theory

[David M. Porritt]

Gang:

I have a theory that black keys were always called sharps for the simple reason that on typewriters there is no flat key.  We could write F# easily, but G-flat had to be written out.

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 6/1/01 at 12:20 AM Dave Nereson wrote:

>To my mind, "piano tuning theory", music theory, and historical
>temperaments are all the same theory, that is, the mathematical
>relationships in the Western, or European diatonic scale (as opposed to
>5-tone scales, 1/4-steps, etc. used in other parts of the world).  Yes, F
>to G# is an augmented second and F to Aflat is a minor third, because
>Fanything to G anything has to be some kind of second,  and F anything to
>A anything has to be some kind of third.  Regardless how those intervals
>are tuned, whether pure ("just") or tempered, they should still have the
>same names, the accidentals (sharps & flats) determining whether they're
>'perfect', 'Major', 'minor', 'diminished', or 'augmented'.  They can even
>be doubly augmented or doubly diminished, depending how they're spelled. 
>But somewhere along the line, piano tuners decided to call the black keys
>"sharps".  We re-lacquer or refinish the sharps, not the flats, even
>though they're the same.  The reason was probably so they c!
>ould call the black notes by one name, rather than two,  when writing
>down, teaching, or notating different temperaments.  After all, some of
>the white keys also have two names:  C is also B#; B is also C flat, and
>the same with E & F.  And in some pieces of music, double sharps and
>double flats occur.  C## is D;  C double flat is B flat, etc.   But this
>would get sticky when writing, teaching, or learning temperaments, so
>"let's call them all sharps" must have been the consensus, or convention.  
>    In equal temperament, an attempt is made to make all like-kind
>intervals expanded or contracted by the same amount so that one can play
>in all keys with no overly offensive intervals.  In the historical
>temperaments, some intervals of the same type are expanded or contracted
>more than others.  This makes some keys sweet and harmonious, others
>grating and dissonant, depending which chords are used.  But they're still
>spelled the same on the sheet music.  
>    String players will (unconsciously sometimes) play F# sharper than G
>flat, if the F# is in a dissonant chord that's resolving to a consonant
>one, that is, if the F# is a seventh resolving to an octave or an
>augmented 4th resolving to a "perfect" fifth ("perfect" meaning that it's
>not diminished or augmented, even though on the piano, it may be
>contracted from a perfect 3:2 beatless fifth).  F# and G flat, in equal
>temperament, may be the same frequency, but to make sense musically in
>terms of key signature and chords, they're not interchangeable.
>                                                                                        --Dave Nereson, RPT & former music major




David M. Porritt
dporritt@swbell.net
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275