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Einojuhani Rautavaara sometimes uses flats and sometimes uses sharps in chords.

Once it's atonal music, what're the rules for sharps and flats?

Aaron
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Rogério Dec
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    As far as I can tell, each composer uses his/her own rules. – Your Uncle Bob Aug 13 '19 at 00:29
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    Not true, uncle bob. – jjmusicnotes Aug 13 '19 at 02:26
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    I found some useful answers here: https://www.youngcomposers.com/t20211/accidentals-in-an-atonal-piece/ – Rogério Dec Aug 13 '19 at 02:28
  • @jjmusicnotes Well, I'm looking at some Messiaen scores and I'm struggling to see the rules you propose being implemented. And I can't see them in Unsuk Chin's piano études either. But that's just anecdotal evidence, of course. – Your Uncle Bob Aug 13 '19 at 02:58
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    It's also worth thinking about whether or not this is 'truly atonal'. It doesn't sound like twelve-tone serialism. While it's not centred on a standard key it is relatively consonant. It's using chords which will tend towards a tonal centre or implied root note. It's possible the sharp/flat decision is based on 'spelling' the most coherent chords. – AJFaraday Aug 13 '19 at 09:43
  • @YourUncleBob - you can always cherry-pick composers for any theoretical concept or pedagogical model. Instead we need to look at both what is *most common* as well as what we consider colloquially to be contemporary best practices. – jjmusicnotes Aug 13 '19 at 11:46
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    @jjmusicnotes If the rules you put forward are indeed a kind of standard, and not just common sense and personal preference, then a few examples would give your answer more weight. – Your Uncle Bob Aug 13 '19 at 13:23
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    The "rules" for the strict note-naming so far as theories of harmony go are one thing. The rules for marking the parts to be played are laid out pretty well in jjmusicnotes' answer. – Carl Witthoft Aug 13 '19 at 14:22
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    The link originally included in this question is no longer available, so I've edited the post to remove it. – Aaron Dec 29 '22 at 06:06

2 Answers2

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Fair question. Think about these things:

1.) Context (lots of sharps / flats already? Which would simplify the music?)

2.) The direction (sharps = up / flats = down)

3.) The instrument (strings more comfortable reading sharps / winds more comfortable with flats)

4.) Writing intervals the way they sound (does that really need to be "C-D#" or would "C-Eb" make more sense?)

5.) Voice-leading (this is part of "context" from above - what makes the most sense voice-leading wise? Atonality and functional harmony can coexist; just because your chords have functional voice-leading does not mean that they can't exist within an atonal framework.)

Make the decisions that make the most sense. The more you can simplify the music, the better.

jjmusicnotes
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General rules for accidentals (in atonal contexts)

In her chapter on "Using accidentals in an atonal context", Elaine Gould lists three conventions for note-spelling (which she indicates also apply to tonal contexts):

  • Use the most familiar intervals — perfect, minor and major — rather than augmented and diminished intervals
  • Chromatic-scale figures use sharps to ascend, flats to descend [including double sharps and flats when appropriate]
  • Spell stepwise figures as a scale, i.e. as adjacent pitch letters.

In making the latter point, she gives the illustration of using F# - G - Ab rather than Gb - G - G#.

Rules for serialism

Although there are not rules specific to serialism, there are various systems of accidentals outlined by Gould.

  1. Accidentals on every note. The early serialists (i.e., the Second Viennese School) wanted to emphasize that every pitch was one among equals, rather than F#, say, being a variant of F. This generally makes for the easiest and most accurate reading. However, she goes on to point out that in particularly dense scores, the plethora of accidentals can inhibit reading, and the sociopolitical point is now well understood.

  2. Accidentals apply only to the individual note. This system uses sharps and flats only. If a sharp or flat is not present, then the note is natural. She advises, however, to use a natural sign in the case of a natural immediately following its sharp or flat. Thus, in the sequence F# F F F, a natural sign would be placed with the first F following the F#.

Gould also suggests the inclusion of a prefatory note indicating what convention is being used.

Elaine Gould, Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation (Faber, 2011), 85 – 87.

Aaron
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