DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

KEY KEY 569
accidental AYhich "will give the necessary semitone
between the seventh and eighth degi-ees of
the scale. Similarly, D being relatively the
same distance from G that G is from C, the
same process will have to be gone through again
to assimilate the scale starting from D to that
starting from C. So that each time a fifth
higher is chosen for a keynote a fresh accidental
or sharp has to be added immediately below
that note, and the nnraber of sharps can always
be told by counting the number of fifths which
it is necessary to go through to arrive at
that note, beginning from the normal C. Thus
C— G, G— D, D— A, A—E is the series of
four -fifths necessary to be gone through in
passing from C to E, and the number of sharps
in the key of E is therefore four.
Conversely, if notes be chosen in a descending
series of fifths, to present new keynotes it will
be necessary to flatten the fourth note of the
new key to bring the semitone between the third
and fourth degrees ; and by adopting a similar
jirocess to that given above, the number of flats
necessary to assimilate the series for any new
keynote can be told by the number of fifths
passed through in a descending series fi'om the
normal C.
In the ilinor Mode the most important and
universal characteristic is the occurrence of the
semitone between the second and third instead
of between the third and fourth degrees of the
scale, thereby making the interval between the
keynote and the third a minor third instead of
a major one, from which peculiarity the term
'
' minor arises. In former days it was customary
to distinguish the modes from one another by
speaking of the keynote as having a greater or
lesser third, as in Boyce's ' Collection of Cathedral
Music,' where the Services are described as in
' the key of Bi> with the greater third '
or in
'the key of T> with the lesser third,' and so
forth. The modifications of the upper part of
the scale which accompany this are so variable
that no rule for the distribution of the intervals
can be given. The opposite requirements of
harmony and melody in relation to voices and
instruments will not admit of any definite form
being taken as the absolute standard of the
minor mode ; hence the Signatures, or representative
gToups of accidentals, which are given
for the minor modes, are really in the nature of
a compromise, and are in each case the same as
that of the major scale of the note a minor
third above the keynote of the minor scale.
Such scales are called relatives—relative major
and relative minor—because they contain the
greatest rmmber of notes in common. Thus A,
the minor third below C, is taken as the normal
key of the minor mode, and has no signature ;
and similarly to the distribution of the
major mode into keys, e.ach new keynote which
is taken a fifth liigher will require a new sharp,
and each new keynote a fifth lower will require
a new flat. Thus E, the fifth above A, will have
the signature of one sharp), corresponding to the
key of the major scale of G ;
and D, the fifth
below A, will have one flat, corresponding to
the key of the major scale of F, and so on. The
new sharji in the former case falls on the supertonic
of the new kej' so as to bring the semitone
between the second and third degrees of the
scale, and the new flat in the latter case falls
on the submediant of the new key so as to bring
a semitone between the fifth and sixth degrees.
The fact that these signatures for the minor
mode are only approximations is, however,
rendered obvious by their failing to pirovide for
the leading note, which is a necessity in modern
music, and requires to he expressly marked
wherever it occurs, in contradiction to the
signature.
There is a very common opinion that the tone
and ert'ect of dirt'erent keys is characteristic, and
Beethoven himself has given some confirmation
to it by several utterances to the point. Thus
in one ptlace ^ ' he \vrites H moll schwarze
Tonart, ' i.e. B minor, a black key ; and, in
spieaking about Klopstock,"- says that he is
' always Maestoso !
Dt>
! major ' In a letter to
Thomson!! ^f Edinburgh (Feb. 19, 1S13),
speaking of two national songs sent him to-
have written them in
arrange, he says, ' You
±^
£b ' but as that key seemed to me un-
natural, and so little consistent with the direction
Amoroso that on the contrary it would
change it into Barlaresco (qu'au contraire il le
changerait en Barbaresco), I have set the song
in the suitable key. ' This is singular, considering
his own compositions in the key of four
flats, neither of which can justly be entitled
barbaresco. Composers certainly seem to have
had piredilections for particular keys, and tohave
cast movements in particular st3'les in
special keys. If the system of equal temperament
were perfectly carried out, the difierence
would be less apparent than it is ; but with
unequal temperament, or when the tuner doesnot
distribute the tempering of the fifths with
absolute equality in instruments of fixed intona-
tion, there is necessarily a considerable difierence
between one key and another. With stringed
instruments the sonority of the key is considerably
affected by the number of open stringswhich
occur in it, and their position as
important notes of the scale. Berlioz has given
a complete scheme of his views of the qualities
of the keys for violins in his Treats d'lnstrv
mentation. With keyed instruments a
good deal of the difference results from the
position of the hands and technical considera-
tions resulting therefrom. A real difference
1 In a sket^^ll for TiolonceUo Sonata, op. 1(K. No. 2. quoted by
Nottebohm.
2 In a conversation with Rochlitz iPiir Frcnnde dcr Tonkuntt,
It. 3561.
3 Given by Thayer, iii. 45.
2o