The German composer and writer Christian Schubart made a list of the musical keys and what they might mean, in a book he published in 1802. What if a particular musical key made you feel a particular way, or had certain associations? That a piece in D minor, for example, would be immediately melancholic? Or a work in G would be bright and cheerful? It’s a widely held belief. How about something more mysterious? Esoteric even? So that’s the practical side of musical keys. Chopin did the same with his preludes and so did Shostakovich. It’s actually two sets of 24: a major and a minor one for each of the 12 keys. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier has 48 preludes and fugues. For example, there might be a system in place. There are other practical reasons a composer might choose a key. You need to choose a key that lets a choir resonate, or enables an opera singer to really sparkle. If you want the instrument to play something with comfort and ease - and for it to shine - you choose a certain part of the range. So a composer would have had to think carefully about this before starting.Įven in more modern times, instruments have a certain range (the span between their lowest and highest notes). More importantly, a few hundred years ago, some instruments could ONLY play in certain keys.Ī trumpet in Bach and Vivaldi’s day, for example, could only play in certain keys unless you did some plumbing, choosing different tubes to affect the pitch. Certain musical instruments are happier in certain keys. It’s the scale that its notes generally fall under, and the particular notes and chords that feel like "home" when they arrive.īut how does a composer decided on the key? Well there are practical and other, altogether more mysterious, reasons. The "key" is one of the defining characteristics of a piece of music. How does a composer choose the key for a piece of music?
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