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They are enharmonic equivalents in the vast majority of music that uses any of the conventional Western systems of tuning (as the author sort of goes out of their way to demonstrate in the article)

I don’t think that’s correct -- they are identical in 12-TET, but all the other tuning systems either treat them as different notes, or attempt to compromise between the alternatives in a way that favours certain keys over others.

Maybe this is isn’t critical info for a lot of people, but it is important foundational knowledge if you’re a music student, or just interested in music theory.




Actually most of the time if you're playing in a different tuning (eg quarter-comma meantone or pythagorean or whatever) where they would be different, you're playing a type of music where you exclusively would play one note or the other, so the fact that they are theoretically different doesn't arise.


But then wouldn’t the fact that they’re theoretically the same also not arise?




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