ColdFinger

Fun Friday Fare, and my solve time was well below my average. There is some discussion below on the meaning/necessity of double-sharped notes in music. One comment explained the proper use of the notes E# and B# in scales that have already employed the 5 unambiguous accidentals (A# C# D# F# G# or Ab Bb Db Eb Gb), namely the scales that contain either 6 or 7 accidentals. I didn't see a comment addressing double-sharps or double-flats. Here's a way to understand their use: Let's say we're in the key of B, five sharps; only natural notes are B and E. We've got a melodic passage, let's make it B-C#-D#-E-D#-D-D#. How to notate that? As the C and D are already sharped in the key signature, we can write them in with no need for any additional accidental markings. For the 6th note in the sequence, what to do? We could un-sharp the previous D with a natural sign, and then re-sharp it to continue. I've seen it done, but IMO most composers and musicians would find that sequence more problematic to read, due to either graphic clutter, or due to its violation of scale theory, or both. The preferred approach would be to not unsharp the D when writing the 6th note of the melody, but to instead use the dreaded C double-sharp, thereby eliminating inky clutter and sparing the musician potential confusion. When fewer altered notes appear on the page, and when lower tones are represented by notes lower on the staff, and vice-versa, negotiation of passages becomes that much easier.