LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Notation question

sdm -- 03/08/2005, 12:28:34 -- #11773

I have found what looks like a Russian site that has some charts I have been looking for.  However, they use a notation that I am not familiar with.  It is an uppercase H9.  Can someone clue me in? The site is http://www.jazz-drive.ru/jazz/cgi-bin/scores2.pl Thanks

pleonasmo -- 03/08/2005, 12:36:23 -- #11775

H9(russian) = B9 (anglophone) (in those cases, B will mean Bb - as in B flat) I'm sure someone with knowledge of music history will be able to explain the reasons for that.

Uncle -- 03/08/2005, 12:37:58 -- #11776

Germans, Scandinavians, Russians and some countries in Eastern Europe use H instead of B. So a H9 means B9. The reason for this is that in the 14th century some German monks consistently mis-spelled the b and wrote h instead. I guess they just wrote to fast...

sdm -- 03/08/2005, 12:41:53 -- #11777

Hmm, fast then anyway, eh?  Thanks guys -- and now that I look at it the B6 on Moochie didn't make sense either.

Bonzo -- 03/08/2005, 17:00:18 -- #11781

I always thought the Germans were only one who used this notation. They start using it to honour Bach. With the B becoming a H and the Bb becoming a B you can spell his name. I wonder why they didn't just made the Bb an H.....

marksdg -- 03/08/2005, 17:33:34 -- #11782

I believe that this convention existed before Bach, as he wrote a Fugue that starts with the notes for his own name: Bb , A, C, B  which translates as B,A,C,H

7 -- 03/09/2005, 00:50:36 -- #11798

In Germanic notation, "H" stands for "Hard B" (B natural) and "B" stands for "Soft B" (Bb). Both the sign for sharp (#) and natural are derived from "H" of the Germanic "Hard B".

7 -- 03/09/2005, 12:09:34 -- #11806

Oh, and obviously the flat symbol (b), derives from the "Soft B".

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