On Aug 17, 2006, at 12:50 AM, Raymond Horton wrote:
John Howell wrote:
I really appreciate the comments on this question, and I am
learning from them, but I just realized something. Every one of
us, even those of us who know better, are assuming that 20th
century bane, equal temperament. In any other tuning or
temperament, G# and Ab are NOT the same frequencies, and sensitive
musicians make those adjustments. (Except keyboard players, poor
babies!) Which makes proper MELODIC enharmonic spellings even
more important, but for more than just mechanical reasons.
No sensitive musician plays in a vacuum, or constantly in equal
temperament. I mentioned horn as a frequent user of enharmonic
equivalents - one should very rarely write a B# for horn, yet if a
good horn player hears their written C sounding as the third of a
chord, that player will adjust accordingly. If the same player
sees a written B#, the player will be too busy cursing at the
composer/arranger to be playing the note sensitively.
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I completely disagree with your conclusion, not the premise.
Unless the horn player has a long note value, the chord will be half
over (or entirely over) before the pitch gets adjusted. Spelling it
correctly at least gives the player a fighting chance to play it in
tune.
I have gone off on this topic before. Musicians often know what key
they are in (even horn players, who traditionally do not see key
signatures), and seeing mis-spelled enharmonics sends the wrong message.
To give a completely banal example, any of the black notes in the key
of C could be spelled correctly as flats or sharps, depending on
whether they serve as the major or minor 3rd or 7th of a chord (Hiro
and others of his ilk will expand this to include other chord
functions according to the tonal gravity). As soon as you are in a
different key, all those cranky B#'s and the like start cropping up.
What to do? Spell it correctly, more often than not, though
adjustments can be made in a scalar context on fast note values to
help reading. This should not be done lightly, IMO, as sharps to the
key will generally be played lower than flats to the key. As always,
the composer has to ask himself, "What am I communicating to the
player by notating it like this? Is it what I WANT to communicate?"
Christopher
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