calamari@peg.UUCP (12/31/89)
This was just an idea I had late at night at the console and I wondered if anyone knows any more about it. What would be the psychological effect, if any, of one key from another. OK that sounds pretty dumb, I know, but think about it. I'm sure that studies have shown that any human ear can recognise specific frequencies (sort of a universal perfect pitch if you like :-) and also it's been shown that certain frequencies like high sine waves can sedate parts of the mind , even at low volume. Advertising uses that above effect, as do some TV shows. Often the "feedback hum" of the microphones they use are very sedative on the viewer and I wonder if this high frequency isn't being used almost as a drug? Consider the addictive qualities of soap operas. Perhaps it's this brain- numbing pitch that's driving everyone to drug-deprived desperation :-) Oh no Neighbours is harder to kick than Heroin! :-) Music has long used the idea of a constant pedal point. In modern music some very popular songs have a high "whine". Listen to U2's desire , or (dare I say it) Bette Midlers Wind beneath my wings. They are there, and they must be there for a purpose. In both cases they are an Eb or something like that. So therefore can certain keys be used to have different psychological effects on the listener? For example. Let's say that Eb can be sedative. Eb major would be an "addictive" key Or a piece in F# (Eb minor) (semantics aside) would have a different effect, as would C minor or any other key. So maybe G major turns you on, E major puts you off, and C# minor makes you want to kill your mother? :-) Anyway I thought I'd see if anyone else has thought about it. I guess you'll probably flame me to death like the piano guy, but WTF! J. Calamari.
boswell@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Albert Boswell) (01/06/90)
In article <136000003@peg> calamari@peg.UUCP writes: > > This was just an idea I had late at night at the console and I >wondered if anyone knows any more about it. > > What would be the psychological effect, if any, of >one key from another. OK that sounds pretty dumb, I know, but think >about it. I'm sure that studies have shown that any human ear can >recognise specific frequencies (sort of a universal perfect pitch if >you like :-) and also it's been shown that certain frequencies like >high sine waves can sedate parts of the mind , even at low volume. > I know that certain composers are attracted to different keys Beethoven loved Cm and E-flat as many of his famous works show. Mozart's favorite pathos key was Gm I have read. I'm sure modern composers also have favorite keys for whatever reason. As far as an effect on a person, that would certainly be up to the individual I would think. Who knows? Is it psy- cological or perhaps to do with the actual physical dimensions of an individual's ear? -AB
alves@aludra.usc.edu (William Alves) (01/07/90)
In article <1758@rex.cs.tulane.edu> boswell@rex.UUCP (Albert Boswell) writes: >In article <136000003@peg> calamari@peg.UUCP writes: >> >> What would be the psychological effect, if any, of >>one key from another. OK that sounds pretty dumb, I know, but think >>about it. I'm sure that studies have shown that any human ear can >>recognise specific frequencies (sort of a universal perfect pitch if >>you like :-) and also it's been shown that certain frequencies like >>high sine waves can sedate parts of the mind , even at low volume. >> > > I know that certain composers are attracted to different keys > Beethoven loved Cm and E-flat as many of his famous works show. > Mozart's favorite pathos key was Gm I have read. It is well known that many composers and theorists associated affectational or emotive qualities with certain key centers, especially in the 18th century. The trouble is, none of them could agree as to what those qualities were. It certainly seems obvious that some composers associated certain keys with similar pieces throughout their life. What is less obvious and often forgotten, though, is that these associations may not have always been based on some mystical affinity of, say, D major with festiveness or celebration (one of the most common associations found quoted in record jacket notes). For example, Bach's _Magnificat_ was written, like most of his celebratory works at Leipzig, in D major. However, an earlier version of the piece at Weimar (I believe) was in Eb. Why? Because those were the respective tunings of trumpets made by local trumpet makers in the two cities. As trumpets are most commonly used in festive pieces, D major, the most common key for the baroque trumpet, became associated with that type of work. Furthermore, as absolute pitch was not at all standardized, the actual frequency of a D might vary as much as a minor third each way depending on what city or church you were in. What was responsible for the different associations found in contemporary writers was not so much absolute pitch as the differences in tunings of the different keys. The interval of the major third, for example, would become increasingly sharp in the tonic chord of the lesser-used keys in many of the so-called "good" temperaments in use in the 18th century. This would defi- nitly change the quality of a transposed piece. Neither these tuning sys- tems nor listeners' associations with them were standardized, however, which accounts for the differences between the various writers (and composers). Today, equal temperament is standard, meaning that those intervallic dif- ferences which accounted for the extra-musical associations in the 18th century are gone. Nevertheless, people persist in applying these qualities today (sharp keys are "bright", flat keys are "dark", D major is festive, F major is pastoral, Eb major is stately). Aside from what I think is the primary answer, that these associations are not inherent in the keys but have been conditioned in that person's mind, there could be other possible answers as to why a piece transposed to another key would have a different quality: The most important difference I think, is timbre. Because of the acoustics of instruments, a Bb clarinet, for example, would have different timbres for notes transposed from a piece in Bb, say, to B. Likewise, if a piece were transposed up a fifth, the instrument might be mostly in a new register with a significantly different sound. If one were to experiment, as was suggested earlier, by speeding up the sound electronically, the timbre would also change, as anyone who has any experience with samplers knows. Formants, or areas of resonance, are very important to timbre, especially the voice, and if they are moved the timbre will change (whence the "chip- munk" effect). Bill Alves USC School of Music / Center for Scholarly Technology
briang@bari.Sun.COM (Brian Gordon) (01/09/90)
In article <1758@rex.cs.tulane.edu> boswell@rex.UUCP (Albert Boswell) writes: > I know that certain composers are attracted to different keys > Beethoven loved Cm and E-flat as many of his famous works show. > Mozart's favorite pathos key was Gm I have read. > > I'm sure modern composers also have favorite keys for whatever > reason. [...] For example, Irving Berlin composed only in F# Major. Since he wasn't that much of a pianist -- but did have the bucks -- he had himself an F# piano built (its apparent C scale was actually an F# scale). Eventually he had one as fancy as a harp, with pedals to transpose to various keys, but still stuck to F# for his own composing. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Brian G. Gordon briang@Corp.Sun.COM (if you trust exotic mailers) | | ...!sun!briangordon (if you route it yourself) | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+