Sharp (music)

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The notes C sharp and C double sharp on the treble clef

In music, sharp, dièse (from French), or diesis (from Greek)[lower-alpha 1] means higher in pitch. More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means "higher in pitch by a semitone (half step)," and has an associated sharp symbol, , which may be found in key signatures or as an accidental. Sharp is contrasted with flat, which refers to a lowering of pitch. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously.[clarification needed]

Under twelve-tone equal temperament, B sharp, for instance, sounds the same as, or is enharmonically equivalent to, C natural, and E sharp is enharmonically equivalent to F natural. In other tuning systems, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist. To allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a sharp to indicate a note is raised 70.6 cents (ratio 25:24), or a flat to indicate a note is lowered 70.6 cents.[1]

In tuning, sharp can also mean "slightly higher in pitch" (by some unspecified amount). If two simultaneous notes are slightly out of tune, the higher-pitched one (assuming the lower one is properly pitched) is said to be sharp with respect to the other. Furthermore, the verb sharpen means "raise the frequency of a note, typically by a small musical interval".

Quarter tone between C and Chalf sharp(half sharp), 50 cents. <phonos file="Quarter tone on C.mid">Play</phonos>
Half-tone between C and C(sharp), 100 cents. <phonos file="Minor second on C.mid">Play</phonos>

Double sharps also exist; these are denoted by the symbol double sharp and raise a note by two semitones, or one whole tone. Less often (in for instance microtonal music notation) one will encounter half, or three-quarter,<phonos file="Neutral second on C.mid">Play</phonos> or otherwise modified, sharps. A half sharp indicates the use of quarter tones, and may be marked with various symbols including half sharp.<phonos file="Quarter tone on C.mid">Play</phonos>

Although very uncommon, a triple sharp (triple sharp) can sometimes be found. It raises a note by three semitones.[2][3]

Correctly drawing and printing the sharp sign

C-major/A-minor key signature.

The sharp symbol () may be confused with the number (hash or pound) sign (#). Both signs have two sets of parallel double-lines. However, a correctly drawn sharp sign must have two slanted parallel lines which rise from left to right, to avoid being obscured by the staff lines. The number sign, in contrast, has two compulsory horizontal strokes in this place. In addition, while the sharp also always has two perfectly vertical lines, the number sign (#) may or may not contain perfectly vertical lines (according to typeface and writing style).[citation needed]

Three-quarter tone between C and Cthree quarter sharp(three-quarter sharp), 150 cents. <phonos file="Neutral second on C.mid">Play</phonos>

Order of sharps

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The order of sharps in key signature notation is F, C, G, D, A, E, B, each extra sharp being added successively in the following sequence of major keys: C→G→D→A→E→B→F→C. (These are sometimes learned using an acrostic phrase as a mnemonic, for example Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.) Similarly the order of flats is based on the same natural notes in reverse order: B, E, A, D, G, C, F (Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles's Father.), encountered in the following series of major keys: C→F→B→E→A→D→G→C.

In the above progression, key C (with seven sharps) may be more conveniently written as the harmonically equivalent key D (with five flats), and likewise C (with seven flats) written as B (with five sharps). Nonetheless, it is possible to extend the order of sharp keys yet further, through C→G→D→A→E→B→Fdouble sharp→Cdouble sharp, adding the double-sharped notes Fdouble sharp, Cdouble sharp, Gdouble sharp, Ddouble sharp, Adouble sharp, Edouble sharp and finally Bdouble sharp, and similarly for the flat keys, but with progressively decreasing convenience and usage.

Unicode

in Unicode, assigned sharp signs are:

  • U+266F MUSIC SHARP SIGN (HTML &#9839;)
  • U+1D12A 𝄪 MUSICAL SYMBOL DOUBLE SHARP (HTML &#119082;)
  • U+1D130 𝄰 MUSICAL SYMBOL SHARP UP (HTML &#119088;)
  • U+1D131 𝄱 MUSICAL SYMBOL SHARP DOWN (HTML &#119089;)
  • U+1D132 𝄲 MUSICAL SYMBOL QUARTER TONE SHARP (HTML &#119090;)

See also

Notes

  1. For the etymology of the words diese and diesis, see Diesis.

Sources

  1. John Fonville. "Ben Johnston's Extended Just Intonation- A Guide for Interpreters", p.109, Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Summer, 1991), pp. 106-137. "...the 25/24 ratio is the sharp () ratio...this raises a note approximately 70.6 cents."
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fi:Etumerkki (musiikki)#Tavalliset etumerkit