Top 10 lists are big these days in the sophisticated world of the internet and its readership. Even the august New York Times (in January) got into the act recently by naming (or taking a deep breath and beginning to try to start to name) the 10 greatest composers of, like, forever. But never before has the world seen a list like the one we attempt today: The Top Ten Greatest Notes of All Time.
A word on our methods. First, we ate dinner. Then we started to think about doing the dishes but decided to do them later. They can wait. The food won’t stick, not with the dishwasher we have. (We paid a little extra.) Secondly, or thirdly, it’s hard to keep track, we got a committee of the world’s leading musicians together at a retreat in the mountains of Nevada, fed them lavishly and then corralled them all into a small meeting room without heat or air-conditioning and told them not to come out until they had settled on a list of the ten best notes ever. We took the resulting list and compared it to our own and decided to use ours. Theirs was totally wrong, a product of “group thinking” and “political correctness.”
We won’t claim that our list will be approved of by all. We’ve made some controversial choices, for sure, but, in sum, we stand by them. At the very least, we hope that our list of the Top Ten Greatest Notes of All Time will serve as a teachable moment, the start of a further and fruitful discussion, nationally and globally, on this most important topic. Without further ado, then …
The Top Ten Greatest Notes of All Time
10. E flat: It’s right in the middle there, unassuming, but absolutely gorgeous in itself, or with a G natural thrown on top.
9. B natural: Just below a C and just above a B flat, it’s a sneaky note that makes you wonder which way it will go. Composers at the crossroads of their compositions have always turned to B naturals, and with good reason.
8. E natural: Obvious, yes, but never wrong. Decidedly independent and straight-talking. Persistent. Honorable.
7. D flat: Often relegated to the bottom of the standings, D flat is a note that only a few composers have used well and wisely. It reminds listeners of a C sharp, but it’s different, with myriad possibilities inherent in the make-up of its overtone series and odor. Best performed at room temperature.
6. C sharp: A lot like a C natural, but a half step higher. Not better, but higher. Useful in the keys D major and A major, its overriding attractiveness can be attributed to a certain je nais sai quoi and susceptibility.
5. B flat: A full step below C, but nevertheless its near equal. A resounding tone. When played softly, somewhat mysterious. When added to an E flat, a perfect fifth. Great with fish and a light white wine.
4. F sharp: Haunting, piquant and sassy, F sharp pricks the listener’s ears with its fragrance and tang, its sorrow and woe, its gaiety and naivete. So much in one note. Good to dance to.
3. A flat: An oft-maligned note (as in the old saw, “Give me an A flat and I’ll show you a crumpet”) but absolutely essential to any composition worth its salt in the keys of E flat, D flat and G flat, among others, both minor and major. Morose when played by a viola.
2. A natural: OK, it’s just an A, but still. Love it, cherish it, tune to it. Where would we be without A?
1. C natural: Versatile but pure. A primary color but rich in possibilities. Without a hint of pretension, yet somehow strangely moving. Like sunshine in a single note!
Illustration: Detail from Leonardo De Vinci’s “Dieci Notii Maximus” (1565). Courtesy of the Monastic Library of Palermo.
Classical Life 
Have you ever seen 6 and 7 together in the same well-tempered room at the same time?
In related news: D, F and G hired lawyers and are planning to sue Mr. Mangan for blatant discrimination.
C natural of course is number one, but A natural second? Only if A=440 . . . if A=442 it should drop below B-flat where it belongs.
Good point about A440, CK.
What about poor G-flat? Never gets its due. It’s always F sharp this and E double sharp that…
I’ll agree with the top pick. But I’d expect E-flat to be the dominant choice. And I don’t mean to diminish its capabilities. But C natural at number 10? It’s placing seems….almost….accidental.
Have to VIOLINtly disagree with CK’s point!
No matter what the tuning frequency is, A will always B B-low B-flat, so the frequency of the tuning A is irrelevant.
When you want B-flat seem sharp,
simply place your A too flat.
And vice versa, conversely.
You are a Sharp one, MarK. I give you an A for that reply.
; )
Without an A-NATURAL to tune to, we could get an even better set of greatest notes. The GREATEST SONG EVER WRITTEN is unquestionably “Strawberry Fields Forever” which contains no notes which can be found on a piano.
By the way, the lawyers for D-F-G (sometimes referred to as the Deutsche-freaking-Grammophon) have revealed today that they are calling Arnold Schoenberg to be their star witness. Their case is strongly supported by the ACLU whose spokesman declared that “All Notes Are Created Equal”.
I may soon make an appearance in my own celebrity column. Famed Music Critic in Court; Arnold is star witness.
I am a spokesman representing the note H. H is tired of being the underdog to B-natural and wishes to declare his independence from the chromatic scale altogether.
Noted.
H wishes to be DEnoted.
Defense is in for a tough battle, considering that the prosecuting attorneys are led by a Supreme-Court-case-winning attorney Randol Schoenberg and that judge Ronald Schoenberg came out of retirement to adjudicate the case. A conflict of interest? None whatsoever. “Come on, be serial”, said all Schoenbergs in an unexpected and surprisingly perfect unison.
Duly noted, as opposed to Dooley Wilson.
Or Doodles Weaver.
Do I hear 7, c’mon lucky 7!
I’m thinking of Chopin’s Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27, No. 2, with that amazing change to minor subdominant and that central cadence. “Relegated to the bottom of the standings”? I think not. And wasn’t that note featured in the James Bond movie, “The Spy Who Loved Me”? With the great Roger Moore?!
I believe that’s checkmate, ladies and gents.
What about E natural? I have a dear friend – a musicologist – who can convincingly argue that the entire character of the title role, and hence of the opera, are set in the repeated E naturals that open ‘Now The Great Bear…’ The E-Natural in the triad that forms the leitmotif for Scarpia in Tosca – hair-raising! Schubert’s Symphony Number 1 = E major. Let the lovers of E natural rise up and seek – nay demand – recognition for this note that does far more than fill a gap between E flat and F.
It’s right there with a bullet, at No. 8, Operaman. What do you want? Geez, there’s no pleasing some people.
A better column might simply be the order of importance of all twelve tones, as enharmonically speaking, of course, there are only 12 tones from which to choose in the “normal” western musical scale. Why are we to leave out the Poor Two Little Notes that Couldn’t? Isn’t this sort of like almost choosing your Top Ten “Ten Commandments”? And then, you chose both D flat and C sharp. That seems a copout somehow. Or-how about D double flat? Does that count? Just because one has never seen such a note doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to think it and hear it when you play it on your piano… yes?
And speaking of John Adams, (what a segue!),where’s Nicolas Slonimsky when we need him. Yes, he’s dead, but he’d jump right in here with a great solution to such burning questions as which is the greater, F double sharp or plain ol’ G.
Wow. What a Nerd Fest. “Nerdi-Con 2011.” We fly that flag proudly.
Here’s another response, regarding Mozart’s G-minor Quintet, the Arioso movement. It’s from 2009 by the late Alan Rich:
“That movement remains unique. Just the subtlety in the range of its tone color makes it so, in demanding that its five instruments perform muted until that overpowering release, the single high D that proclaims major triumphant over minor. In schoolboy enthusiasm I once proclaimed that D my favorite note in all music, and friends came over and asked me to play it for them – the one note! That’s nonsense, of course; a note is only a note in context. And when Ben Jacobson played it on Friday, because of the way he and his four partners had gotten themselves into the context of that amazing entire work, that stupendous panorama of suffering and irony and, in its final movement, an almost insolent masque of resolution, that high D had once again become, indeed, my favorite of all notes, ever.”
I think you’ve severely underestimated D-flat. The Eroica Symphony couldn’t exist without it, therefore making it singly responsible for the entire Romantic era! It is also paramount to the work of Count Basie and thus largely responsible for jazz as well (though not as much as B-flat, but I think you captured that note’s essence perfectly). A top three note if there ever was one.
No quibbles with your top two however – A, after all, keeps the orchestra in tune and C is of course great because (as a college professor of mine once pointed out) Bach used it all the time.
Seems to me that we need to clarify three things: 1) Was this list selected with microtones in the mix? 2) Are we assuming sine tones or some complex of overtones? Depending on the richness of the spectrum, one note might take care of the entire list in one fell swoop. 3) In what register? I mean, C6 is disastrous compared to C4 no matter how you look at it.
Nerd fest, indeed, Rick.
Are we all assuming that said notes are done in equal temperment? Because if Tim really had just intonation in mind or some other temperment, all bets are off. No one has touched upon this yet . . . or at least, not until now . . . maybe for good reason.
I had my own temperament in mind. I always do. Re. Me. That’s how I roll.
As you C, it’s all to E-asy to make A case for any note r-A-ning supr-E-me, it’s in the E-ar of the B-holder, surely…
Reblogged this on Classical Life and commented:
Originally blogged in 2011, but still true.