Re: German note-naming system


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Posted by ken k on May 18, 2001 at 22:02:04:

In Reply to: German note-naming system posted by Devin on May 17, 2001 at 22:42:44:

Please keep in mind this is all from a very vague memory of sight singing classes in college some 22 years ago, but here goes a rough explanation. If anyone can correct me or help clarify anything please do. In fourth semester sight singing we were doing pretty far out sight singing excercised out of the Hindemith book and no longer used key signatures or Kodaly type solfege syllables. Instead we used the german names for the pitches so we did not have to change the rythm of the exercise and use two syllables on one note to say "flat" such as "B-Flat".

Basically the syllable "es" is placed after the letter name to signify flat, for example C flat would be "ces", d flat "des",e flat "es", f flat "fes", g flat "ges"(like guess), a flat is "aes" ("ace"), I noticed on the chart Bb was just B and B natural was "H" meaning the "hard" B, this is from an old tuning practice which avoided B natural due to the interval of the tri tone (devil's tone!) between B and F. This is how Bach could write a fugue based on the letters ofhis name: BACH; Bflat, A, C and B natural. (In college we broke with this practice and used the bes for Bb and B for B natural)

The sharps are designated with an "ees" suffix, hence C# is "cees", dees, ees, fees, gees (as in geese), Aees (or "ice"), bees. We used to joke around and sing G# and Fx (geese feces, I know it is lame ,but you have to do something to liven up sight singing classes!)

ken "pretty useless info i know, but you never know, it could come up on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire sometime" k



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