The language of the key

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The language of the key in music from Bach to Bruckner (subtitle: with special consideration of Wagner's musical drama ) is a contemplative overview work by the orientalist Hermann Beckh , which depicts the essence of the keys in the sense of a key characteristic.

Emergence

Beckh first wrote the smaller work Vom Geistlichen Wesen der Tonarten in 1922 , which was published by Preuss and Jünger in Breslau. The more comprehensive work The Language of the Key in Music from Bach to Bruckner was announced in the foreword of the third edition of Vom Geistigen Wesen der Tonarten and was completed a few weeks before the author's death in March 1937.

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Beckh divided the keys into three sharps . Each sharp consists of two keys that are as far apart as possible, i.e. six semitones, and the other two keys, which are offset by three semitones from the first two keys. Beckh took # and Bb keys as well as major and minor working in one and thus, starting from twelve semitones , received the "crosses" C / F sharp over A / Es, D / A flat over F / B and G / Db over B / E. He contrasted these three “crosses” with the four particularly soft and balanced “triangles” C / E / As, F / A / Des, B / D / Ges and Es / G / Ces.

Beckh postulated inner or spiritual keys, which creators like Bach or Wagner have worked out more or less through their compositions regardless of the coincidences of the instrument tuning in the respective historical moment and which one actively "corrects" while listening. The tempered system does not hinder one in such a correction, since it arises from “the logic of the musical itself” and the corresponding # or Bb keys can still be perceived in it as higher or lower “parallels”. Beckh saw in F sharp / G flat the lighter # and the darker flat keys "step into the scales" or, in the tempered system, merge.

C is really or also in the spiritual “the fundamental”, C major “the fundamental” (the “[musical] sunrise”), “from which every consideration of the keys has to start”. Beckh provided the "light" keys of one half of the circle of fifths - C major, G major, D major, A major, E major, B major and F sharp major - the "dark" keys of the other half Circle of Fifths - D flat major, A flat major, E flat major, B flat major and F major - opposite. In doing so, he asserts certain restrictions with regard to the half light and half dark keys of F major and F sharp major / G flat major. He sees the key circle, thought in the sense of the circle of fifths (C - G - D - A - E - B - F sharp / Gb - D flat - A flat - Eb - B - F), all the more so than the change between light and dark in the circle of the Celestial bodies running in the same direction, as "everything musical anyway belongs to the field of temporal-rhythmic elements". In this sense, "a rhythmic path piece of the total circle imagined in motion, which we can compare to a certain section of the sun's path in the course of the day or in the course of the year" (F major before sunrise, F sharp / G flat major after sunset) is allotted to each key. In the area of ​​the already darker minor character, Beckh recognizes another half of the circle of fifths set back three fifths - E flat minor, B flat minor, F minor, C minor, G minor and D minor - a more comprehensive group especially dark and in E minor, B minor, F sharp minor and C sharp minor a group of "relatively light" keys, between which in this case A minor (from dark to light) and A minor (from Light to dark). From this he deduces that the major keys of the minor parallels noted in the same way (e.g. C major from A minor etc.) do not shade all of them equally, but to different degrees, because not always only light ones Major keys have dark minor keys, but alternately also particularly light major keys, relatively light minor keys and relatively dark major keys have particularly dark minor keys as parallels.

Beckh emphasized that his comparisons with the course of the day or the course of the year ultimately point to a "great rhythm that dominates the world and life in general", in which C major "opens the light of the sensory world" and through F sharp / G major “the light of the senses goes out again” or major “into the light of the sensory world” and minor “more into the light of the spiritual world, which is dark for the outer senses”.

Beckh postulated the major keys, which for him have the same name as the particularly dark minor keys - E flat major, B flat major, F major, C major, G major and D major - as "upwardly striving" Keys of the other half of the circle of fifths - A major, E major, B major, F sharp major, G major, D flat major, A flat major - as "downward" keys, with the upwardly moving stronger the clear, sober and Those who reach into the world of the senses, those who go downwards, have “an element of the romantic and poetic” and a drift after slumber and death. In the minor area, on the other hand, he does not diagnose the sensual in the particularly dark (and with the same name as the "upwardly moving" major keys), but on the contrary in the keys of A minor, E minor and F sharp minor, which are still the brightest here , C sharp minor and A flat minor.

The individual keys

Beckh explained his vision of the nature of the individual major keys, each with side glances at the minor parallel, using numerous works by Bach, Wagner, Bruckner , Beethoven , Chopin , Haydn , Schumann , Weber , Mozart , Grieg , Verdis , Liszt , Schubert , Tchaikovsky , Brahms' and Mendelssohns .

The "C major cross" (C - F sharp - E flat - A)

Beckh is considered to be the cross of the physical . It is full of volition and can be connected with the Father in a religious sense .

Beckh saw C major as the key of the middle and the coming up . F sharp major / G flat major is to him as balance key in connection with the day and night are equally a special astronomical point of contact. In the interplay between light and shadow or sleeping and awakening, he understands E flat major as the lower turning point, A major as the upper turning point; E flat major and C minor are said to have keys of depth, "the heights of light of A major in music [only rarely] have really been achieved."

The "F major cross" (F - B - D - As)

Beckh is considered to be the cross of the ethereal . For them, thinking , in the religious sense, the son, is in the foreground.

F major is the natural key in the strongest sense and is "'more beautiful' than C major, at least more graceful, less sober, more poetic."

B major has something peculiarly transfigured, which may have to do with the transfiguration and the passing over .

D major is "the strongest of all keys", "the key of the victorious hero, the achievement of the highest goal, the victorious overcoming, the actual victor's key", "the climb to the highest light."

In contrast to D major, A flat major belongs to "the deepest depth of the key circle."

The "G major cross" (G - Des - B - E)

Beckh regarded the group as the cross of the soul , for which the emotional and in the religious sense the spirit was decisive.

G major is particularly strong a key of "the soul-feeling, of the feeling", for which there is "a certain difficulty" because it participates in the strongest, highest light of A major, but through the two strongest keys of C major and D major is "overshadowed". In its "yet also strong light" it is also exposed to a certain "danger of the one-sided sentimental", "either becoming sensual or sentimental or boring."

Beckh characterized D flat major as sensually sweet and as belonging to the essence of B flat major that “[yet] not the light itself, but the premonition of light, the hope of light, the belief in light” participate in it and it “[participates] in the naturalness of F major as well as in the spiritual of E flat major / C minor […] in a certain way.” The “brightness beginning in F major” is in B major "As it were darkened, so that something like semi-dark, chiaroscuro becomes the character of this key, like when we, walking in nature, enjoying nature, suddenly step into the darkness of a high forest."

E major is very bright (although not as bright as A major) and "the warmest of all keys", with which, "where it is developed towards the spiritual, the deepest inner warmth of the heart can connect", so that it can be used as “Very versatile, full of hidden depths and properties”.

Historical location

With The Language of the Key Beckh was a particularly determined supporter of differentiating between tones and keys and the qualities that can be assigned to them. In doing so, he opposed the majority of those who, like Hermann von Helmholtz , did not want (or do not want) to accept a subjectively existing key characteristic.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Beckh : The language of the key in music from Bach to Bruckner. On the spiritual nature of the keys . Urachhaus , Stuttgart 1999, p. 7
  2. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 8
  3. ↑ a b Beckh 1999, pp. 48-49
  4. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 50-51
  5. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 52-53
  6. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 53-54
  7. ↑ a b Beckh 1999, p. 57
  8. ↑ a b Beckh 1999, p. 55
  9. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 55-56
  10. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 56
  11. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 59
  12. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 60
  13. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 61
  14. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 63
  15. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 63-64
  16. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 50–51, 58, 66, 71–73, 80, 4-2–104, 106, 123–124, 127, 136, 138, 152–153, 155, 171–172, 180– 183, 194, 196, 199, 216, 218-219, 234, 245-246, 249, 265-266, 268-269
  17. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 50, 63, 75–77, 82–104, 107–123, 125, 127–135, 139–147, 159–170, 173–179, 182, 186–195, 200–213, 219-231, 236-244, 246, 249-263, 269-284, 288
  18. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 53, 75–76, 94, 102, 107, 125, 137, 154, 157–159, 172, 174, 185–186, 198, 200, 233–235, 246–248, 265, 267, 284-288
  19. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 63–64, 66, 73, 75, 78, 107, 124–126, 132, 136–138, 149–157, 167, 172, 184, 197–199, 217, 219, 233– 235, 245-246, 266, 268, 284-285
  20. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 63, 66, 72, 77, 79, 104–106, 126, 137, 139, 141, 154, 156–158, 172, 184–185, 198, 200, 217–218, 233– 235, 266-267, 269
  21. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 71, 183-184, 216
  22. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 72, 104, 137-138, 154, 167, 198, 245
  23. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 73-74, 138-139, 267
  24. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 75, 79-80, 124, 136, 153, 156, 172, 184, 186, 196, 216-217, 248-249
  25. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 79, 137
  26. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 106, 157
  27. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 107
  28. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 137, 139, 156, 172, 181, 200, 217, 249
  29. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 218
  30. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 235
  31. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 266
  32. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 66-68
  33. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 65
  34. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 71
  35. ↑ Beckh 1999, pp. 101-102
  36. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 123
  37. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 136
  38. ↑ a b Beckh 1999, pp. 66, 68
  39. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 149
  40. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 171
  41. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 180
  42. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 196
  43. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 214
  44. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 233
  45. ↑ Beckh 1999, p. 245
  46. ↑ Andrea Gaugusch: Absolute Tonality or The Absolute Hearing for Non-Absolute Listeners . Diploma thesis, University of Vienna 1999, pp. 48–49