; ;
ACCIDENTALS
ACCIDENTALS. The signs of chromatic
alteration,employed in music to show that the
notes to which they are applied have to be raised
or lowered a semitone or a tone. They are iive
in number, the sharp (|) (Fr. diise, Ger. Kreuz)
and double sharp ( x ) (Fr. doubk-dUse, Ger.
Doppel/creuz), which being placed before a note
raise it respectively a semitone or a tone ; the
fiat (b) (Fr. and double-ilat (bb)
bemol, Ger. Be)
(Fr. double-hemol, Ger. Doppelbe), which cause
the note to be lowered to the same extent
and the natural (B) (Fr. becarre, Ger. Quadrat),
which is applied to an already chromatically
altered note in order to restore it to its original
position.
In modem music the signs are placed at the
beginning of the composition, immediately after
the clef, when they affect every note of the
same name throughout the piece ; and tliey are
also employed singly in the course of the piece,
in which case they only affect the note to which
they are applied and any succeeding note on the
same line or space within the same bar. Strictly
speaking, only those which occur in the course
of a composition are accidentals, the sharps or
flats placed after the clef being known as the
Signature, but as their action is the same
wherever placed it will not be necessary to make
any distinction here.
The invention of accidentals dates from the
division of the scale into hexachords, an arrange-
ment usually attributed to Guido d'Arezzo
(a.d. 1025) but probably in reality of later
date.i These hexachords, of which there were
seven, were short scales of six notes each, formed
out of a complete scale extending from G, the
first line of the bass stave, to e", the fourth space
of the treble, and commencing on each successive
G, C, and F, excepting of course the highest, c",
which being the last note but two, could not
begin a hexaohord. The chief characteristic
of the hexachord was that the semitone fell
between the third and fourth notes ; with the
hexachords of G and this was the case
naturally, but in singing the hexachord of F
it was found necessary to introduce a new B,
half a tone lower than the original, in order
that the semitone might fall in the right place.
This new note, the invention of which laid the
foundation of all modern chromatic alterations,
was called Smolle (Fr. Bimol, Ital. BemolU,
still in use), and the hexachord to which it
belonged and the plain-song in which it occurred
were termed respectively fiexachordum molle,
and cantus mollis, while the hexachord of G,
which retained the original B, was known as
Jiexachordum durum, and the melody employing
it as cantus durus.
For the sake of distinction in writing (for
modem notation was not yet invented, and
musical sounds were generally expressed by
1 fluido himself never speaks of hexachords in his writings, but
on the contrary says that there are seven sounds in the scale (see
Fdtis, Biographie UnimrseUe dea Muaident, art. 'Ouido '),
ACCIDENTALS 19
letters), the unaltered higher B was written
of a square form, after the fashion of a black
letter b, from which circumstance it received the
name B quadratum (Fr. Be quarre, Be carri
Ital. Be quadro ; Ger. Quadrat, still in use),
while the new lower B was
written as a Roman
b and called B rotundum (Fr. B rand, Ital. B
rotondo). [The two forms of B were at first
applied only to the note immediately below
middle C, that being the only B which lay
within the compass of the ecclesiastical chant.
When a similar distinction was needed in the
octave above, a doubled form of the letter, both
round and square, [} [_j, was often employed.
It was not till the 15th century that the
B molle was admitted in the lowest octave of
the gamut, or allowed to appear in that place in
the signature.] The square B, slightly altered
in shape, has become the B and the round B the
b of modem music, and they have in course of
time come to be applied to all the other notes.
The inconvenience, as it at that time appeared,
of having two different kinds of B's led the
German musicians to introduce a new letter, H,
which however, probably on account of its
similarity of shape, was given to the square B,
while the original designation of B was made
over to the newly-invented round B. This
distinction, anomalous as it is, remains in force
in Germany at the present day.
The sign for chromatically raising a note, the
sharp, is of later date, and is said to have been
invented by Josquin de Pres (1450-1621). It
was originally written as a square B crossed out
or cancelled, to show that the note to which it
was applied was to be raised instead of lowered, ^
and was called B cancellatum (latticed or can-
celled B).
Modern music requires double transposition
signs, which raise or lower the note a whole
tone. These are the double flat, written bb,
(or sometimes in old music a large b or a Greek
^), and the double sharp, written •5J, ^, =j}=,
or, more commonly x The double sharp and
.
double flat are never employed in the signature,
and the only case in which the natural is so
placed occurs when in the course of the com-
position it becomes necessary to change the
signature to one with fewer flats or sharps, in
order to avoid the use of too many accidentals.
In this case the omitted sharps or flats are
indicated in the new signature by naturals.
The proper use of the natural is to annul the
effect of an already used sharp or flat, and it
has thus a double nature, since it can either
raise or lower a note according as it is used to
cancel a flat or a sharp. Some of the earlier
composers appear to have objected to this
ambiguity, and to obviate it they employed the
natural to counteract a flat only, using the fiat
2 Some writers contend that the four cross lines of the sharp
were intended to represent the four commas of the chromatic
semitone, but this appears to be a fanciful derivation, unsupported
by proof.