Key character

Under key character is meant the keys adhesive characteristics and expression skills. Major keys , for example, are often described as clear, light and cheerful, while minor keys, on the other hand, are cloudy, dull and gloomy. Furthermore, with the well-tempered tunings , one can see that the keys that are often played contain more pure thirds than the distant keys.

Any further distinctions between certain major and minor keys have been rather subjective through the ages and have changed again and again, but there are also certain similarities. On the other hand, renowned composers and music theorists have repeatedly denied over the centuries that different key characters exist at all. Regardless of this controversial question, however, it cannot be overlooked that many composers “ consciously use certain keys as part of the semantic content and the desired mood or affect ” .

history

Discussions about the effect of certain tones and tones have been handed down from antiquity .

In the Middle Ages , the four authentic modes were associated with the four temperaments :

The three hexachord shapes were also associated with certain characters:

the hexachordum durum or the cantus durus stood for a tough and bold character
the cantus naturalis for a mediocre, normal character
the cantus mollis for a soft, fearful character.

In 1652, C. Matthaei compiled statements by older theorists on church modes in a treatise.

Descriptions of the character of certain major and minor keys by composers and music scholars have been known since the end of the 17th century, but not as a system for all keys. In Jean Rousseau there is a description of eleven keys, in Marc-Antoine Charpentier of 18 and in Ch. Masson of eight. In 1713, Johann Mattheson described the 17 keys most commonly used up to that point in a very extensive manner in his work Das neu-opened Orchester . "That every tone [every key] has something peculiar about itself / and they are very different to the effect of one from the other / is certainly certain once / if one considers time / circumstances and persons."

Even in the 20th century, church modes were not archaic, but consciously used for characteristic compositions, e.g. B. by Arnold Mendelssohn in his choral work Three Madrigals after words of the young Werther .

Especially with the most common keys (major keys up to about three accidentals ), the descriptions are very similar. In the more remote keys and most minor keys, however, opinions diverge widely.

The key characteristics in well-tempered moods

While all playable scales are tuned equally in the (¼ decimal point) mean-tone tuning with its pure thirds and slightly out of tune fifths , the scales of the well-tempered tunings predominantly used in music history are tuned differently: The thirds of the scales close to C major are kept as pure as possible, but the thirds that are further away from C major sound "rougher". Because of this, different scales could have different characteristics. Francesco Galeazzi describes e.g. B. B major as “tender, soft and sweet”, while E major sounds “cutting, shrill and youthful”.

This does not apply to the equal temperament , which, however, could only be exactly realized with physical methods since 1917; there all scales are again in tune.

Often the "more distant" keys were used deliberately for text interpretation, also to make the dissonance of the dissonances appear all the more pure afterwards. With the appearance of the equal mood, however, this has evaporated. What remained was the tradition of writing pastorals , for example, usually in F major .

Sound sample (see well-tempered mood )


Here you can hear the restless character of the first chords (starting with the rough Pythagorean third with 408 cents ), which gradually become a clear B flat major, F major, C major, G major and D major -Change a chord and then get rougher again. In C major you can hear the typical beat of the mean- tone fifth. ("Werkmeister" means the Werckmeister mood .)

Other aspects

Instrumentation

The character of a key can also be shaped by instrumentation aspects. For example, the “festive” trumpets were all tuned in D, so that their luster was carried over to the key of D major. Today almost all instruments can be played chromatically , so that they no longer restrict the choice of key so clearly, but certain tone combinations are still easier to play on an instrument. If a piece was composed on the instrument, it cannot be ruled out that, due to the easy accessibility, certain figures are preferred that actually have different sound characteristics. The pitch range of some instruments also dictates certain timbres . Some keys enable a particularly deep, muffled or very bright orchestral sound and were used by composers accordingly.

In his instrumentation apprenticeship from 1844, Hector Berlioz attempted to assign all keys not only a certain level of difficulty, but also an individual sound character , especially for the violin . Berlioz's statements on the sound character are, however, quite arbitrary. He created two tables on the playability and the alleged character of major and minor keys on the violin, which in the German edition (1905) read as follows:

Major keys (for violin after Berlioz)
	Level of difficulty	Sound character
C.	light	serious but dull and cloudy
Cis	very difficult	less cloudy and more prominent
Of	difficult, but less difficult than C #	majestic
D.	light	cheerful, noisy, somewhat ordinary
Dis	almost impracticable	dull
It	light	majestic, quite bright, gentle, serious
E.	not very difficult	shiny, splendid, noble
Fes	impracticable
F.	light	pithy, strong
F sharp	very difficult	shiny, cutting
Ges	very difficult	less shiny, more delicate
G	light	pretty cheerful, a bit ordinary
G sharp	almost impracticable	dull but noble
As	not very difficult	gentle, veiled, very noble
A.	light	shiny, elegant, joyful
Ais	impracticable
B.	light	noble, but without shine
H	not very difficult	noble, bright-sounding, radiant
Ces	almost impracticable	noble, but less bright-sounding

Minor keys (for violin after Berlioz)
	Level of difficulty	Sound character
c	light	gloomy, not very bright
cis	pretty easy	tragic, clear-sounding, elegant
of	very difficult	gloomy, not very bright
d	light	pathetic, clear-sounding, somewhat ordinary
dis	almost impracticable	dull
it	heavy	very gloomy and sad
e	light	screaming, ordinary
fes	impracticable
f	a bit difficult	not very bright, gloomy, violent
f sharp	less difficult	tragic, clear-sounding, incisive
total	impracticable
G	light	melancholy, rather bright-sounding, gentle
g sharp	very difficult	not very bright, sad, elegant
as	very difficult, almost impracticable	very dull, sad, but noble
a	light	quite bright-sounding, gentle, sad, quite noble
ais	impracticable
b	heavy	gloomy, dull, rough (h), but noble
H	light	very bright-sounding, wild, bitter, unfriendly, violent
ces	impracticable

Circle of fifths

The accidentals of a key or its relationship to the zero point of the circle of fifths , to C major, often play a role. Appear from here

Deviations in the direction of the dominants (clockwise) as an increase or lightening
Deviations in the direction of the subdominants (counterclockwise) as bracing and darkening.

JS Bach seems to be guided by this consideration when he notates the third prelude - fugue pair in both volumes of the Well-Tempered Clavier, not "economically" in D flat major with 5 b, but in the more difficult to read C sharp major with 7 # because this fits better with the cheerful character of the pieces because of the crosses. The fact that the notation is completely irrelevant for the tonal result does not matter here, since the Well-Tempered Clavier is expressly intended for "connoisseurs and lovers", i.e. is aimed more at readers than listeners. Bach notates the eighth ensemble of prelude and fugue in the first volume (corresponding to the dark and serious character) in E flat minor (6 b), the counterpart in the second volume (in accordance with the playful and cheerful character) in D flat minor (6 # ).

Auditory physiology

In their absolute pitch, keys match the body's own frequencies , e.g. B. the fixed formants of the vowels , match or deviate from them. This may be accompanied by synaesthetic connections.

If one considers the modulation of an equally tempered scale into another key purely mathematically, it is a matter of a multiplication of all frequencies with a constant factor or a pure shift of the entire frequency range up or down, without the "shape of the spectrum" " to change. However, the human hearing is extremely non-linear and very frequency-dependent, so that tones of the same amplitude and different frequency are not perceived as being equally loud. In addition, between different frequencies in the "pure mechanics of the ear", that is, on the way between the auricle and the eardrum to the cochlea, intermodulations take place between the frequencies that hit it . H. mixed products or new frequencies are formed which depend on the frequency and the difference and sum frequency of the original sound waves .

From the non-linear perception of frequencies in the human ear it follows that the distance between the frequencies between two semitones is much smaller in the lower octaves than in the upper octaves ; even within an octave, the frequency interval increases from semitone to semitone, while the human ear perceives these intervals to be the same. A small change in the concert pitch a by a few Hertz results in much larger changes in the tone frequencies in the upper octaves. This can lead to audible changes in the sound character of some, especially mechanical instruments.

Furthermore, there are very noticeable differences in the bass range when comparing C major and A major , for example : The tonic root of a C major chord in the bass is around 65.4 Hertz or 130.8 Hertz, depending on the octave. In A major, this fundamental is a major sixth higher and thus, depending on the octave, 110 Hertz or 220 Hertz. This difference has a decisive effect on the character of the bass reproduction (softness, locatability). It does not matter whether a tempered or a pure tuning is used.

Association and Tradition

Beethoven's 5th Symphony , the “Fate Symphony ”, begins in C minor and ends in C major . This development “through night to light” can be found again in Brahms ' first symphony . The fact that Brahms chooses the same key combination as Beethoven is certainly not a coincidence, but a conscious association with a role model and a connection with a tradition.

The situation is similar with Weber's Freischütz , who shows amazing key parallels to Beethoven's Fidelio : as in Fidelio , in Freischütz the dark aspects and evil forces are represented by C minor and the liberating victory over them by C major; the heroically loving enthusiasm that Beethoven expresses in the E major of the great Leonore aria finds its equivalent in Weber in the E major of the exuberant aria of Agathe.

critic

Renowned musicians have denied over the centuries that the keys have different characters. Johann David Heinichen, for example, in his standard work The Generalbass in Composition , published in 1728, is convinced that the effect of a piece of music only depends on the ingenuity of the composer; The choice of key is determined by his preferences, the need for modulation to avoid boredom and the possibilities of the performers.

Moritz Hauptmann , Eduard Hanslick and others expressed similar opinions in the 19th century . In general, the critics refer to and invalidate the arguments of the proponents of the teaching:

With the equally tempered tuning there are no longer any differences in the structure of the keys on different basic tones. This means that there can be no differences in sound or character.

Critics see the characters' argument through the different instrumentation as not belonging to the essence of the key.

The different function in relation to the zero point in C major can only be heard relatively if one has previously heard another key as a comparison.

The pitch of the tuning pitch used to be inconsistent for a long time and has often fluctuated in the history of music.

Confessions

Haydn , Mozart , Beethoven, Schubert tried to express the character of certain keys in words. For D major and E major they postulated :

key	Haydn	Mozart	Beethoven	Schubert
D major	Praise, majestic, warlike		vigorous, march, longing, pain
E major	Death thoughts	unearthly, especially sublime, sacred	solemn, religious, inwardly	God tone, love

Note: Mozart tuning older around 1800 421 Hz, 1850 Wiener a. Berlin tuning 422 Hz (almost a semitone below 440 Hz).

literature

Johann Mattheson : The newly opened orchestra. Hamburg 1713
Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg : Experiment about the musical temperature. Korn, Breslau 1776 ( online ).
Georg Joseph Vogler : Expression (musical). In: Deutsche Encyclopaedie or Allgemeines Real = dictionary of all arts and sciences […]. Volume 2: As - Bar. Varrentrapp and Wenner, Frankfurt am Main 1779.
Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart : Ideas for the aesthetics of music. Degen, Vienna 1806 (created 1784/85; online ).
Georg Christoph Kellner: Something about tones and keys. In: Carl Friedrich Cramer (Hrsg.): Magazin der Musik. 2nd year, 2nd half, Hamburg 1786 (January 13, 1787), ZDB -ID 223341-1 , pp. 1185-1190.
Ferdinand Gotthelf Hand: Aesthetics of Tonkunst. Leipzig 1837
Rudolf Wustmann : Key symbolism in Bach's time. In: Bach yearbook. 8th vol., 1911, pp. 60-74 ( online ).
Hermann Stephani: The character of the keys (= German Music Library, Volume 41). Gustav Bosse, Regensburg 1923.
Hermann Beckh : On the spiritual nature of the keys. Attempt to re-examine musical problems in the light of spiritual science. 2nd increased and improved edition. Preuss & Jünger, Breslau 1925.
Werner Lüthy: Mozart and the key characteristics (= collections of musicological treatises, volume 3). Heitz & Cie., Strasbourg 1931.
Hermann Beckh : The language of the key in music from Bach to Bruckner . 3rd edition, unchanged, photomechanical reprint of the 1st edition 1937. Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-87838-215-4 .
Géza Révész : The key characteristic. In: Introduction to Music Psychology, pp. 134–145, Francke, Bern / Munich 1946.
Paul Mies: The character of the keys. An investigation. Staufen-Verlag, Cologne / Krefeld 1948.
Heiner Ruhland: A way to expand the life of the clay. Musical tonology on the monochord. Verlag Die Pforte, Basel 1981, ISBN 3-85636-060-3 .
Wolfgang Auhagen : Studies on key characteristics in theoretical writings and compositions from the late 17th to the beginning of the 20th century. Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1983, ISBN 3-8204-7308-4 ( European university publications . Series 36: Musicology 6; also: Univ. Diss., Göttingen).

Alfred Stenger: Aesthetics of the Keys. Characterizations of musical landscapes. Florian Noetzel Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 2005, ISBN 3-7959-0861-2 .

Ursula Wilhelm: "C major is cheerful and pure" - On key characteristics in music history II. In: Württemberg sheets for church music. 4, 2006, ISSN 0177-6487 , p. 10 ff.

Web links

References and comments

↑ cf. The different effects of major and minor

↑ ^a ^b ^c Reinhard Amon: Lexicon of the theory of harmony . 2nd Edition. Doblinger, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-902667-56-4 , pp. 294 ff .

↑ Mattheson: The newly opened Orchester , p. 232.

^ Hector Berlioz: Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modern. Schonenberger, Paris 1844, here p. 33 (digitized version).
German edition: Hector Berlioz's theory of instrumentation. Completed and revised by Richard Strauss . Two volumes. Edition Peters, Leipzig 1905; here volume 1, p. 61 f. (Digitized version).

↑ The characterization of C major as "dull and cloudy" is unusual and irritating, since C major is generally characterized as clear, pure and radiant. The difficulty of the translation could have had an effect here. In the original French text, the two adjectives are sourd and terne . A better translation (see sourd and terne at pons.com) might have been: “dull and colorless”, meaning “without a special timbre, simple, bland”.

↑ Andrea Gaugusch: Absolute Tonality or The Absolute Hearing for Non-Absolute Listeners. Diploma thesis, University of Vienna 1999, p. 47

↑ Wolfgang Auhagen : Studies on key characteristics in theoretical writings and compositions from the late 17th to the beginning of the 20th century. Frankfurt am Main 1983, p. 478 f.

↑ Gaugusch 1999, p. 43

[1] . The different effects of major and minor

[Amon-2] Reinhard Amon: Lexicon of the theory of harmony . 2nd Edition. Doblinger, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-902667-56-4 , pp. 294 ff .

[3] Mattheson: The newly opened Orchester , p. 232.

[Berlioz/Strauss-4] Hector Berlioz: Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modern. Schonenberger, Paris 1844, here p. 33 (digitized version).
German edition: Hector Berlioz's theory of instrumentation. Completed and revised by Richard Strauss . Two volumes. Edition Peters, Leipzig 1905; here volume 1, p. 61 f. (Digitized version).