Key Matters - Exploring their Moods.

[mercia]

apparently this is the third series of this series. back in February we had A major, E minor and C sharp major. presumably eventually all keys will have been covered.

[MrGongGong]

There was another one...E major...just now. Have to take issue with the statement that 'we are all born with perfect pitch'. Unless an A440 fork is pressed to all mothers' abdomens at frequent pre-natal intervals this is unlikely. There is no universal 'A' floating out there among the spheres! Good programme though.

Won't work for the HIPPsters
or most orchestras

[ardcarp]

apparently this is the third series of this series. back in February we had A major, E minor and C sharp major. presumably eventually all keys will have been covered.

...and maybe we'll get a Book II

[ostuni]

[Panjandrum]

I'm surmising it was not Ivan Hewett's choice to play the old Deep Purple Classic "Smoke Over Water" as an illustration of contemporary pop music's use of G minor.

[MrGongGong]

"Smoke Over Water"

never heard of it ?

is it in dubbley ?



It's not contemporary
and it never was "pop" music

but it is a "Classic"

[VodkaDilc]

I thought today's F minor programme was a bit unbalanced. He spent a lot of timing demonstrating that the third note of the scale sounded weird on pre-equal temperament harpsichords and then suddenly leapt forward to one of Lloyd Webber's early songs, with a bit of a digression back to Beethoven's piano sontatas.

Another thing: can we be clear that the presenter is Ivan Hewett? I am sure that I have heard him introduced as HewLETT several times. Perhaps my hearing's at fault.

[Panjandrum]

never heard of it ?

is it in dubbley ?



It's not contemporary
and it never was "pop" music

but it is a "Classic"

Shall I ask FF to introduce a big irony smiley to help?

[Panjandrum]

An enjoyable series.My one quibble being that none of the presenters has really tackled what it is about a key which gives it its unique characteristics.

Interesting to see that Paul Robertson has become a professor of medicine. Not surprising, I guess, when one appreciates that he was the leader of the Medici Quartet.

[MrGongGong]

An enjoyable series.My one quibble being that none of the presenters has really tackled what it is about a key which gives it its unique characteristics.

I haven't listened to all of these yet
but surely the answer today is Nothing ?

The idea that keys have characters is like our appendix , something that used to be the case BUT now within in the western classical tradition and the way in which instruments are now built there is no real difference (unless you are a singer ?) anymore. Unlike in Indian classical music where the raga characteristics have survived. As "modern" pitch is somewhat higher (a=442 being the most common you find these days and many orchestras play way sharp of this) isn't todays C major almost where B major used to be (ok, a bit of an exaggeration but you get the point !). IMV it's all to do with the dominance of "note based" as opposed to "sound based" music.


Did they do D minor before ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgViOqGJEvM

[vinteuil]

I haven't listened to all of these yet
but surely the answer today is Nothing ?

The idea that keys have characters is like our appendix , something that used to be the case BUT now within in the western classical tradition and the way in which instruments are now built there is no real difference (unless you are a singer ?)

Outside the HIPP world - we may have lost the interesting colour differences that were available in pre-equal-temperament systems : but it is still the case that different keys might sound different (even in equal temperament) on stringed instruments depending on how many and which notes are on open or stopped strings - and I imagine in the brass section certain notes are more easily generated as 'pure' while others require a bit of fudging to get them 'right' for an equal-tempered scale - and this may in turn 'colour' the different keys in which the instruments play.

[Serial_Apologist]

I wonder what mood atonality is in..........

[MrGongGong]

Outside the HIPP world - we may have lost the interesting colour differences that were available in pre-equal-temperament systems : but it is still the case that different keys might sound different (even in equal temperament) on stringed instruments depending on how many and which notes are on open or stopped strings - and I imagine in the brass section certain notes are more easily generated as 'pure' while others require a bit of fudging to get them 'right' for an equal-tempered scale - and this may in turn 'colour' the different keys in which the instruments play.

Yes this is true to a point but the whole trajectory of instrument building in the western classical tradition has been to iron out any " inconsistencies" instead of treausuring them as happens in shakuhachi music (for example)

[Sir Velo]

This series is back on Radio 4 Extra. Only 15 minutes per episode, and some inevitable glossing over the subject matter but some interesting guests and musical choices which are worth listening to. I particularly enjoyed the episode on D Minor where IH's guest was sceptical about whether certain keys had a particular character: "you might feel D minor is heroic and weighty but it's extremely subjective". Hewett's summation of the discussion: " As we have seen each key has a definite mood of its own". I was also nonplussed by the continuity announcer's trailer for the programme on B Flat: "A key that can be both melancholic and sunny". Er, right.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00b6x4s