User:TallKite/Proper Spelling

Thoughts on proper spelling

The Moonlight Sonata has both a B# and an Fx early on. For good reason, because it has both a G# major and a D# major chord. And if you spell them as G# C D# and D# G A#, it's confusing. They look like sus4 chords on the page. (They're actually sus-dim4 chords when spelled that way.)

The rule is, avoid awkward spelling of intervals, even if it means the notes are spelled awkwardly. So B# is better than a dim 4th. That's because many musicians think in intervals as well as notes. Even in classical music, where the performer and the composer/arranger are usually 2 different people. And the performer isn't comping or improvising, which requires a deeper understanding of the music. Here the performer only needs to know what notes to play. Even here, the performer wants to know that the middle note of the G# chord is a 3rd above the root and a 3rd below the 5th.

So it seems logical to me that in 15edo or 22edo, vF# would be spelled ^^F in the context of an ^D upminor chord. To avoid a dudmajor 3rd with ^D and a dupminor 3rd with ^A. And to avoid a minor-sounding chord looking like a major-sounding chord on the staff. (Actually spelled that way, it's a dudmajor chord.)

You could say, well, for # and b we follow the no-awkward-intervals rule, but for ^ and v we choose not to. But I don't think that's a good idea. Because even though the performer isn't comping, they still often think in intervals when playing their instrument. For example, a 15edo or 22edo guitarist or keyboardist looks at the score and sees ^D ^^F ^A. They find ^D on their instrument, and then play a familiar upminor-triad shape. IOW they aren't looking for ^^F so much as they're looking for ^D + ^m3. But if the score says ^D vF# ^A, they have to look for ^D + vvM3. It takes a little extra mental effort to parse it.

In 12edo, a performer in the course of learning to play their instrument generally notices that certain common chords have certain shapes. Especially with guitar or isomorphic keyboard, but even with halberstadt keyboards. And they often tend to think in these shapes, i.e. think in intervals as well as in notes. So by this logic, I would say allow both ^^F and vF# in 15edo and 22edo.

And of course, this all goes out the window if the music doesn't use recognizable chords. If it's free jazz or avant-garde classical, it makes sense to name every note as simply as possible. And proper spelling is leas important for melody instruments.

Now some 12edo performers may actually prefer minimal sharps and flats, because they never think in intervals. But we can assume they are in the minority, because this issue was settled centuries ago, and not in their favor. Simplest interval spelling won out over simplest note spelling.

And in fact, figured bass forces one to think in intervals.

(This suggests an experiment which I imagine has already been done by someone. Take a piece of music with lots of sharps or flats in the key sig. Make one score with correct spelling. Make another with minimal sharps and flats, and lots of aug/dim intervals. Test people and see how many mistakes they make playing the two versions by sight-reading it cold, on the spot. Or time how long it takes them to read through it cold.)