Is 'dur' another way of saying flat (b)?

Question

I found this sheet music for a quartet by Haydn:

As you can see, on the cover it says B♭ major/ B-Dur / Si♭ majeur.

I can understand the first and the third terms, but is B-Dur another way of saying B♭? And why?

Welcome to the world of "musical terms in different languages" :-) . Wait 'til you have to learn German, French, and English tempo notations. — Carl Witthoft, Sep 25 '15 at 12:42
Possible duplicate of [Why note B is marked with H in Scandinavia and Germany?](http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/10195/why-note-b-is-marked-with-h-in-scandinavia-and-germany) — Neil Meyer, Oct 04 '15 at 18:35
The answers are similar, but these are very different questions. — Karen, Oct 04 '15 at 19:02

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 25 '15 at 10:08

18

B is the German name for Bb (B natural is called H). Then "Dur" is the German for "major" (which again is really from Italian 'duro').

answered Sep 25 '15 at 10:08

Brian Chandler

1

This is even more confusing than Si ( = B) which is pronounced like C (= Do) – Shevliaskovic Sep 25 '15 at 13:28
2

...And the opposite (minor) is *molle*, sometimes shortened to *mol*. – CharlieHanson Sep 25 '15 at 15:38
@Shevliaskovic In most languages, C is not pronounced like Si, at least not in German. – el.pescado - нет войне Sep 25 '15 at 20:56
@el.pescado in most languages or in German? In English speaking ones, it does – Shevliaskovic Sep 25 '15 at 22:15
@el.pescado - well, at least, tell us how it IS pronounced! – Tim Jul 24 '16 at 06:53
@Shevliaskovic: el.pescado said "In most languages", not most _people_ (as in your "English speaking ones"). Tim: C is pronounced e.g. in Hungarian as "tse:" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-mid_front_unrounded_vowel) – Sz. Feb 15 '19 at 19:22

1 Answers1