AZURITE

ea rome 2CuCO0:.0n (OH):, mineral occurring with malachite B, the second letter of the anct. and modern Rom. alphabet. It is the exact counterpart of.the Gk. ‘Beta,’ represented in Hebrew and Phoenician by ‘Beth.’ In the 4th century A. D., B in Gk. came to correspond in power to V, and hence, in the Ru ian and other European languages derived from medisval Gk., B does not represent the Rom. letter in position and power. B, in music. In music B represents the 7th degree of the diatonic scale of C, but in Ger. music H represents the Eng. B, while B represented the Eng. B flat. The musical signs denoting flat and natural are modifications of the letter b, 7.e., the sign 6b, denoting flat, is a b with a slightly pointed loop, and the sign {, denoting a natural, is a b with a square loop. These signs are used because B was the first note of the scale to be modified by a semitone.