Talk:E flat major

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E flat major

There's already e-flat major, which seems to be more complete. I don't see any reason for having both, except for maybe a redirect. Nadando 05:18, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

You mean a "soft redirect?" (For differences of form, we avoid hard #REDIRECTS.) Well, the soft redirect, maybe. Looking at http://books.google.com/books?q=%22E+flat+major%22 I see a pretty even distribution after the first page of results. "E flat" itself is a noun, right? The adjective (modifier) usually comes first, combined with a hyphen if the result is an adjective. Since "E flat" in "E flat major" isn't being used as an adjective, the hyphen seems to be wrong. But I don't think it would be correct to recommend one over the other, as both are so prevalent. --Connel MacKenzie 06:11, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

E flat is acting as a modifier to major. I'm not entirely sure if it should be hyphenated since flat modifies E, which is not the typical order. But even if it should be hyphenated technically, such a compound phrases tend to lose the hyphen as they become well-known anyway. So personally I wouldn't hyphenate it either. DAVilla 07:35, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Isn't major acting as a modifier to E flat in 'E flat major'? The entire phrase acts as a noun. I think recommending the hyphenated version is therefore wrong; the hyphenated version should soft-link to the unhyphenated version. --Connel MacKenzie 16:42, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh I see what you mean. Actually I wonder if E flat and major are both modifying scale or chord which is implied. Regardless... DAVilla 18:56, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Struck, labeled as alternative spelling. DAVilla 07:35, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

In my experience, the musical keys are always capitalized: key of C, E flat, A sharp, middle C, high G#, etc. I’ve seen both hyphenated and unhyphenated forms (E flat major or E-flat major), but usually without the hyphen. —Stephen 11:28, 15 August 2007 (UTC)