NOTATIO

Seconds are fine as-is: one solution could be starting the bar with a Gb instead of an F#, but I’m not entirely sure it’s necessary.

In the firsts I’d probably go with B C# Eb: I don’t particularly like writing or reading diminished seconds, and to me the diminished third that’s necessary to switch from sharps to flats in a whole tone scale is easiest to parse when the diminished third is placed between two notes that have to have accidentals.

MichelRE wrote: 06 Sep 2026, 02:13

OCTO wrote: 05 Sep 2026, 21:19 If the phrase starts from E , maybe you can respell F -G etc.
Otherwise it is ok.

I'll look at it again.
I have a tendency to avoid writing C and F and B and E

I remember playing operas by Wagner and Strauss, they are full of such accidentals.

LOL Wagner and Strauss are also replete with double (s)harps and double flats!!!

Sometimes sextuple harps...

LOL, that was a typo (for some reason, if I don't strike the "S" key on my keyboard in just a very specific direction, it doesn't respond.)

MichelRE wrote: 04 Sep 2026, 14:39 I can't say "well this passage is in X-minor, therefore I need to use X-spelling."

I'm trying to make READING the passage as easy on the eyes as possible for the performers.

Vln. II is just C# ascending melodic minor starting on E (up to the Eb) so one option could be to use that spelling in that bar. It uses a B# but would be easily read as it's a standard scale that they practice every day. Alternatively, just switch the Gb to F# and leave the whole bar as flats.

For Vln. I, I think with whole tone scales I'm more used to seeing sharps when this is ascending, and then using D# - F natural, and using flats with Db - B natural when descending. Here are a couple of examples from a Guy Lacour etude:
I think what you have is easily enough read though, just presenting some rationale behind other options.