Talk:Accidental (music)

Double accidentals in 1615

The claim that double accidentals arose in 1615 is dubious. The cited source is clearly a circular reference, added after the claim in this article had had a "citation needed" tag for ten years. Over 100 years later, musicians were still using additive single accidentals where modern practice would call for double accidentals; see Bach's WTC. (Some manuscripts use the newly invented x-shaped double sharp sign, but others use single sharp accidentals that add to the sharp in the key signature, and all use the second approach for flats.) Keys in which double accidentals might reasonably appear were not yet in use in 1615. I have accordingly removed the claim from the article. Phoogenb (talk) 08:29, 27 March 2024 (UTC)