Klarinet Archive - Posting 001405.txt from 1998/04

From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Subj: A KEY FOR KLEZMER MUSIC
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 19:19:06 -0400

A key for playing music

We have a newspaper called Globe and Mail. On the back page of the first
section, they have a column called "collective Wisdom"
It contains all kinds of questions about this and that, and also various
bits of information.
A few weeks ago there was an item about the various keys that composers
write in. The major keys sound more aggressive and the Minor keys more
or less subdued.

This morning there was an item in the "Collective Wisdom" that ran as
follows:
Rick Goldmanm, clarinetist and leader of the Bagg Street Klezmer band
in Montreal writes:

"Although Jazz is written in four keys, it may of interest to note that
Klezmer music, traditional Jewish Music from Eastern Europe-goes a step
further putting almost all its tunes in the one key: D minor.
While it may be explained that D minor is described as a "grief" key, I
strongly suspect it evolved as a favorite because it is a minor key that
falls well on the clarinet, generally the leading instrument in the
genre.
Whatever musicologists say, heavy reliance on this key had led to the
only joke in the klezmer repertoire:For you, D minor is a key, for us
it's living,"

Avrahm Galper
THE UPBEAT BAERMANN SCALES AND ARPEGGIOS
http://www.sneezy.org/avrahm_galper/index.html

   
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