Key Characteristics, Which, How, Why.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oboeists often insist that they DO tune to 440 but all you have to do is to look at a harpist when an orchestra is tuning to see if that's the case or not !

Of course oboists tune to A = 440. Nowadays they use electronic tuning devices for this purpose. As for harpists - I recently played the oboe in a performance of Rutter's Requiem. We tried tuning to A = 440, the harpist included. Unfortunately the late-arriving organist then made this impossible owing to that instrument being otherwise tuned, so the poor harpist had to start again. I had much trouble playing deliberately out of tune in "The Lord is my Shepherd".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Going back to keys etc, I do not have a good sense of pitch sufficient to hear and recognise a specific "key" but I do seem to be able to get Eflat reliably when I hear it. If that, why not others?

Is your singing voice a Bass-baritone, by any chance, Gordon? I ask, because Eb is also "my" key - the one I can imagine most clearly before a work begins - and mine's a Bass-baritone voice. I've often wondered if there is a connection.

While we're at it what about chords? I suppose that musicians out there reliably get Picardy Thirds and augmented ninths as if they were dominant sevenths [which I can usually get!]?

I'm not sure what you mean here, Gordon. A "Picardy Third" often/usually appears at the end of a piece - to hear it as a Dominant Seventh at this point would be a bit disconcerting. Ninth chords often sound like "sexed-up" Dominant Sevenths, and the Augmented Ninth (depending on context, of course - what happens before and next in the Music: different, still, if the Musicians decide to base an entire piece on this one chord!) can sound more like an appogiatura of the Third of the Dominant Seventh. It depends if a listener can hear/identify the Root of the chord, and how they're used to the Music in which it appears. Played as a "Blues chord", it sets up different expectations from those in, say, a work by Strauss.

Augmented Sixth chords are another case: my Harmony teacher introduced these to me as Modulations with Interrupted cadences, before going over the "National variants" (Neapolitan, German, French, Italian, Swiss).

[BBMmk2]

That's true, but even then, the quality of notes can vary (a little) depending on how much extra plumbing is brought into play.

Which reminds me - the OP specifically linked E-flat with martial music. Well, the most common military trumpets of the 18th century were pitched in E-flat, so that their addition to your orchestra predetermined the key. Note at the Cenotaph service every year, the Royal Marine buglers sound the Last Post (bugles in B-flat) to be answered by the RAF playing Reveille (cavalry trumpets in E-flat). It was Walford Davies as first Director of Music chose cavalry trumpets for the RAF, to be different.

Ah right, for instance, with Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, as well.

[Gordon]

Is your singing voice a Bass-baritone, by any chance, Gordon? I ask, because Eb is also "my" key - the one I can imagine most clearly before a work begins - and mine's a Bass-baritone voice. I've often wondered if there is a connection.


I'm not sure what you mean here, Gordon. A "Picardy Third" often/usually appears at the end of a piece - to hear it as a Dominant Seventh at this point would be a bit disconcerting. Ninth chords often sound like "sexed-up" Dominant Sevenths, and the Augmented Ninth (depending on context, of course - what happens before and next in the Music: different, still, if the Musicians decide to base an entire piece on this one chord!) can sound more like an appogiatura of the Third of the Dominant Seventh. It depends if a listener can hear/identify the Root of the chord, and how they're used to the Music in which it appears. Played as a "Blues chord", it sets up different expectations from those in, say, a work by Strauss.

Augmented Sixth chords are another case: my Harmony teacher introduced these to me as Modulations with Interrupted cadences, before going over the "National variants" (Neapolitan, German, French, Italian, Swiss).

I have no singing voice to "speak" of!! My parents both had good singing voices - church choir, tenor and soprano - and my father's 2 brothers did too but not me!! If anything it's in the tenor area.

I wasn't very clear about the Picardy thirds, the "as if" was misleading; I wasn't expecting them to be like dominant 7ths that usually signal a shift of harmony and often lead to a finale or recap by resolution. I am interested to know if musicians in general can spot these "named" chords in a piece. I can hear shifts of harmony but have no idea what the chords might be. At the piano I can try out say simple things like inversions of triads but although at the time I can hear the difference if I heard them in a piece of music I'm not sure that I could then. Possibly a matter of aural memeory or perhaps I just need more ear training!!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I have no singing voice to "speak" of!! My parents both had good singing voices - church choir, tenor and soprano - and my father's 2 brothers did too but not me!! If anything it's in the tenor area.

Ah, well; another ferneytheory bites the dust.

I wasn't very clear about the Picardy thirds, the "as if" was misleading; I wasn't expecting them to be like dominant 7ths that usually signal a shift of harmony and often lead to a finale or recap by resolution. I am interested to know if musicians in general can spot these "named" chords in a piece. I can hear shifts of harmony but have no idea what the chords might be. At the piano I can try out say simple things like inversions of triads but although at the time I can hear the difference if I heard them in a piece of music I'm not sure that I could then. Possibly a matter of aural memeory or perhaps I just need more ear training!!

Aural training is one of the most difficult things to teach, and something that students (and their teachers)dread most. It can be very unsystemically taught (and there's no "single" system of teaching it that I know of), usually begins far too late in a student's life and is too frequently completely divorsed from his/her performing and listening experience. I've witnessed Music students who are able to spot and correct mistakes in rhythm and intonation "without" (consciously) thinking about such matters, but who cannot replicate their abilities on paper.

Identifying (if the performers play a chord correctly, we all hear it; it's a question of naming it) such harmonic subtleties as you mention is a matter of practice and can be as straightforward as spotting shades of colour - part of the problem is that "Dominant minor ninth in second inversion going to an Interrupted cadence with a Picardy third" doesn't roll off the tongue as readily as "crimson and teal". There's also the "don't panic" factor - it's easier if you want to learn this stuff than it is if you have to: you're more relaxed, and concentrating on the sound, rather than your expectation to get it wrong.

But people do get very pleased when they can identify features - you'll notice Music students at concerts: they're the ones giving each other knowing glances when Dominant preparations and tierces des Picardy appear.