Composers have, over the ages, chosen keys to \u2018flavour\u2019 their music in a particular way. So which are the most characterful, and who has used them to their greatest effect? Ivan Hewett delves into his scores to find out <\/p>
Every piece of music \u2013 be it a pop or folk song, a string quartet<\/strong><\/a>, a violin concerto<\/strong><\/a> or a operatic overture \u2013 is in a certain key. But what do we mean by this? Let\u2019s first look briefly at what a key is.<\/p>\n Essentially, a key is the principal group of notes that gives any piece of music its harmonic building blocks. The main notes used in a song are usually all from one particular scale<\/strong><\/a>, and this is where we name the song\u2019s key from.<\/p>\n The key that most music learners come across first is the key of C major. That\u2019s because the scale of C major uses no sharp or flat notes<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 it simply goes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. That means no need to use the black notes on the keyboard \u2013 only the white ones.<\/p>\n A song that only uses notes from the C major scale will (usually) be in the key of C major.<\/p>\n In fact, each key signature (in this case, no sharps or flats) is shared by two keys: one major, one minor. C major shares its key signature with A minor.<\/p>\n But there are plenty more keys than these two. And different keys seem to have different characteristics, so that a composer is likely to choose a different key for writing a piece of joyous or festive music, than for something a little more melancholy or otherworldly.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at some of the most common keys and their sonic attributes or moods.<\/p>\n F<\/span>or centuries, people have claimed that musical keys have special qualities of their own. In the Baroque<\/strong><\/a> era, whole treatises were written on the subject. It\u2019s been said that E flat major is warm, D flat major is spooky, and E flat minor is seriously unhinged. <\/span><\/p>\n Keys have colours too, apparently: E major has been described as sapphire blue, A flat major as purple, and D major as golden. Composers and performers who experience the condition of synaesthesia<\/strong><\/a> will understand this well.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> All hokum, say the sceptics. They\u2019ll point out that for every person who thinks C major is chalky white, there\u2019ll be another for whom it\u2019s emerald green. They\u2019ll remind us that though keys may have had distinct \u2018colours\u2019 in the era before Bach, when odd, exotic tunings abounded, every major and minor key now sounds \u2013 thanks to equal temperament \u2013 absolutely identical to every other. <\/span><\/p>\n As for the expressive qualities of keys, these vary hugely from one composer to the next. F sharp major had a special significance for Scriabin<\/strong><\/a>, C minor had a special flavour for Beethoven<\/strong><\/a>. But F sharp major sounds very different in Tchaikovsky<\/strong><\/a> and Bach<\/a><\/strong>, and Shostakovich\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> C minor isn\u2019t like Beethoven\u2019s.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Check out our guides to the lives and times of all the great composers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n All this is undeniable, but it\u2019s not the whole story. The fact that earlier composers thought of keys in specific ways surely affected the way they composed in them. And if we think of G minor as tragic largely because Mozart<\/strong><\/a> had a special feeling for that key, isn\u2019t that enough? Won\u2019t that affect the way we hear that key in other contexts? <\/span><\/p>\nHow did composers use different musical keys?<\/h2>\n
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