# Difference between sharps/flats when writing for continuous-tone instruments



## ErinD (Sep 20, 2012)

When writing for continuous tone instruments like the violin is there a difference between, for example, a C# and a Db ? I remember talking to a viola player friend in college that said "you have to bend them."


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

ErinD said:


> When writing for continuous tone instruments like the violin is there a difference between, for example, a C# and a Db ? I remember talking to a viola player friend in college that said "you have to bend them."


The pitch should be the same. You tend to use a particular enharmonic depending on what key you're in, or if you're not in a key or moving chromatically, you would use one or the other depending on whether you are ascending (C#) or descending (Db).


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

They are the same in equal temperament. There is actually a tiny difference between the two notes but you don't need to worry abut that at all. In terms of composition, use the accidental that requires the least amount of naturals afterwards.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Even in 'equal temperament' a good string player will (should) play a flat or a sharp differently, especially if they are playing solo or in a homogenous ensemble of strings only - at least in common practice era works, as well as many tonal works from the first half of the 20th Century.... 

Sharps are slightly higher than their enharmonic equivalent flat.

It is, however, best to stay within the parameters of theoretic grammar unless you have a strongly inflected scale or mode of which you wish to make more of 'a feature' of the piece, or passage. 

The complaint of 'too equal' temperament coming from contemporary orchestras is a quite legitimate one, the harmony and the piece often sounding much too / more 'homogenized' than the composer intended.... it gets rather dulling to the ear.


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