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I have several Scarlatti Sonata books (thank you my friends) and there is a Sonate in h, a Sonate in H, a Sonata in g, a Sonata in G, a Sonata in Es, Sonata in Fis....

Why all the different letters, capitalized and non capitalized?

They seem to play 'normally'.

H = B; upper case is major, lower case is minor
(H meaning B is a German thing. Don't ask me why. I was born in Germany and I have no idea.)

Lower case in general means minor; g = G minor

"Es" is E-flat.
"Fis" is F-sharp.
(BTW I had to look those up to be sure!)

All of that is the German naming. There's also French, and I'm never completely sure I'm right about what they mean when I see "bemol" and "diese."
(They're "minor" and "major.")

And.....when I looked up Es and Fis, I saw that there's also an Italian system for the naming. Fortunately I've never come across that.

The "H" and "h" for B is because in early notation "B" was alway B flat. Perhaps the "h" connects somehow with the word for "high" in German ("hoch"), but also has to do with the shape of the note (rounded "b" vs. square "h"). (All dimly remembered from music history classes while drinking a.m. coffee.)

The Notes B & H and Solfeggio

solfa, solfeggio (Italian m.), Solfeggio (German n.), solfège (French m.), solfeo (Spanish m.)

In almost all European countries, except those whose main language is English or a Romance language, the 'German' system is used. This also uses the letters A to G of the Roman alphabet, but reserves B for the note called B flat in the 'English' system, and uses H for the note that is B natural (or just B) in the 'English' system. An exception is found in The Netherlands, and more recently in Sweden, where note names usually follow the 'English' system, using B, rather than H, for B natural.

In the 'German' system, the names of notes that are a semitone (or half note) higher or lower, receive the suffixes -is (in Swedish, -iss) and, unless the note name is a vowel, -es (in Swedish, -ess) respectively. When the note name is a vowel (i.e. A or E) the suffix -es (in Sweden, -ess) is reduced to -s (in Sweden, -ss).


http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory9.htm#notesandkeys

in French bémol and dièze mean: flat and sharp, minor and major would be: mineur et majeur, so b-flat minor and c-sharp major in French: si-bémol mineur et do-dièze majeur.

Yes, but "dièse", svp.

sounds like you are supposed to step on the gas