*** Welcome to piglix ***

Enharmonically equivalent


In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note, interval, or key signature that is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature but "spelled", or named differently. Thus, the enharmonic spelling of a written note, interval, or chord is an alternative way to write that note, interval, or chord. For example, in twelve-tone equal temperament (the currently predominant system of musical tuning in Western music), the notes C and D are enharmonic (or enharmonically equivalent) notes. Namely, they are the same key on a keyboard, and thus they are identical in pitch, although they have different names and different roles in harmony and chord progressions.

In other words, if two notes have the same pitch but are represented by different letter names and accidentals, they are enharmonic. "Enharmonic intervals are intervals with the same sound that are spelled differently… [resulting], of course, from enharmonic tones."

Prior to this modern meaning, "enharmonic" referred to notes that were very close in pitch—closer than the smallest step of a diatonic scale—but not identical in pitch, such as F and a flattened note such as G. as in enharmonic scale. "Enharmonic equivalence is peculiar to post-tonal theory." "Much music since at least the 18th century, however, exploits enharmonic equivalence for purposes of modulation and this requires that enharmonic equivalents in fact be equivalent."


...
Wikipedia

...