How The Notes Got Their Names

Over the last five years, I’ve gotten a lot of music theory questions. Some of them more than others. So, today I’m beginning a series called Frequently Asked Questions. Perhaps the most requested question is why are notes named what they are named? 

The Note Names in Western Music include 7 letters, and then sharps and flats of those letters. But, as many viewers have pointed out, it seems a little odd that the key with zero sharps and flats is C major and not A major. C does seem to have some heightened importance in western music. It’s concert pitch, it’s the first key we learn on piano, it’s the note that fixed do is based on, it’s 0 in 12 tone counting. Shouldn’t that be A? That seems like a bit of a mistake in naming. But, I mean, in music theory 3+3=5, so anything goes. Anyway, how did we end up here? Spoiler Alert: Huchbald.

1. Ancient Greece

It’s a bit of a convoluted journey – spanning 1500 years and most of Europe. So, in Ancient Greece, music theorists had developed these tetrachords, sets of four notes spanning a perfect 4th. There were three different types: Chromatic, Enharmonic, and Diatonic. Over time they decided that the Diatonic one was the most natural, and it was certainly the most popular. We’ll focus on that one.

Of course, it was only a matter of time until they figured out that you could a lot more notes if you just started connecting strings of diatonic tetrachords. This is known as the Greater Perfect System. Or GPS. Not to be confused with the Global Positioning System. Most of the tetrachords are overlapping, and called “conjunct”, and two are in the middle are separate, and logically called “disjunct.” They gave each tetrachord a name based on where it was in the system. To complete a two octave span they added a note at the bottom and gave it a really long name.

2. The Church Modes

Second. In the 9th Century, some Frankish Monks rebuilt the scales while working on another project, using a method we’ll discuss in the next video. They came up with 8 scales, 4 they called Authentic, and four they called Plagal – and they gave them these fun Greek names – which are confusingly similar but not at all the same as the names the Greeks gave the scales. You’ll notice that the scale from C to C is labeled Hypolydian. That’s important.

3. Huchbald of  St. Amand (c. 930)

Number 3. Next we move on to another Frankish Monk about a hundred years later, called Huchbald of St. Amand. He wrote lots of stuff, including a poem about bald men. I guess with a name like Huchbald, how could he not? But, today we’re mostly concerned with a treatise he wrote around 880, called “On the Principles of Music.” In which, he put letter names on every note in the Greater Perfect System, mercifully changing the name of the lowest note to “A”. And thank goodness he did. Can you imagine trying to play a Proslambanomenos chord? However, he didn’t stop at G, and instead labeled every note in the system, running from A to P.

However, his Letter naming stuck, and around the year 1000, an anonymous treatise was published in Milan that recognized octave equivalency, labeling letters from A to G and beginning over at the octave. And thank goodness he did. Can you imagine trying to play an L chord?

That being said, Huchbald mapped the scales on to particular pitches, with the four authentic ones being matched with D, E, F, and G. So, the answer to this question – as with many musical questions – lies within an obscure tradition. 

4. Later Centuries

As the centuries rolled on, the church modes continued with the same labels – with this dude named Guido adding a new lowest note somewhere in the 11th century – he called it Gamma. In Guido’s system - because of this hymn - you could start on either C, G, or F. But we only had naturals at this point – no accidentals. This led to the first scale alteration: In order to avoid a tritone in the F scale, B-flat was introduced. In the 16th Century, a German Music Theorist published a treatise establishing an Authentic mode on both C and A, which he called Ionian and Aeolian respectively.

It was also in and around this time that Western Music was progressing towards a system of tonality, in which, the major key matched up with Ionian mode, and the minor key matched with the Aeolian mode. So, the major key became associated with the mode that started on C. Later, more accidentals were added, allowing for major keys to be played on any starting pitch. But. The note name given to the lowest pitch of the Ionian mode using only white keys with no sharps or flats was C – thanks to the Greeks, some 9th century French Monks, some random 10th Century Italian dude, and a 15th Century German.