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This is a quickie, I notice that in Gershwin's Rahpsody in Blue(1924) that a few of the notes have a double flat (2 flats) in front of them but are already flatted in the key signature.

Does this really mean just to lower them a whole step? If so, why not just write it one whole step lower?


eh, thanks,

sometimes, when a sharp/flat note (in signature) gets a natural earlier, then to get it back to signature or a double sharp/flat, it will be marked as such so that you would know it's now played as marked. as to 'why not lower it a whole step', i remember from somebody's comments that it depends on the chord that note belongs to, or the sequence of notes containing that note (direction of passage), so that it would make sense to mark it double flat instead of a whole step down to a different note. maybe somebody else could explain it better than me...

Gbb = F (G flatted = Gb, Gb flatted = F)
Gx or G## = A (G sharped = G#, G# sharped = A)


Why not just write it one whole step lower? That's a good question for the composers themselves (and theorists). I'm no expert, but I do know that it has a lot to with structure and grammar of notation.

It also helps to show sometimes where the melody is going.

For instance, consider the following two notations:

G B C | Gb B C | Gbb B C | Gb B C | G B C....

G B C | Gb B C | F B C | Gb B C | G B C....

The first pattern is much clearer - the bottom note keeps lowering by a half-step, and then raises by half-steps.

The second pattern is pretty clear, too, as this is just my own example, but certainly not as clear as the first pattern.

(G - Gb - Gbb - Gb - G is certainly much clearer in terms of where this goes than G - Gb - F - Gb - G)