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Hunt the B#

🔗graham@microtonal.co.uk

4/16/2001 2:03:00 PM

In Watkins's biography there's a table showing the number of times
Gesualdo uses each of the more remote accidentals in each of the late
books of madrigals. It clearly gives one B# in Book V and another B# in
Book VI. The former we know about. It's in Merce grido piangendo, and
forms the diesis with C.

I've been through Book VI several times, and can't find a B#. The first
person to spot it wins a special prize of Nothing. Treasure it, it's the
fabric of the Universe!

If it turns out there isn't a B# in Book VI, and Watkins is correct about
the other books, then none of them goes beyond 19 notes to the octave.
The order of composition doesn't match the order of publication, so it's
not that Gesualdo retuned his harpsichord between Books V and VI, but I
would like to pin this down.

Graham