The name of Franz Schubert might not mean a lot of you. And that's ok! The most important thing you need to know about him is that he is one of the most prolific composers of ALL TIME. I mean he's up there with Bach and Beethoven (that everyone seems to know these days...). Over the course of his life, from 1797-1828, he wrote a thousand pieces of music and a lot of them are considered the best. Ever. So before we go any farther I would like to say that this source is very validated. If you disagree, well. You're wrong. For this blog post I would like to compare and contrast the different KEY SIGNATURES and what they "mean". If you don't know what key signatures are, this blog post isn;t for you by the way. I'm taking this from Schubert's Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst. If you plug this into Google Translate you get something along the lines of the ideas for the aesthetics of music. For those of you that don't know (it's ok neither did I) the word aesthetics means pleasing in beauty and art form. Check out the link below.
http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html
(every time you see � it just means ï)
In this link you will see how Schubert characterizes each key signature. I would like to compare and contrast what he means and break it down. Our first CONTRAST between all of these key signatures is Major and Minor. I could give an answer like.... the crucial difference is that in the minor scale there is only a half step between the second and third tones as compared to the major scales where the difference between third and fourth note and between the seventh and the eighth note is half. But maybe you're not sure what that means. And what's incredible about this concept is that this is about the only concrete thing you can find. People frequently think of minor scales sound "sad" and major scales sound "happy". While this is sometimes true, we can still have minor scales that sound "happy" and major scales that sound "sad". (If you want some examples this website should help... http://www.exploratorium.edu/music/questions/sadMusic.html).
Schubert does an incredible job exampling the "stereotypes", if you will, about each key signature. All of these signatures have a lot in common but it's also important that as you go up chromatically (C Major, C Minor, C# Major, C# Minor, D Major, etc) that from one key to the next they don't have a lot of common (yes, I did just use a comparison to explain a contrast). As you can see, from C Major to C# major we go from "Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, na�vety, children's talk." (C Major) to "A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least grimace its crying.--Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key." (C# Major). This two keys have NOTHING IN COMMON but they are so close together! How can two things that are that close not have the same "ideas and characteristics" (just ask the President and Congress...).
My overarching point from this is that music is abstract. You can get a definition for it, but it doesn't mean something. Only when we hear something can we truly feel something. You don't feel sad watching Marly die in Marly and Me, you get sad because of that F# Minor key signature that tugs at your heart. Try watching that scene with no volume and I bet that those tears aren't gonna happen. And while Schubert is a musical genius (one of the best ever) we all hear these keys played in different manors and styles. A song I am playing for my Wind Symphony is titled Aegean Festival Overture and while it is in the key of C, it has characteristics of D and Bb major. And that's what makes music beautiful.
"If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music."
- Thomas Carlye
I loved the title. It intrigued me to read more, but the set up is a little daunting. You should break it up into little paragraphs and add a picture to look at. I love the last paragraph where you mention that if you watch a movie with no music you won't get as much emotion. I want to try that now. Over all, it's a very interesting blog post.
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ReplyDeleteI really like the point you made about how characteristically sad music is what makes us feel grief in situations such as watching a sad scene in a movie and that it's not the scene its the music that makes us sad. It challenges the reader to go out and try it and prove or disprove your point. Avoid assumptions because I reader who doesn't play music may feel differently about it that those who do. Be careful about wording because at times it seemed like the reader was being told that they wouldn't understand what you are saying. I wouldn't assume that just let them make sense of it as they read.
ReplyDeleteI like how you wrote this with a lot of personality within the writing. It made the blog post more interesting and entertaining to read.I also really like the topic and how you explored this topic by studying significant composers. However, I felt like the title of this blog post was a little misleading. The blog post didn't clearly answer why people like a certain type of music. It touched upon it in the last paragraph but I think it could have been more clear.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post. It was an interesting way to look at music. I was able to enjoy it because I could follow what you were talking about, but everyone might not be in the same position as me. You should maybe try to make your next post more open to people who are unfamiliar with music so that they too can learn instead of shutting them out.
ReplyDeleteYou've done great with your explanation of characteristic of major and minor key, but don't you think it'll be more great if you could provide example how those keys sounds like?
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