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This is purely academic/speculative, but wouldn't it have made more sense and been easier to learn if Western music were based on A Maj, rather than C Maj, as having been the one designated to have no sharps or flats, with 1/2 steps between C and D, and G and A? Does anyone know how things evolved for C Mag to be in that role? Note, this is purely a matter of the labels placed on notes, so I'm suggesting we should have labeled the frequencies currently designated "C" as "A" instead with everything else adjusted accordingly. This seems so intuitive and obvious; - does anyone know why it's not that way?

humanliberty1
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  • More than likely it was based on A minor rather than A major - same notes, though. – Tim Jun 24 '23 at 10:47
  • Yes, same notes, but everything's based around major... maybe that wasn't the case back then and minor was more prominent...? – humanliberty1 Jun 24 '23 at 11:13
  • Is western music "....based on C major"? The teaching of it usually starts with C major if a keyboard is involved but apart from that I am not entirely clear what you are getting at here. – JimM Jun 24 '23 at 11:15
  • @JimM - I think most music reading, on most instruments tends to start with key C. Maybe that's what OP allures to. – Tim Jun 24 '23 at 11:21
  • To clarify the question: From 5 minutes of googling, it looks to me like Boethius started counting at "A", Guido of Arezzo talked about "Ut"—so whose bright idea was it to call Guido's "Ut" "C" instead of "A"? (Meanwhile, this oversimplified page might help some, though it skips over the question by saying "Ut Queant started on C.") – Andy Bonner Jun 24 '23 at 12:28
  • @AndyBonner Guido's system used both letters and syllables, so ut was C (or F or G) from the beginning. The page isn't skipping over the question at all by saying that the chant started on C; it's how the system was designed and taught from the start. – phoog Jun 24 '23 at 15:07
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    @phoog Good find, I thought there was a duplicate. humanliberty1, note the long answer there that has been awarded a bounty. – Andy Bonner Jun 24 '23 at 15:21

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After cataloging chant in the 8 (or so) medieval modes, the idea of using hexachords (qv) arose. The 7 notes of the medieval modes may be combined end to end and segments observed. There are three segments C-A, G-E, and F-D that contain only 1 half step (someone, probably Guido) thought this was important. This "hexachord theory" was used until the 1800s.

The three hexachords were called the "hard" hexachord (G-E), the "soft" hexachord (F-D) because B was often flattened in practice, and the "natural" or "neutral" hexachord (C-A) as it contained no tritone. The tritones in the hard or soft hexachord arrangement needed some changes in the cases where it was avoided (not every tritone was avoided, however, care was always needed.)

As for names of notes, if the 4 modes based on D, E, F, and G, and their plagal versions (based on A, B, C, and D) are lined up in a repeating sequence, the plagal version of the D-mode is the lowest note and was called "A." A lower G was added latter named (see medieval note names) gamma-ut (later gamut).

It was a historical accident but not illogical.

ttw
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    None of the hexachords contains a tritone. Rather, the soft hexachord contains a different B from the one in the hard hexachord. The B in the soft hexachord, round or soft B, is a half step above A; the B in the hard hexachord, square or hard B, is a whole step above. All three hexachords have the same intervals (tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone). Thus "often flattened in practice" is misleading: soft B was not only flat by design but the source of the flat symbol. This distinction gave us much terminology in many languages (bémol in French, B, H, Dur, and Moll in German). – phoog Jun 24 '23 at 15:27
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    Because of this, there were eight pitches per octave in Guido's system, not seven:nthe beginnings of chromaticism. Also, as outlined in Athanasius's excellent and comprehensive answer to the duplicate question, A was the lowest note of the scale well before Guido; by Guido's time they had added one below it, called Gamma (Gamma Ut, in fact, giving rise to the word "gamut"). – phoog Jun 24 '23 at 15:31
  • Thanks for the link. – ttw Jun 25 '23 at 03:49