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Found this whilst reading some basic theory on wikipedia, but am trying to figure out what the supposed meaning is.

example: b-c' kleine secunde 16:15 source: Wikipedia link with interval table ( dutch )

Rest of the table has some references with apostrophe, and some without, from what i can gather its only on small intervals ( i.e. minor second, minor third, diminished fifth )

2 Answers 2

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As far as I can conclude from that web page's "Moderne naamgeving" section, the apostrophe denotes a note in a higher octave, assuming that the C notes determine octave boundaries. Note that the perfect unison is merely " c-c " and the perfect octave is " c-c' " there.

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  • To round out this answer, the apostrophe here is about the next octave up, not the absolute octave of the A a a' a'' a''' series with a' being the 440Hz a note which I first though about in the b - c' example.
    – ndim
    Mar 14, 2019 at 0:56
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As @Dekkadeci says, the primes refer to the next octave. The lower octave would be indicated by a comma: c, .

This is the notation used in LilyPond, http://lilypond.org/index.html, which is a program of Dutch origin.

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