accidental
1
8.0
- noun
- /ˌækɪˈdɛntl/
- Specialized
:
alteración
- Musicians often use accidentals to alter the pitch of specific notes in a piece.
Examples
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Some educators do not compensate for accidentals, which can be confusing to students in understanding differences among natural, flat, and sharp notes.
Academic text (2003) -
Accidentals are limited to F, G, C-sharp, B, and E-flat, found in plainsongs and related to Gregorian modes.
Academic text (2018) -
In addition, the same note can be written several different ways, depending on the key signature and accidentals.
Academic text (1997) -
Eventually, after a significant amount of time has been devoted to diatonic reading, choirs can move to music with a greater number of accidentals and, later, to music with modulations (see figure 5 for an example).
Academic text (1998) -
The violin excerpt was composed primarily of faster notes (eighth and sixteenth notes), included chromatic passages and accidentals, and required violinists to shift into higher positions.
Academic text (2013) -
In music, an accidental can make a note sharp or flat, changing how it sounds.
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When writing sheet music, composers include accidentals to indicate pitch changes regardless of the key signature.
Compounds
Surface Forms
Etymology
Accidental comes from the Latin verb accidere, which means 'to happen' or 'to fall', and it shares the same root as accident. In music, an accidental is a mark that 'happens' to a note to change its pitch outside the key, so it is a small change that 'falls' into the piece.