Klarinet Archive - Posting 000360.txt from 2000/10

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] All keys are not the same
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 19:23:20 -0400

Susan, I remind you that Aristotle said many, many things which did not
make sense even at the time he said them, and are less valuable today.
So his assertions about the emotions of keys are something I have always
ignored as being neither provable nor, probably, true.

I bumped up against Aristotle only a few weeks ago because I was
researching this history of money lending in Eastern France. And I
found out that money lending was considered both immoral and unnatural
precisely because of Aristotle's views on the matter. Those same views
influenced church thinking which, combined with biblical arguments
against lending money at interest, resulted in a ban on the act for
close to 19 centuries.

Aristotle said that, unlike land and labor which can both be used to
make money, the act of lending money to make it was unnatural and
immoral. Money was a dead substance that could not reproduce.

So shaking Aristotle at me does not have much influence, probably to my
loss. His views on science slowed down the development of Europe for a
millenium at least.

SDSCHWAEG@-----.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 10/7/00 1:12:44 PM Central Daylight Time,
> leeson0@-----.net writes:
>
> << I think the human reaction to keys and modes is a social phenomenon not
> a factual one. I think that there was a time that keys with lots of
> sharps in them were considered happy, and keys with lots of flats were
> considered sad, but that was also a social phenomenon too.
>
> The idea that minor keys are used for one emotion and major keys for
> another is a romantic idea, but not established at all to be a true
> one. How anyone reacts to a minor key is a very personal issue, not one
> inherent in the key or mode itself. >>
>
> Okay, I can't find the book to back me up, but I seem to remember from
> Educational Psychology that Plato (or was it Aristotle?) believed that there
> was something inherent in each key or mode that caused people to react in a
> particular way to music written in that mode. Therefore, music written in a
> mode that inspired feelings of patriotism (I think it was Dorian?) was
> appropriate for children to listen to, because it would help form their
> characters so they would grow up to be good citizens. I can't remember which
> mode was supposed to inspire debauchery, but that music was supposed to be
> inappropriate for children. I'm not arguing that this is true, but merely
> saying that apparently the idea that moods or feelings are inherent in
> particular keys has been around for a long time. It also raises another
> question, about whether or not the type of music one listens to can have a
> formative effect on one's character, regardless of what key it's written in.
> (Or perhaps I'm remembering all of this wrong? I hated Educational
> Psychology!)
> Susan Schwaegler
>
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--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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