"#" was often used to mean "a major third" even in keys were the intended note was actually a natural. This close relationship between "natural" and "sharp" also applied to figured bass. Traces of this convention were still in use in some of JS Bach's manuscripts (and in some cases were misinterpreted when Bach's music was re-discovered in the 19th mid century), and in some of the examples in his son CPE Bach's book "Essay on the true art of playing keyboard instruments." Even in the 20th-century, one English translation of the "Essay" printed some of these examples (which are nonsensical if interpreted using modern conventions) as they were originally written, with no editorial comment. Before the development of a separate "natural" sign, a sharp was used to "cancel" an earlier flat, and vice versa. Later, the "square b" sign evolved into two different signs for "natural" and "sharp".Įarly music notation was not pedantic about for how long an accidental stayed in force (the modern concept of "until the end of the bar" would have made little sense, because bar-lines were not used systematically before the late 16th century). In early music, there was no great need for a special sign for "natural". The modern names for "sharp" and "flat" in most European languages (except English) are translations of the German "square B" and "soft/round B". I don't know when or why the "single sharp" became more vertical, and the modern diagonal "double sharp" was first used. The original sign for "sharp" was written using diagonal lines, like an x with double strokes.
When notation was needed for accidentals on other notes, the "round" or "soft" form of the letter b was used as the sign for a flat, and the "square" form for a sharp.
The "square B" later became the gothic letter h, and H is still used in modern German as the name for "B natural" - B means "B flat". These signs were not "accidentals" in the modern sense, but single signs representing the two different pitches of the note. In early modal music, the only "altered" notes were B flat and B natural, which were written using different "square" and "round" shapes of the gothic letter b. Medieval German notation for modal music (for all instruments and voices, not just for fretted stringed instruments) was essentially tablature, but using letter names for the notes instead of fret numbers as in modern tab notation.
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