On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 01:39, <[email protected]> wrote:
> I wonder if this is a chicken or egg thing. Did moods get associated
> because people thought that was the correct way of doing things? Or was it the
> other way around?
>
> Once a tradition gets stuck - correct or not - people often never question
> it or really ask why.
>
> -William
The association of moods with keys goed back a long way, at least to
the Greeks.
For us it is maybe more difficult to grasp, because we're thoroughly
saturated with only major and minor scales in equal temperament, but
the scales and tuning systems used up until the romantic period all
had real and clearly audible differences between each of them. It's
only natural to associate these differences to the different feelings
that can be aroused by music.
In the case of 18th and early 19th century music there is a certain
logic, although it is hard to say if D major is associated with
festivity, royalty and war because trumpets stood mainly in that key,
or if it was the other way around. Fact is, that in most temperaments
D is one of the keys with the most in tune main intervals. ("Our" key
of F is much harder in these temperaments because some basic intervals
fall the wrong way for natural tuning)
Reversely negative affects are attributed to the keys where the
temperament cumulates in clashing and dissonant thirds, fourths and
fifths.
An overview of descriptions from the 17th century up to Berlioz:
http://www.koelnklavier.de/quellen/tonarten/_start.html
(unfortunately in French and German)
_______________________________________________
post: [email protected]
unsubscribe or set options at
https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
