From: Brad Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>
To: "F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU" <F_MINOR@email.rutgers.edu>
Subject: Re: [F_minor] RE: Key associations.
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 17:15:09 -0400
Alwin Tong wrote:
It shows a huge preference for the key of c major (as all the white
keys on a piano, or black keys on a harpsichord), a Very Huge preference
for Cmajor in fact, and almost all musicians start learning c major first.
and i think herein lies the "key" to why moods maybe attached to keys.
i believe after the years, of playing c major, what happens is that
some people's ears and their theory minds, become "atuned" to C, an
arbitrary blip on the circle, that everything else is judged in relation
to it.
in this way, it is very easy to see flat keys (such as both f (1 flat)
and fminor (4 flats) ) as sadder, or more somber, as they are both moving
downwards in key relative to cmajor (you can think of it as -1 for f
major, and -4 for fminor). for the same reason, keys like e major tend to
be bright (+4).
people such as beethoven (eb being his heroic key) and scriabin (key
colour) tended to use keys in this way, probably for their own flow of
ideas, as each key would be a touch stone, like a smell can be, while
Bach, would openly transcribe pieces back and forth among key
indistinguishably..
anycase, i really think it has something to do with the layout of the
keyboard, and the fact that many musicians are made to learn c major for
the early part of our lives.
*of the minor (sadness) and major (happiness), the answer is actually
quite a bit simpler (and more solid), in that a major key has a harmony
where the 3rd of the chord is more "in phase" (lower in harmonic series)
than a minor 3rd which is used in a minor key. (** the harmonic series is
like a ladder of consonance to dissonance). this means that the major 3rd
clashes less against the other chord notes. and just like how families
work, less clashing equals more happiness.
getting ahead of myself, but i hope that helps in some way to your
question :)
Not just the *appearance* of the keyboard's layout, but the actual sound of
the music whenever the keyboard is tempered in schemes other than equal
temperament. The keys and scales sound objectively different from one
another, in addition to shifting the whole thing up or down _en masse_ by
pitch.
Some of my writing about this:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/larips/informal.html
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/larips/outline.html
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/larips/art.html
Typically in these tuning methods, F minor and Bb minor *are* among the
darkest-sounding and most melancholic keys/scales, in character.
Another excellent book about this is Rita Steblin's historical study of key
characteristics in the 18th and 19th centuries. This one:
http://www.amazon.com/History-Characteristics-Early-Centuries-Second/dp/1580460410
Brad Lehman
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