Editing Musical note (section)

=== Pitch names and their history ===
{{Overly detailed|section|date=November 2023}}
[[File:Map of current European preferred note naming.png|238px|thumb|Map of current European preferred note naming
{{legend|#0000ff|Fixed do solfège (Si,La diesis, Si bemolle)}}
{{legend|#ff0000|English system (B, A#, Bb)}}
{{legend|#00ff00|German system (H, Ais,B)}}
{{legend|#00ffff|Dutch system (B, Ais,Bes)}}
{{legend|#ffff00|Danish system (H, A#, Bb)}}
{{legend|#ababab|No data}}
]]
{{main|Letter notation}}
{{Anchor|Note names and their history}}Music notation systems have used letters of the [[alphabet]] for centuries. The 6th&nbsp;century philosopher [[Boethius]] is known to have used the first fourteen letters of the classical [[Latin alphabet]] (the [[letter J]] did not exist until the 16th&nbsp;century),
:'''A &nbsp; B &nbsp; C &nbsp; D &nbsp; E &nbsp; F &nbsp; G &nbsp; H &nbsp; I &nbsp; K &nbsp; L &nbsp; M &nbsp; N &nbsp; O'''
to signify the notes of the two-octave range that was in use at the time<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Boethius |first=A.M.S. |last=Boethius |others={{ill|Gottfried Friedlein|de}} [[Boethius]] |title={{IMSLP|work=De institutione musica ([[Boethius|Boëthius, Anicius Manlius Severinus]]) &thinsp; |cname=''De institutione musica'' |descr=text}} |at=Book&nbsp;IV, chapter&nbsp;14, page&nbsp;341 }}</ref> and in modern [[scientific pitch notation]] are represented as
:'''A'''{{sub|2}} &nbsp; '''B'''{{sub|2}} &nbsp; '''C'''{{sub|3}} &nbsp; '''D'''{{sub|3}} &nbsp; '''E'''{{sub|3}} &nbsp; '''F'''{{sub|3}} &nbsp; '''G'''{{sub|3}} &nbsp; '''A'''{{sub|3}} &nbsp; '''B'''{{sub|3}} &nbsp; '''C'''{{sub|4}} &nbsp; '''D'''{{sub|4}} &nbsp; '''E'''{{sub|4}} &nbsp; '''F'''{{sub|4}} &nbsp; '''G'''{{sub|4}}

Though it is not known whether this was his devising or common usage at the time, this is nonetheless called ''Boethian notation''. Although Boethius is the first author known to use this nomenclature in the literature, [[Ptolemy]] wrote of the two-octave range five centuries before, calling it the ''perfect system'' or ''complete system'' – as opposed to other, smaller-range note systems that did not contain all possible species of octave (i.e., the seven octaves starting from '''A''', '''B''', '''C''', '''D''', '''E''', '''F''', and '''G'''). A modified form of Boethius' notation later appeared in the ''Dialogus de musica'' (ca. 1000) by Pseudo-Odo, in a discussion of the division of the [[monochord]].<ref>{{cite thesis |title=Medieval letter notations: A survey of the sources |first=Alma Colk |last=Browne |degree=Ph.D. |publisher=University of Illinois |place=Urbana-Champaign, IL |year=1979}}
:
{{cite encyclopedia |title=Medieval canonics |first=Jan |last=Herlinger |encyclopedia=The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory |editor-first=Thomas |editor-last=Christensen |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |place=Cambridge, UK |isbn=0-521-62371-5 }}</ref>

Following this, the range (or compass) of used notes was extended to three octaves, and the system of repeating letters '''A'''–'''G''' in each octave was introduced, these being written as [[lower-case]] for the second octave ('''a'''–'''g''') and double lower-case letters for the third ('''aa'''–'''gg'''). When the range was extended down by one note, to a '''G''', that note was denoted using the Greek letter [[gamma]] ({{small|'''{{math|Γ}}'''}}), the lowest note in Medieval music notation.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} (It is from this gamma that the French word for scale, {{lang|fr|gamme}} derives,{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pick |first=Edward |title=An Etymological Dictionary Of The French Language |publisher=John Murray |year=1869}}</ref> and the English word [[hexachord|''gamut'']], from "gamma-ut".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Owens |first=Jessie Ann |date=2012 |title=Review of The Renaissance Reform of Medieval Music Theory: Guido of Arezzo between Myth and History |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23488551 |journal=Speculum |volume=87 |issue=3 |pages=906–908 |issn=0038-7134}}</ref>)

The remaining five notes of the chromatic scale (the black keys on a piano keyboard) were added gradually; the first being '''B'''{{music|flat}}, since '''B''' was flattened in certain [[mode (music)|modes]] to avoid the dissonant [[tritone]] interval. This change was not always shown in notation, but when written, '''B'''{{music|flat}} ('''B'''&nbsp;flat) was written as a Latin, cursive "{{mvar|𝒷}}", and '''B'''{{music|natural}} ('''B'''&nbsp;natural) a Gothic script (known as [[Blackletter]]) or "hard-edged" {{math|𝔟}}. These evolved into the modern flat ({{music|flat}}) and natural ({{music|natural}}) symbols respectively. The sharp symbol arose from a {{math|ƀ}} (barred&nbsp;b), called the "cancelled&nbsp;b".{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}<!-- Incorrect claim: The "sharp" symbol arose from German handwriting (modern "sch") of black letter "ſch" ≈ "#" as a scrawled abbreviation for ''scharf'' (sharp). Likewise "b" is an abbreviation for ''blatt'', a now-unused word for "unappealing" (flat). -->

==== B♭, B and H ====
{{unreferenced section|date=May 2025}}
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In parts of Europe, including Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Norway, Denmark, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Finland, and Iceland (and Sweden before the 1990s), the [[Blackletter|Gothic]]&nbsp;{{math|𝔟}} transformed into the letter '''h''' (possibly for ''[[wikt:hart#German|hart]]'', German for "harsh", as opposed to ''[[wikt:Blatt#German|blatt]]'', German for "planar", or just because the Gothic&nbsp;{{math|𝔟}} and {{math|𝔥}} resemble each other). Therefore, in current German music notation, '''H''' is used instead of '''B'''{{music|natural}} ('''B'''&nbsp;natural), and '''B''' instead of '''B'''{{music|flat}} ('''B'''&nbsp;flat). Occasionally, music written in [[German language|German]] for international use will use '''H''' for '''B'''&nbsp;natural and '''B'''{{sup|b}} for '''B'''&nbsp;flat (with a modern-script lower-case&nbsp;b, instead of a flat sign, {{music|b}}).{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} Since a {{lang|de|Bes}} or '''B'''{{music|flat}} in Northern Europe (notated '''B'''{{music|bb}} in modern convention) is both rare and unorthodox (more likely to be expressed as Heses), it is generally clear what this notation means.

==== System "do–re–mi–fa–sol–la–si" ====

In Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Romanian, Greek, Albanian, Russian, Mongolian, Flemish, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Turkish and Vietnamese the note names are ''do–re–mi–fa–sol–la–si'' rather than '''C–D–E–F–G–A–B'''. These names follow the original names reputedly given by [[Guido d'Arezzo]], who had taken them from the first syllables of the first six musical phrases of a [[Gregorian chant]] melody ''[[Ut queant laxis]]'', whose successive lines began on the appropriate scale degrees. These became the basis of the [[solfège]] system. For ease of singing, the name ''ut'' was largely replaced by ''do'' (most likely from the beginning of ''Dominus'', "Lord"), though ''ut'' is still used in some places. It was the Italian musicologist and humanist [[Giovanni Battista Doni]] (1595–1647) who successfully promoted renaming the name of the note from ''ut'' to ''do''. For the seventh degree, the name ''si'' (from ''Sancte Iohannes'', [[John the Baptist|St.&nbsp;John]], to whom the hymn is dedicated), though in some regions the seventh is named ''ti'' (again, easier to pronounce while singing).{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}