lunga

Lunga is the feminine form of the Italian adjective lungo, meaning long. It is used in Italian to describe length or duration with feminine nouns, as in una strada lunga or una notte molto lunga. As a standalone noun in phrases such as la lunga, it can refer to a long period or the long one in context. Italian adjectives agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify; lunga changes to lunghe for feminine plural.

Etymology and usage: lunga derives from Latin longus and is related to corresponding forms in other Romance languages, such as lungo in Italian, largo in Spanish and Portuguese, and long in English. In everyday language, lunga functions as an ordinary descriptive word and appears in literature, speech, and various expressions that denote length or duration.

In music, lunga (also rendered longa in some sources) refers to a note value used in medieval and Renaissance notation. It denotes a duration longer than the breve, with the exact length depending on the mensural system in use. Over time, the lunga fell out of standard use as modern notation standardized around shorter note values. In contemporary practice, it is primarily encountered in early music manuscripts, scholarly editions, and historically informed performances, where editors indicate proportional durations relative to the semibreve or brevi.