Several questions about musical keys

[barnowl]

Why do we have so many — majors, various types of Minors, and og knows what else?

Minor keys, I'm told, can impart sadness or an emotion along that line. But happiness isn't necessarily imbued in Major Keys, I should think.

And what's so mournful about Grieg's Piano Concerto. That's in A minor, if I remember correctly, and I find nothing gloomy about it. (Am I supposed to?)

Some composer seemed to have favored certain keys. Has any one of them ever criticized  for having written something in the "wrong key"? (If yes, I would find that very funny for some reason.)

Do you recognize the key when you hear some of the music? If you do, how do you do that?

If your answer to all of this is an impatient, "Study some music theory before you ask dumb questions," I'll be happy to compy. In fact, anticipating that, I went first to...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=br_ss_hs/102-1236051-9155302?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&keywords=Music+Theory&Go.x=3&Go.y=6&Go=Go

...and while there checked out some MT books.  I'm leaning toward Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory,  and/or the Idiot's Guide. Would you recommend them or any others on that page? Maybe you have an even better book in mind?

[tyler_johnson]

Greetings forum, this is my first post.  I'll try to shed some knowledge on this topic.

To answer your first question, musical keys aren't man made.  They would exist without the rules we have given them.  The reason we call it a "major" scale as opposed to a "minor" scale is because of the sound difference between the intervals in that scale. 

For instance, on the piano, if you bang out a C octave in the left hand and play in the right hand: C and E together, then D and F together, then E and G together, this sounds nice.  Nice and happy. 

Now if you were to bang out that same C octave, and play C and Eb together, then D and F together, then Eb and G together, it puts you in a different mindset.  It's not as happy and cheerful sounding as the "major" counter-part.

Happiness isn't exactly imbued in Major keys, there are plenty of sad songs in major keys, but there aren't as many happy songs in minor keys, so in my opinion, the major key is more versatile.

Grieg's Piano Concerto is more epic than mournfoul I would say.  With the strong and energetic intro, in A minor, it puts the listener in a mood of "Well, I know i'm not in for a Mozart Sonata."

There is no "wrong" key.  Any song can be in any key.  When I compose, I either come up with a melody in my head and don't know what key it was in until I sit down at the piano, or I improvise on a melody at the piano, regardless of key, and work it into a song.  It's all about comfort of hands.  I think Mozart's K 545 would be rather ridiculous to be written in B major rather than C major, because of ease-of-finger passaging.

And major and minor are easy to differenciate.  Play a C Major chord on the piano, then play an F# minor key, and you will notice the difference in mood.

[barnowl]

Thank you tyler_johnson.

I printed your reply, to try the things you suggested
later on.

[allchopin]

To answer your first question, musical keys aren't man made.  They would exist without the rules we have given them.  The reason we call it a "major" scale as opposed to a "minor" scale is because of the sound difference between the intervals in that scale. 

For instance, on the piano, if you bang out a C octave in the left hand and play in the right hand: C and E together, then D and F together, then E and G together, this sounds nice.  Nice and happy. 

Now if you were to bang out that same C octave, and play C and Eb together, then D and F together, then Eb and G together, it puts you in a different mindset.  It's not as happy and cheerful sounding as the "major" counter-part.

Happiness isn't exactly imbued in Major keys, there are plenty of sad songs in major keys, but there aren't as many happy songs in minor keys, so in my opinion, the major key is more versatile.

Grieg's Piano Concerto is more epic than mournfoul I would say.  With the strong and energetic intro, in A minor, it puts the listener in a mood of "Well, I know i'm not in for a Mozart Sonata."

First of all, many scales used around the world are man-made.  Debussy was fond of the whole-tone and the #4b7scales, for instance, which are synthetic in the sense that they do not rely on mathematical constructions of consonances.  Worse yet, scales from India (roughly translated as ragas), use microtones and subtle inflections to create hundreds of different scales.

Scales that the western world is accustomed to have a feeling associated to them simply because that is what we are all raised to believe.  There is no reason why a triad with a lowered third should make you feel 'sad', but when you raise it a semitone, it becomes 'happy'.  I believe these are purely constructions of society.  We could likewise train all kids to run scared from anything circular and hot pink or become angry when tasting anything bitter, as arbitrary examples.  It seems hard to believe, but western listeners are highly trained listeners, whether they know it or not.