20 ACCIDENTALS ACCOMPANIMENT

to express in all oases the lowering of a note, pressed diise (sharp) and bSmol
by the words
even when it had previously been sharpened. the syllables by which the notes
(flat) affixed to
Thus are usually called for example, El^ is called
;

mi-Umol, Gj sol-dUse, etc., and in Italian the

equivalents and bemolle are similarly

diesis
employed, but in German the raising of a note
would be written is expressed by the syllable is and the lowering
by es joined to the letter which represents the
note, thus GJt is called Ois, Gb Ges, and so on
$~^^^^ -I- with all except Bfcf and Bt], which have their
This method of writing merely substitutes a
own distinctive names of B and H. Some
writers have lately used the syllable Ses for B'd
greater ambiguity for a less, and is only men-
for the sake of uniformity, an amendment
tioned here as a fact, the knowledge of which
is necessary for the correct interpretation of
which appears to possess some advantages,
though it would be more reasonable to restore
some of the older compositions.
After a double sharp or flat the cancelling
to the present H
its original name of B,
and to employ the syllables Bis and Bes for B
signs are tK and t|b, which reduce the note to
sharp and B flat. Reference should be made
a single sharp or flat (for it very rarely happens
to a paper by Professor Niebks, read before
that a double sharp or double flat is followed
at once by a natural) for example
;
— the Musical Association {Proceedings, 1889-90,
F- T-
p. 79).
ACCIDENTALS. See also Cis, Dis, Hbxa-
i^3^=P^P|^^^ :=b»r
OHORDS, and Notation.
ACCOMPANIMENT. This term is applied
When a note which sharpened in the
is to any subsidiary part or parts, whether vocal
signature becomes altered in the course of the or instrumental, that are added to a melody,
composition to a flat, or vice versd, the alteration or to a- musical composition in a greater num-
is sometimes expressed by the sign 1? or S, thet| t|
ber of parts, with a view to the enrichment of
object of the natural being to cancel the signa- its general effect ; and also, in the case of
ture, while the following flat or sharp indicates vocal compositions, to support and sustain the
the further alteration, as in Schubert's ' Im- voices.
promptu,' op. 90, No. 2, bars 4 and 164 ; An accompaniment may be either '
Ad libi-
this however, not usual, nor is it neces-
is, tum '
or '
Obbligato. ' It is said to be Ad
sary, as a single sharp or flat fully answers libitum when, although capable of increasing
the purpose (see Beethoven, Trio, op. 97, the relief and variety, it is yet not essential to
bar 35). the complete rendering of the music. It is
Until about the beginning of the 1 7th century said to be Obbligato when, on the contrary, it
the accidentals occurring during a composition forms an integral part of the composition.
were often not marked, the singers or players Among the earliest specimens of instrumental
being supposed to be sufficiently educated to accompaniment that have descended to us, may
supply them for themselves. In the signature be mentioned the organ parts to some of the
only the first flat, Bi>, was ever marked, and services and anthems by English composers of
indeed we find numerous examples of a similar the middle of the 16th century. These consist
irregularity as late as Bach and Handel, who for the most part of a condensation of the voice
sometimes wrote in G minor with one flat, in parts into two staves forming what would
;

C minor with two, and so on. Thus Handel's now be termed a short score.' These there-
'

Suite in E containing the Harmonious

'
fore are Ad libitum accompaniments. The
Blacksmith ' was originally written with three following are the opening bars of Rejoyce in '

sharps, and is so published in Arnold's edition the Lorde allwayes,' by John Redford (about
of Handel's works. No. 128 ; and the trio 1543):
in 'Acis and Galatea,' 'The flocks shall leave
the mountains,' though in C minor, is written
with two flats in the signature and the third ^E T~r
marked throughout as an accidental. In
the same way the sharp seventh in minor com-
positions,although an essential note of the ^s====
scale, not placed in the signature, but is
is
written as an accidental. [In a barcarolle -l-l-=
==^--S:
==3-, —3;=:
by E. J. Loder, called 'Moonlight on the
Lake,' the key of G minor has an Fjt in the v^r
f-r-^rr ra
signature in addition to the usual flats for B
and E.]
In French the chromatic alterations are ex-