Re: SoundNote does not accept "H"
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg83318] Re: SoundNote does not accept "H"
- From: Thomas E Burton <tburton at brahea.com>
- Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:26:42 -0500 (EST)
A private communication from Szabolcs reminded me that my view (shared by MIDI standards) is Anglo-centric. Many Europeans do indeed use pitch "H". Others use "do", "re", "mi", etc. instead of letters. See http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory1.htm especially article 2. > Heh, by convention in Western music, names of pitches are unique > only modulo octave (factor of two in pitch). The A-minor scale > spanning one octave (12 semitones) is therefore ABCDEFGA, where the > first and last A's refer to different octaves. So we don't use "H", > but "H" might be imagined to be "A" one octave higher. Note that > SoundNote["A"] is short for SoundNote["A4"], that is, the 4th A > from the left on a standard keyboard. Thus, instead of SoundNote > ["H"], you could write SoundNote["A5"]. In terms of semitones, you > could equivalently write SoundNote[21], or SoundNote[9] for "A4". > SoundNote[11] is actually a "B4". Confused? Check out a web site on > western musical notation :-)