I came across this in my Express Newspaper this Saturday. Anything to do with mathematics and music fascinates me, so I am posting it here.
Question:
Why are the works of the great composers of yore always described as "in C sharp minor" or "in F major" or some such. What does it mean? Presumably it is the key the piece is to be played in, but what difference would it make hearing the piece performed if it was in the incorrect key?
Answer:
It's all to do with the physics of music and the vibration frequencies of the notes in a scale. Starting on any note, we can sing a scale, ending on the note an octave higher, which corresponds to a vibration frequency twice that of the note we started on.
The notes in between (Re, Mi, So, La, Te in the tonic sol-fa scale so well known to fans of The Sound Of Music) also have prescribed frequencies relative to the starting note which sound good to the ear.
The trouble is, if we start Do-Re-Mi, then begin a different scale starting on the second note Re, it's own second note will differ slightly from the Mi of the first scale. To get around this a system of tuning called "equal temperament" was introduced in the 17th century in which every semitone was the same distance from the previous one in terms of frequency.
All keys could be played but each sounded subtly different from the others because it differed slightly from the ideal. Indeed, JS Bach wrote his Well-Tempered Clavier, begun in 1722, to show how different emotions could be conveyed by different keys. In 1806 German musicologist Christian Schubart described C Major as pure and innocent, D Minor as melancholy, Eb Major as "the key of love" and so on.
End of newspaper article.
Any of you that are 'real musicians' and know your Music Theory, can you explain to me in simple terms what all this means?
My observations with playing things in particular keys are as follows:
1. When in the band as a youngster, I had to play loads of things on the piano in Bb. I gathered at the time that the reason for this was because the trumpeter (who played the melodies most of the time) had a Bb trumpet, and to him, playing in Bb was like me playing in C. No sharps or flats for him, and no complicated piston combinations to cope with. Nothing about any 'special sound' because it was being played in Bb.
2. I reckon, when playing the piano, that certain keys sound 'richer' than others (to my ear, anyway). Particularly the key of E. I know that Cliff Richard's hit 'Move It' sounds phenomenal when played in the key of E. Not the same sound when played in any other key. Is that because E is a 'richer sounding' key, or because the bottom string on a guitar is E, and therefore 'open' when played. Click this LINK to listen to the Demo. Maybe do a right-click and open it up in a New Tab.
Cliff's Move It (Demo)
I have checked with my AR organ and this is being played in the key of E.
3. Suppose I were to play something in the key of D. My organ has a TRANSPOSE button, so I could put the organ 'up' two semitones .. and play the piece in C. Which of course would 'sound' as if it were being played in D. The question is, would the piece played in C, transposed to D, sound the same as if I had played the piece in D in the first place?
4. One final comment about playing in different keys. I do this quite often, usually by actually playing something in a different key .. although sometimes I do use the 'Transpose' button so the piece 'sounds' in a key I would not normally play in. The reason for this is that when I put several songs together for eg. a CD, it would get very boring if every song was in the same key. So ringing the changes makes the CD more interesting to listen to overall.
Hugh