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Concept
Sharp (music)
Summary
In music, sharp, dièse (from French), or diesis (from Greek)
means, "higher in pitch". More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means "higher in pitch by one semitone (half step)". A sharp is the opposite of a flat, a lowering of pitch. The ♯ symbol itself is conjectured to be a condensed form of German ligature sch (for scharf) or the symbol ƀ (for "cancelled flat").
In intonation, 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 is sharp, assuming the lower one is properly pitched; regardless of proper pitch, the higher note is sharp with respect to the lower. The verb sharpen means to raise the pitch of a note by a small amount, typically less than a semitone.
A sharp symbol, , is used in key signatures or as an accidental. For instance, the music below has a key signature with three sharps (indicating either A major or F minor, the relative minor) and the note, A, has a sharp accidental.
{
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c'' {
\clef treble \key a \major \time 4/4 ais1
} }
Under twelve-tone equal temperament, the pitch B, for instance, sounds the same as, or is enharmonically equivalent to, C natural (C), and E is enharmonically equivalent to F. In other tuning systems, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist: In nearly every system except the Equal Temperaments, differently notated pitches (e.g. F and A) are distinct.
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.
Double sharps are indicated by the symbol and raise a note by two semitones, or one whole tone. It should not be confused with a ghost note which is notated with "×".
{
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c'' {
\clef treble \time 1/1 bisis1
} }
Less often (in for instance microtonal music notation) a score indicates other types of sharps.
Official source
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