Origin of the name of the notes of music

This article describes the origin of the names given to the Notes of music in the notations Anglo-Saxon, German, Italian and French and provides a table of equivalence between the names used in the various notations.

Anglo-Saxon and German notation

The Anglo-Saxons and German indicate the notes by letters, of has to G (or H for German).

At the 6th century, Boèce used the fifteen first letters of the alphabet to indicate the notes of the two octaves used at the time.

Thereafter, one used the notes has with G, according to the octaves:

capital letters for the first octave: WITH, B,…, G;
small letters for the second octave: has, B,…, G;
small letters redoubled for the third octave: aa, bb,…, gg.

One added the Greek letter gamma “Γ” to extend the notation and to indicate the note under has; it is from there that comes the term “range”.

Italian and French notation

The origin of the name of the notes of the Western music - C D semi F ground it if - is in a Gregorian chant, the Hymne of Saint Jean-Baptiste , sung the June 24th. This anthem, written in Latin, presents the following characteristic: each worms starts on a degree higher than the precedent: thus the corresponding notes were named according to the first syllable of each worm.

It is a monk named Guido d' Arezzo - born in Toscane at the end of the 10th century - which had the idea to use these syllables: this name was essential instead of the alphabetical notation, always into force in the countries of Germanic or Anglo-Saxon culture.

Here song in question, follow-up of the musical notation:

Translation: “ So that your servants can with full voice sing the wonders of your " Gestes" , outlaws fished their soiled lips, Holy O Jean. ”

The note if arrived later in the history of the Musique, because the first systems used, said hexacordes, did not comprise that six notes written to however describe the seven tons. If comes from initial from the last line from the poem: S and I. the if were added by Anselme de Flandres at the end of the 16th century. If, B in the English notation, is the only degree of the Gregorian range admitting a deterioration. It is the origin of our flat: " B soft " … and of our natural sign: " B squares " (within the meaning of " carré" , extremely, well defined).

C was transformed into C , easier to state while solfiant. One often allots the invention of the word “ C ” to Bononcini, at the 17th century, which would have formed it according to the first syllable of the name of the Italian musician Doni. That is however incorrect, because the C is already attested at Arétin in 1536, i.e. well before the birth of Doni.

Correspondence enters the notations

For German, B indicates if Bémol, the so natural one is indicated by one H.

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