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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