Key signature A minor as each accidental may be notated explicitly as required, or the piece may be modal or atonal. An example is Bartók's Piano Sonata, which has no fixed key and is highly chromatic. If not bound by common practice conventions, microtones can also be notated in a key signature; which microtonal symbols are used depends on the system. The common practice period conventions are so firmly established that some musical notation programs have been unable to show nonstandard key signatures until recently. The use of a one-flat signature developed in the Medieval period, but signatures with more than one
Scientific pitch notation frequencies, in other words, standard concert pitch and twelve-tone equal temperament). When a piano is tuned to just intonation, C refers to the same key on the keyboard, but a slightly different frequency. Mathematically, given the number formula_1 of semitones above middle C, the fundamental frequency in hertz is given by formula_2 (see twelfth root of two). Given the MIDI NoteOn number formula_3, the frequency of the note is normally formula_4 Hz, using standard tuning. Scientific pitch (q.v.) is an absolute pitch "standard", first proposed in 1713 by French physicist Joseph Sauveur. It was defined so that all Cs are