G flat major

[nigelsdtaylor]

Andrew Higson, who presumably does not play Scriabin wrote:
<That's all wrong!

Ever tried playing anything in G flat? As a key signature it is 
somewhere
you only get by transposition during a piece from, er, er, well 
another key
anyway.>
Scriabin wrote some sonatas and preludes in Gb major. There is some 
logic to this, depending upon the tuning and what you are trying to 
convey in a piece of music. F# and Gb major are halfway round the 
circle of 5ths and therefore have the same number of accidentals: 6.
In the best tuning systems, the keys with corresponding numbers of 
sharps and flat have very similar intonation and the same value of 
major 3rd. For example, in Thomas Young's (the egyptologist and 
inventor of "Young's Modulus) tuning, the keys of "D" and "Bb" both 
with 2 accidentals have a major 3rd value of +396.09 cents. The key 
of F#/Gb has a Pythagorean major 3rd with a value of 407.82 cents. 

I have adopted a similar system to that which Dickon has proposed: 
sharp of international,say F#+20 is Gb, and say F#-20 is given as F#.
G# major is not a problem as long as you can accept the Fx (F double 
sharp) as the leading note in a ring of 8.
Andrew may not agree, but I have not broken any musical rules! I am 
merely conveying the desired "key-flavour" !
Nigel Taylor