Split sharp

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The keyboard of a harpsichord by Bernhard von Tucher (Germany). The keyboard has "divided black keys" in order to tune the instrument in two different keys (in meantone temperament). Harpsichord.9023840.jpg
The keyboard of a harpsichord by Bernhard von Tucher (Germany). The keyboard has "divided black keys" in order to tune the instrument in two different keys (in meantone temperament).
In this harpsichord built by Clavecins Rouaud of Paris, the two lowest sharps are split, following the broken octave scheme. FEINTES BRISEES.jpg
In this harpsichord built by Clavecins Rouaud of Paris, the two lowest sharps are split, following the broken octave scheme.
Archicembalo keyboard in cents. Archicembalo en Cents.jpg
Archicembalo keyboard in cents.

A split sharp is a kind of key found in some early keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord, clavichord, or organ. It is a musical key divided in two, with separately depressible front and back sections, each sounding its own pitch. The particular keys that were split were those that play the sharps and flats on the standard musical keyboard (the "black keys" on a modern piano).

Contents

Split sharp. A sharp key divided or 'split' into two parts: the front part is about one third the length of the whole. Usually the back part is set slightly higher to facilitate playing. Each part has its own [parts] so that two notes are available. In Italian instruments it was common...to provide split sharps for e/d and g/a. The usual practice was to put on the front part the note that would normally be found there, e.g. e and g. [1]

Split sharps served two distinct purposes. First, in the broken octave, they allowed an instrument to include deep bass notes while retaining a short, compact keyboard.

Second, in older music, tuning was generally not done by equal temperament, which treats note pairs such as A and B as the same pitch. Instead, they were assigned slightly different pitches on enharmonic keyboards (particularly in "meantone temperament"). This allowed certain musical intervals, such as the major third, to sound closer to their ideal just value, hence more closely tuned to just intonation. [lower-alpha 1]

Split sharps present advantages and disadvantages: "Obviously this would have its advantages under some circumstances in terms of intonation. However, the complexities of fingering and hand position dictated by such a keyboard configuration presented problems." [2] Specifically: "Such devices were obviously an impediment to rapid scale work in the lowest bass register, but this does not matter greatly as Italian seventeenth-century music generally avoids writing of this kind." [3]

In modern usage, split sharps are usually the method of choice for custom keyboards that play 19 equal temperament, which, like meantone, uses different pitches for sharps and flats that are enharmonic in the standard 12 tone. [4]

Notes

  1. For a recent defense of the older tuning practices, see Duffin, Ross (2006) How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care) W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN   0-393-06227-9.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meantone temperament</span> Musical tuning system

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chromatic scale</span> Musical scale set of twelve pitches

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Well temperament is a type of tempered tuning described in 20th-century music theory. The term is modeled on the German word wohltemperiert. This word also appears in the title of J. S. Bach's famous composition "Das wohltemperierte Klavier", The Well-Tempered Clavier.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circle of fifths</span> Relationship among tones of the chromatic scale

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semitone</span> Musical interval

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An enharmonic keyboard is a musical keyboard, where enharmonically equivalent notes do not have identical pitches. A conventional keyboard has, for instance, only one key and pitch for C and D, but an enharmonic keyboard would have two different keys and pitches for these notes. Traditionally, such keyboards use black split keys to express both notes, but diatonic white keys may also be split.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">53 equal temperament</span> Musical tuning system with 53 pitches equally-spaced on a logarithmic scale

In music, 53 equal temperament, called 53 TET, 53 EDO, or 53 ET, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 53 equal steps. Each step represents a frequency ratio of 2153, or 22.6415 cents, an interval sometimes called the Holdrian comma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">31 equal temperament</span> In music, a microtonal tuning system

In music, 31 equal temperament, 31-ET, which can also be abbreviated 31-TET or 31-EDO, also known as tricesimoprimal, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 31 equal-sized steps. Each step represents a frequency ratio of 312, or 38.71 cents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">19 equal temperament</span>

In music, 19 equal temperament, called 19 TET, 19 EDO, 19-ED2 or 19 ET, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 19 equal steps. Each step represents a frequency ratio of 192, or 63.16 cents.

The Kirnberger temperaments are three irregular temperaments developed in the second half of the 18th century by Johann Kirnberger. Kirnberger was a student of Johann Sebastian Bach who greatly admired his teacher; he was one of Bach's principal proponents.

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In classical music from Western culture, a diminished third is the musical interval produced by narrowing a minor third by a chromatic semitone. For instance, the interval from A to C is a minor third, three semitones wide, and both the intervals from A to C, and from A to C are diminished thirds, two semitones wide. Being diminished, it is considered a dissonant interval.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musical temperament</span> Musical tuning system

In musical tuning, a temperament is a tuning system that slightly compromises the pure intervals of just intonation to meet other requirements. Most modern Western musical instruments are tuned in the equal temperament system. Tempering is the process of altering the size of an interval by making it narrower or wider than pure. "Any plan that describes the adjustments to the sizes of some or all of the twelve fifth intervals in the circle of fifths so that they accommodate pure octaves and produce certain sizes of major thirds is called a temperament." Temperament is especially important for keyboard instruments, which typically allow a player to play only the pitches assigned to the various keys, and lack any way to alter pitch of a note in performance. Historically, the use of just intonation, Pythagorean tuning and meantone temperament meant that such instruments could sound "in tune" in one key, or some keys, but would then have more dissonance in other keys.

References

  1. Ripin, Edwin M. (1989). Early Keyboard Instruments, p.243. W. W. Norton. ISBN   9780393305159.
  2. Donahue, Thomas (2005). A Guide to Musical Temperament, p.36. Scarecrow. ISBN   9780810854383.
  3. Bond, Ann (2001). A Guide to the Harpsichord, p.37. Hal Leonard. ISBN   9781574670639.
  4. See: www.n-ism.org. "Historically, 19-tone keyboards have been constructed...with the rear of the divided black keys often raised."

Further reading