Why the heck we swedes use h?!

Hey!

Why are at least swedish people using h instead of b in all kind of music situations? I haven't taken any lessons, but I heard a weird story that a swedish guy who had visited Austria in the early 1700 century brought some papers with him to sweden and when he translated them he didn't know if the b was a b or a h. Kinda stupid not to understand, but that guy was somekind founder of theoretical schoolarship in sweden so that affected everything that we have now here in the middle of the north..

Of course, the guy who told me that just wanted to make fun of me, but do anyone else know the real story? :mad:

its true - but it is not a sweden-only thing.

normally it would go like A B C D E F G

but back in the early days when only the monks where the ones who were educated enough to actually write they where the only ones to transcribe music (look up my host section - you´ll find a brief story of how it happened).
i dunno how exactly it happened, but monks were very accurate persons and when they copied a written piece of paper, they copied it 1:1 - some not-so-accurate monk obviously has written the B rather sloopy, making it look like an H - and all the others copied it.

and on top of all the stupidity:
when htey reaised what happened they altered the system instead of fixing it!

we actually now have a B AND an H (!!!)

B in german music theory = B-flat international
H in german music theory = B international

so our 12 tones are:

A B H C C# D D# E F F# G G#

that has confused students for a few hundred years now.

first time I've ever hear of that. Just goes to show that you learn something new evry day

Originally Posted by: aiwassA lot of Northern European countries have it. ...possibly the Netherlands.

Netherlands = Western Europe ;) And they definitely don't use an H in their muic notation.

Originally Posted by: aiwassA lot of Northern European countries have it. Germany, Netherlands

Both are in Western Europe :-)

They definitely don't use any H in music notation in the Netherlands though.

I have'nt seen a H in a notation for years up here, it's on it's way out.

Originally Posted by: mc9mmI have'nt seen a H in a notation for years up here, it's on it's way out.[/QUOTE]

I guess so to. New musicians (like I was some years ago) seek lessons and sites like guitartricks.com on the internet when they want to improve theory knowledge and technique skills.

[QUOTE=Azrael]so our 12 tones are:

A B H C C# D D# E F F# G G#

that has confused students for a few hundred years now..

Man.. Thats weird. But all of guys who have been schooled to read A B H bla, bla: Do you prefer the international modell or the northern europe-germany modell

i personally prefer the international modell, since it is more logical. they work both, but that H-stuff always confused me. however - its good to know both when you work with european musicians.

Originally Posted by: Inisfail

Originally Posted by: mc9mm
so our 12 tones are:

A B H C C# D D# E F F# G G#

that has confused students for a few hundred years now..

Man.. Thats weird. But all of guys who have been schooled to read A B H bla, bla: Do you prefer the international modell or the northern europe-germany modell

Hmm I dont remember saying that..?

Anyway, I prefer the international model.

Originally Posted by: mc9mmHmm I dont remember saying that..?

I know, I just found out I'm stupid.. Sorry, I will edit and change. =/