Klarinet Archive - Posting 000369.txt from 2000/10

From: Anne Bell <bell@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] All keys are not the same
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000 10:05:18 -0400

First we have to be careful! Aristotle wasn't talking about our system of
keys. From what I remember early Greek music had a different system built
from the "tonic" down rather than up. They also weren't evenly tempered or
necessarily what we think of as half and whole steps anyway! If you don't
think the "key" can have an emotional effect consider listening to a
violinist who has decided that E is really a quarter tone above what you
accept an E and plays F in la/la land. Check out your emotional response!
Seriously though maybe it is because of the way we hear perfect intervals
that when a piece has a prolonged departure from them that we feel
uncomfortable and when it is reinforced we feel at ease. I guess I'm
applying consonance vs. dissonance to a whole mode rather than just the
composition of a piece.

Best Wishes,
Anne

At 06:00 PM 10/7/00 EDT, you 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
>

*********************************************************************
Anne Bell bell@-----.net
Bayside HS Orchestra Director
ABC Index: http://www.anne-bell.sneezy.org/ MUSIC LINKS!
*********************************************************************

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