Klarinet Archive - Posting 000798.txt from 2002/04
From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Temperament
Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 11:46:00 -0400
George Kidder's note addresses a very old assertion about key
characteristics and the emotions that they are suggested to strike. It
is very easy to invent a theory, and normally difficult to contradict,
even when that theory is as empty and as vacuous as this one. What makes
such situations even worse is when a large population gets to assuming
that these theories are true, this despite all evidence to the contrary.
The idea that every key had its own emotional characteristics can be
found as early as the late 1700s. Contemporaries of Mozart can be found
to comment on how this key was violent, and that key was peaceful, and
that another key was romantic. There is no evidence that Mozart
believed that and the only reason I drag his name into this is due to
the fact that the theories go back that far. Maybe earlier.
There are several significant problems with the hypothesis. First, and
perhaps most significant, is the complete absence of any objective
evidence to support it. God knows that music is an emotional roller
coaster, so when someone said "The roller coaster ride is inflenced by
the key signature," others said, "Sounds good to me."
Second, and certainly not far behind, is the suggestion that the theory
contradicts itself is specific ways.
Third, the absence of a universally agreed to emotion associated with
any particular key. That you may driven into paroxyms of happiness by A
major does not mean that anyone else in the world if affected that way
by that same key.
I want to make it clear that I am not talking about the differences
between a particular key in the tempered scale vs. that same key in the
non tempered scale. That is a physical phenomenon that can be precisely
described.
No. I am referring to the belief, for example, that C major is a "pure"
key, full of nobility. And if you want to write a work that is pure and
noble, C major is a good key to write it in.
I have tried to present this absurd argument as it was presented in the
late 1700s and continues to be presented today, but that is hard to do,
because it abraids rational thinking so severly.
George says that it was recommended that a certain work that they were
performing should not be presented a half tone or a tone lower, because,
by doing so, the emotional content of the music would be altered.
I can think of no better words to describe that assertion than absolute
and total nonsense, roughly equivalent to the view that witches sink
when dunked in water.
Any opera audience attending a performance of, for example, Il
Trovatore, awaits expectantly for the tenor aria, "Di quella pira," and
the reason for the expectation is the high C that is sung in stentorian
fashion at the end. It's a killer. Their emotions are raised to new
height when the tenor belts out "Alarmi!!!" and the high C floats on the
key signature of C major with very emotional results.
Unfortunately, what most people hear when they go to that opera is an
aria in either B-natural or B-flat, depending on the age and physical
state of the tenor. So unless someone hangs out a sign that says, "You
have not heard a high C because the entire piece was transposed down a
half [or a whole] step," no one except those with perfect pitch have any
idea that their emotions were supposed to have been catastrophically
realigned. Instead of exhaltation produced by the high C (in theory
because of the key signature of the aria), putting the piece a half tone
down introduces a key signature that was said to be morose and tragic in
the 19th century.
Go figure.
So much for that bad idea.
And it is a much more important piece of nonsense than the "nice dark
sound" that one gets when using reed X, or that a "Buffet produces the
best kind of sound," or that "ligature Z give one a nice bright
sound," etc., etc., ad nauseam, because it is a dumb idea that pervades
all of music rather than a questionable theory that affects only
clarinet players.
But this pathetically dumb idea does not stop with the assertion that
various keys portend various human emotions. It goes further to suggest
that major keys are happy, while minor keys are sad, this despite the
fact that a great deal of Bach's minor key church music present the most
uplifting and glorious emotions, not because of the key, but because the
composer knew what he was doing in any key. (So how come nobody says
that the myxolydian mode makes you "nervous"? It makes me nervous, but
so does bad pizza.)
Finally this. Pitches have been altered over time. So what was a
"pure" C major in 1800 is not at all C major today. So has its pureness
become transformed into "military music sound of D major" as pitch has
risen over time?
The things that musicians are taught when they have no gun to protect
themselves are astounding!!
Dan Leeson
George Kidder wrote:
>
> I have been wondering lately about the identification of various keys as
> "bright" or "somber", etc., as applied to music in which the basic pitches
> are set by a tempered instrument such as a piano. For instance, when it
> was suggested that my chorus sing one number written in Eb (3 b's) up a
> step in E (4 #'s), it was objected that this would make it sound "brighter"
> which was not wanted with this work. The accompaniment is to be piano
> alone, and it seems to me that a "well tempered" piano should sound the
> same in any key. That is, if we played the piece in Eb and recorded it,
> and then recorded it in E and slowed down the tape until the E was an Eb,
> you shouldn't be able to tell the difference.
>
> Am I right about this? It seems to me that this has something to do with
> clarinets, which, although we have some flexibility in pitch, are based on
> the root pitch of the instrument (Bb. A. Eb, or whatever) and, leaving
> alone the mechanical difficulties of playing in remote keys, would tend to
> be "better in tune" in their root pitches. Therefore, there would be some
> differences in pitch accuracy between a Bb and an A clarinet playing in the
> same concert key, leaving aside all of the other differences which may go
> to color tone.
>
> Comments?
>
> George Kidder
> Bar Harbor, ME
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
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