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Note
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents
1 Accidentals
2 12-tone chromatic scale
3 Note designation in accordance with octave name
4 Written notes
5 Note frequency (hertz)
6 History of note names
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Accidentals
The note A or La
Page 2 of 7
Letter names are modified by the accidentals. A sharp raises a note by a semitone or half-step, and a flat lowers it by the
same amount. In modern tuning a half step has a frequency ratio of
, approximately 1.059. The accidentals are written
after the note name: so, for example, F represents F-sharp, B is B-flat.
Additional accidentals are the double-sharp , raising the
frequency by two semitones, and double-flat , lowering it by
that amount.
In musical notation, accidentals are placed before the note
symbols. Systematic alterations to the seven lettered pitches in
the scale can be indicated by placing the symbols in the key
signature, which then apply implicitly to all occurrences of
corresponding notes. Explicitly noted accidentals can be used to
override this effect for the remainder of a bar. A special
accidental, the natural symbol , is used to indicate an
unmodified pitch. Effects of key signature and local accidentals
do not cumulate. If the key signature indicates G-sharp, a local
flat before a G makes it G-flat (not G natural), though often this
type of rare accidental is expressed as a natural, followed by a
flat () to make this clear. Likewise (and more commonly), a
double sharp sign on a key signature with a single sharp
indicates only a double sharp, not a triple sharp.
Page 3 of 7
Naming
convention
English
German[2]
(used in DE,
CZ, SK, PL,
HU, RS, DK,
NO, FI, EE,
AT)
Dutch[2]
(used in NL,
and
sometimes in
Scandinavia
after the
1990s)
Neo-Latin[3]
(used in FR,
IT, ES, Latin
America, IL,
and many
other
countries)
Byzantine[4]
Japanese
[5]
C sharp
(C)
D flat
(D)
Cis
(C)
C
E flat
(E)
Dis
(D)
7
F sharp
(F)
G flat
(G)
Fis
(F)
E
9
G sharp
(G)
A flat
(A)
10
Gis
(G)
G
11
A sharp
(A)
B flat
(B)
A
As
(A )
Cis
(C)
Dis
(D)
Fis
(F)
Gis
(G)
Ais
(A )
Des
(D)
Es
(E)
Ges
(G)
As
(A )
Bes
(B)
Do
diesis
(Do)
Re
diesis
(Re)
Fa
diesis
(Fa)
Sol
diesis
(Sol)
La
diesis
(La)
Re
Mi
Fa
Sol
La
Si
Re
bemolle
(Re)
Mi
bemolle
(Mi)
Sol
bemolle
(Sol)
La
bemolle
(La)
Si
bemolle
(Si)
Ni
diesis
Pa diesis
Ga
diesis
Di
diesis
Ke
diesis
Pa
hyphesis
Re
Komal
Pa
Ni ()
Re
Vu
hyphesis
Ei-ni
()
Hen-ho
()
Ga
Komal
Vu
Ga
Ho
()
He ()
Ga
Ma
Di
hyphesis
Di
Ei-he
()
Ke
hyphesis
Ei-to
()
To
Hen-to ()
()
Hen-i
()
Ma
Teevra
Dha
Komal
Pa
Ges
(G)
12
Ais
(A )
Es
(E)
Ei-ha
Ha ()
() Hen-ni
()
Sa
D sharp
(D)
Do
Ni
Des
(D)
Indian
Sa
(Hindusthani)
Indian
(Carnatic)
Ke
I ()
Dha
Zo
hyphesis
Ei-i
()
Hen-ro
()
Ni
Komal
Zo
Ro
()
Ni
Page 4 of 7
frequency
traditional shorthand numbered MIDI nr of A (Hz)
subsubcontra C B C-1 B-1
0 11
13.75
sub-contra
C B
C0 B0
12 23
27.5
contra
C B
C1 B1
24 35
55
great
CB
C2 B2
36 47
110
small
cb
C3 B3
48 59
220
one-lined
c b
C4 B4
60 71
440
two-lined
c b
C5 B5
72 83
880
three-lined
c b
C6 B6
84 95
1760
four-lined
c b
C7 B7
96 107
3520
five-lined
c b
C8 B8 108 119
7040
six-lined
c b C9 B9
120 127
up to G9
14080
Written notes
A written note can also have a note value, a code that determines the note's relative duration. In order of halving duration,
we have: double note (breve); whole note (semibreve); half note (minim); quarter note (crotchet); eighth note (quaver);
sixteenth note (semiquaver). Smaller still are the thirty-second note (demisemiquaver), sixty-fourth note
1
(hemidemisemiquaver), and hundred twenty-eighth note (semihemidemisemiquaver) or 2 note, 4 note, 8 note, 16 note, 32
1
For example, one can find the frequency of C5, the first C above A4. There are 3 half-steps between A4 and C5 (A4 A4
B4 C5), and the note is above A4, so n = +3. The note's frequency is:
To find the frequency of a note below A4, the value of n is negative. For example, the F below A4 is F4. There are 4 halfsteps (A4 A4 G4 G4 F4), and the note is below A4, so n = 4. The note's frequency is:
Page 5 of 7
Finally, it can be seen from this formula that octaves automatically yield powers of two times the original frequency, since n
is therefore a multiple of 12 (12k, where k is the number of octaves up or down), and so the formula reduces to:
yielding a factor of 2. In fact, this is the means by which this formula is derived, combined with the notion of equally-spaced
intervals.
The distance of an equally tempered semitone is divided into 100 cents. So 1200 cents are equal to one octave a
frequency ratio of 2:1. This means that a cent is precisely equal to the 1200th root of 2, which is approximately 1.000578.
For use with the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standard, a frequency mapping is defined by:
Where p is the MIDI note number. And in the opposite direction, to obtain the frequency from a MIDI note p, the formula is
defined as:
For notes in an A440 equal temperament, this formula delivers the standard MIDI note number (p). Any other frequencies
fill the space between the whole numbers evenly. This allows MIDI instruments to be tuned very accurately in any
microtuning scale, including non-western traditional tunings.
Page 6 of 7
(B-flat). Occasionally, music written in German for international use will use H for B-natural and Bb for B-flat (with a
modern-script lowercase b instead of a flat sign). Since a Bes or B in Northern Europe (i.e. a B elsewhere) is both rare and
unorthodox (more likely to be expressed as Heses), it is generally clear what this notation means.
In Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Romanian, Greek, Russian, Mongolian, Flemish, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew,
Bulgarian and Turkish notation the notes of scales are given in terms of Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si rather than C-D-E-F-GA-B. These names follow the original names reputedly given by Guido d'Arezzo, who had taken them from the first
syllables of the first six musical phrases of a Gregorian Chant melody Ut queant laxis, which began on the appropriate scale
degrees. These became the basis of the solfege system. "Do" later replaced the original "Ut" for ease of singing (most likely
from the beginning of Dominus, Lord), though "Ut" is still used in some places. "Si" or "Ti" was added as the seventh degree
(from Sancte Johannes, St. John, to whom the hymn is dedicated). The use of 'Si' versus 'Ti' varies regionally.
The two notation systems most commonly used nowadays are the Helmholtz pitch notation system and the Scientific pitch
notation system. As shown in the table above, they both include several octaves, each starting from C rather than A. The
reason is that the most commonly used scale in Western music is the major scale, and the sequence C-D-E-F-G-A-B (the
C-major scale) is the simplest example of a major scale. Indeed, it is the only major scale which can be obtained using
natural notes (the white keys on the piano keyboard), and typically the first musical scale taught in music schools.
In a newly developed system, primarily in use in the United States, notes of scales become independent to the music
notation. In this system the natural symbols C-D-E-F-G-A-B refer to the absolute notes, while the names Do-Re-Mi-Fa-SoLa-Ti are relativized and show only the relationship between pitches, where Do is the name of the base pitch of the scale, Re
is the name of the second pitch, etc. The idea of so-called movable-do, originally suggested by John Curwen in the 19th
century, was fully developed and involved into a whole educational system by Zoltn Kodly in the middle of the 20th
century, which system is known as the Kodly Method or Kodly Concept.
See also
Music and mathematics (mathematics of musical scales)
Diatonic and chromatic
Ghost note
Grace note
Interval (music)
Musical temperament
Musical tone
Note value
Pensato
Piano key frequencies
Solfege
Universal key
References
1. ^ Nattiez 1990, p.81n9
2. ^ a b is = sharp; es (after consonant) and s (after vowel) = flat
3. ^ diesis = sharp; bemolle = flat
4. ^ diesis (or diez) = sharp; hyphesis = flat
5. ^ (Ei) = (sharp); (Hen) = (flat)
6. ^ Boethius. De institutione musica. Book IV, chap. 14. Ed. Friedlein, 341.
Bibliography
Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie gnrale et
smiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990). ISBN 0-691-02714-5.
Page 7 of 7
External links
Converter: Frequencies to note name, +/- cents
(http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/note/)
Note names, keyboard positions, frequencies and MIDI numbers
Look up note in
Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.
(http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/notes.html)
Music notation systems Frequencies of equal temperament tuning - The English and American system versus the
German system (http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-notenames.htm)
Frequencies of musical notes (http://www.adamsatoms.com/notes/)
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Categories: Musical notation