generally used as evidence of debt. The holder of a note made payable to bearer may transfer his rights to another by delivery of the note. If the note is payable to order, it may be transferred by endorsement and delivery.

note, in business: see promissory note.

note, in musical notation, symbol placed on or between the lines of a staff to indicate the pitch and the relative duration of the tone to be produced by voice or instrument. The largest note value in common use in the United States is the whole note, an elliptical outline. Its value is halved by the addition of a stem. A solid note with a stem is the quarter note, the most usual metric unit in modern notation. The eighth note resembles the quarter note, with the addition of a flag at the end of the stem; with each flag added, the value of the note is again halved. For each note value, there is a rest of corresponding value; rests are named in the same way as notes, e.g., whole rest, half rest.

Zimmermann note, secret telegram sent on Jan. 16, 1917, by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to the United States. In it Zimmermann said that in the event of war with the United States, Mexico should be asked to enter the war as a German ally. In return, Germany promised to restore to Mexico the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. British intelligence intercepted and deciphered the telegram and sent it to President Woodrow Wilson, who released it on Mar. 1, 1917, to the press. The Zimmermann note helped turn U.S. public opinion against Germany during World War I and strengthened the advocates of U.S. entry into the war.

U.S. a cappella singing style incorporating many folk hymns and utilizing a special musical notation. The seven-note scale used by some singers is sung not to the syllables do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti but to a four-syllable system brought to America by early English colonists: fa-sol-la-fa-sol-la-mi. The system reflects the fact that a series of three intervals repeats itself in the major scale. A differently shaped note head is used for each of the four syllables. The singer reads the music by following the shapes; singers unfamiliar with the system can read the notes according to their placement on the staff. The tradition started in New England and moved South and West as more sophisticated forms of music reached the U.S. Shape-note singing had largely died out except in rural areas by the 1880s, but it has experienced a revival in recent years. The traditional shape-note hymnal, The Sacred Harp, first published in 1844, remains in use today.

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Short-term credit instrument consisting of a written promise by one person to pay a specified amount of money to another on demand or at a given future date. Promissory notes were in use in Europe as early as the Renaissance. They are often negotiable and may be secured by the pledge of collateral. The instrument changed substantially during the 20th century, when various clauses were added regarding payment and other provisions—for example, authorizing the sale of collateral, permitting extensions of time, and allowing acceleration of payment in the event of default. Seealso bill of exchange.

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