 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Rachel
Date: 2003-11-27 23:51
Composers: When you compose tonal music, do you treat different keys differently. I find that in when I am composing in the different keys that I will tend to use different melodies, chord progressions and instruments for each one. Does anyone else do this?
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-11-28 01:12
I compose, but as the compositions are formed in my head BEFORE I put pen to paper (or, more correctly MIDI to computer to notation software) it's all a fait acompli (sp?). I have no regard for the key, as such, as I know (perfect pitch) what key it's "born in".
For me the actual physical writting down of the score is the most tedious part of the process (though - mercifully quick given today's technology).
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
Post Edited (2003-12-02 02:58)
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Author: Rachel
Date: 2003-11-30 23:25
I have perfect pitch, too, so the key is automatic. I don't think "ok, this is x key, so I will do this", I usually realise halfway through the song that I am falling into my usual patterns.
Writing music down is tedious, but software is great.
Do you have any favourite keys? Mine are Eb, Ab, Db major, A and E major, C, G and Eb minor.
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-11-30 23:29
I favour the flat side (especially like G flat major) but my absolute favourite key is A major.
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Author: Rachel
Date: 2003-11-30 23:33
Do you hear differences between keys? I hear the sharp keys as brighter, and the flat keys as darker and more mellow. I also associate colours with keys- flats tend to be blues, purples and blacks and sharps tend to be yellows, greens, oranges and browns.
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2003-12-01 01:09
Rachel-- Your last comment brings to mind an article in last week's Newsweek about people that have senses that are tied together. For example, hearing different tones might cause them to see different colors. Although I assume you weren't talking about literally seeing the colors, it was hypothesized that a weaker version of this connection exists in all of us, allowing us to apply adjectives describing one sense to another as you were doing. Other examples might be "dark" and "bright" tones, etc.
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Author: Todd W.
Date: 2003-12-01 23:54
Don --
Do you have a date and page on that article, or a title?
Todd W.
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-12-02 00:17
Arthur Bliss - a sadly neglected British composer - wrote a very interesting work whilst he was Master of the Queen's Music: The Colour Symphony. Only a handful of recordings available (one good one on Naxos). It's a delightful work - very intense and very suggestive - I own a study score and his orchestration is very lucid - rather reminds of Ravel but with a British bent.
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Author: Rachel
Date: 2003-12-02 00:56
Diz- don't you think it's interesting that we both favour the flat keys AND
A major, which is very definitely a sharp key?
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-12-02 02:30
Rachel ... extraordinary - next we'll be discussing the benefits of eating carbohydrates before noon?
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2003-12-02 02:37
Personally, I don't have perfect pitch. I've written a fair number of pieces, and I tend to revise and change them so much that things rarely stay in the key I started in so i find that the key doens't really matter to me. I have never written an entire piece in my head... maybe I'm just not talented enough. I usually have an idea, start working it out, then get a bunch of new ideas and things end up going in a completely different direction (that's the fun part for me, anyway).
I'm not saying there is no difference between the keys, but I personally don't worry about it too much.
Don Hite
theclarinetist@yahoo.com
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2003-12-02 13:38
I didn't see the Newsweek article, but the phenomenon referred to is called synaesthesia. (Or synesthesia to our ex-colonial friends.)
Its association with perfect pitch has been quite widely studied. Try a Google search on:
(synaesthesia OR synesthesia) ("perfect pitch" OR "absolute pitch")
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2003-12-02 19:18
The Newsweek article on synesthesia is in the Dec. 1, 2003 issue on page 67.
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