# The Moods of Each Key



## bobb (Jan 4, 2007)

The Moods of Each Key | Fret Feed

The original article is a little dated(1806) but interesting:

The Moods of Each Key

By Glenn Stovall • January 6, 2009

According to classical composer Christian Schubart, each key has different moods and characteristics. Here is a translated excerpt from his 1806 publication deen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst exaplaining his thoughts on the issue:

C Major
Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children’s talk.

C Minor
Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key.

Db Major
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# Minor
Penitential lamentation, intimate conversation with God, the friend and help-meet of life; sighs of disappointed friendship and love lie in its radius.

D Major
The key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key.

D Minor
Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humours brood.

Eb Major
The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God.

D# Minor
Feelings of the anxiety of the soul’s deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depresssion, of the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key.

E Major
Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major.

E minor
Naïve, womanly innocent declaration of love, lament without grumbling; sighs accompanied by few tears; this key speaks of the imminent hope of resolving in the pure happiness of C major.
F Major
Complaisance & Calm.

F Minor
Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave.

F# Major
Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief utered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key.

F# Minor
A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language.

G Major
Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship and faithful love,–in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key.

G Minor
Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment and dislike.

Ab Major
Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius.

Ab Minor
Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this key is everything struggling with difficulty.

A Major
This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one’s state of affairs; hope of seeing one’s beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.
A minor
Pious womanliness and tenderness of character.

Bb Major
Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world.

Bb minor
A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for suicide sounds in this key.

B Major
Strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring coulors. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury, despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere.
B Minor
This is as it were the key of patience, of calm awaiting ones’s fate and of submission to divine dispensation.


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## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

Of course Dm is the saddest of all keys!


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

Maybe its because I dont have any formal music training, but I have to say that I dont hear any of that in the different keys. If you lump all the majors into one group, and the minors into another, I can certainly hear the happy vs sad. But, to say the theres a diff mood between say E Major and F#Major? I don't hear it.

But, I will attest that Dminor is the saddest of all keys:

[_Nigel is playing a soft piece on the piano_] 
*Marty DiBergi*: It's very pretty. 
*Nigel Tufnel*: Yeah, I've been fooling around with it for a few months. 
*Marty DiBergi*: It's a bit of a departure from what you normally play. 
*Nigel Tufnel*: It's part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy I'm working on in D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why. 
*Marty DiBergi*: It's very nice. 
*Nigel Tufnel*: You know, just simple lines intertwining, you know, very much like - I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it's sort of in between those, really. It's like a Mach piece, really. It's sort of... 
*Marty DiBergi*: What do you call this? 
*Nigel Tufnel*: Well, this piece is called "Lick My Love Pump".


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Strikes me as contrived, especially coming from an era when concert pitch wasn't standardized. I suggest that mood has as much to do with a combination of factors as to key, like tone, timbre, tempo, dynamics, harmony, lyric (at least in song), articulation and inflection, etc. One composer's opinions or feelings on the subject, formed by his experience, doesn't make it universal. (And, in my opinion, the guy was a bit of a pompous flake.)

Peace, Mooh.


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## lbrown1 (Mar 22, 2007)

Hamstrung said:


> Of course Dm is the saddest of all keys!


ah ya beat me to it!


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## bluesmostly (Feb 10, 2006)

fanciful imaginings and purple prose, even entertaining in a romanticized way, and certainly not uncharacteristic of the writing of the times, but wow.... this dude was baked on something and having fun with it for sure. thanks for the post Bobb


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## washburned (Oct 13, 2006)

G Major
Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship and faithful love,–in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key.

Sure sounds like a country tune to me.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

bagpipe said:


> But, to say the theres a diff mood between say E Major and F#Major? I don't hear it.


One way where there's a difference is in the voicing of the chords.
For example on a guitar changing keys can give you different voicings, so that in one key the chord progression seems to go up and in another it seems to go down. 

This can happen on other instruments as well, and when you're talking an orchestra the way each instrument adapts to the different key can cause a different sound, suggetsing a different mood.

Although this may go a bit overboard.


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## kat_ (Jan 11, 2007)

The treatise that's being quoted (in translation) is from a time when equal temperment was not so established as it is now. Schubart could have been thinking within the context of mean-tone temperment or any other system where the semitones were not all the size.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

bagpipe said:


> If you lump all the majors into one group, and the minors into another, I can certainly hear the happy vs sad.


This generally holds in Western music, yet in other cultures - traditional Celtic and Hebrew music come to mind - you get some very happy tunes in minor keys.


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## starjag (Jan 30, 2008)

Regardless of whether you agree or not, just the mental exercise of characterizing the keys in this way seems to me fascinating!


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

starjag said:


> Regardless of whether you agree or not, just the mental exercise of characterizing the keys in this way seems to me fascinating!


True enough. And I love some of the descriptions and phrasing.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

starjag said:


> Regardless of whether you agree or not, just the mental exercise of characterizing the keys in this way seems to me fascinating!





bw66 said:


> True enough. And I love some of the descriptions and phrasing.


It certainly shows some time was put into it--through voicings, and as kat pointed out--less precise temperments than we use now.

It was also probably more intended as a learning guide.
I'm sure there were composers who went against the grain on these.


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## Highphi (Mar 1, 2010)

Actually those other temperaments where more precise when it comes to the pure tuning of the harmonic ratios. It's equal temperament that is a compromised tuning. Makes it easier to mass produce keyboards and fretted instruments.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Highphi said:


> Actually those other temperaments where more precise when it comes to the pure tuning of the harmonic ratios. It's equal temperament that is a compromised tuning. Makes it easier to mass produce keyboards and fretted instruments.


True enough, though I doubt Bach was considering that as much as maintaining tuning while modulating through keys in individual pieces, or using accidentals in harmony. 

Peace, Mooh.


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

Ah I've heard of this before. This was a common way to think historically. Same with things like, if you wanted to write a story about no one in particular you named your character Guy, or if you wanted to have a warm dinner party you used oranges and reds in the decor. If you wanted a lively dance tune at a party you would yell out a key for the band to play in.


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## wayne_h (Oct 28, 2009)

This article explains how keys can have moods with well temperment
The centuries-old struggle to play in tune. - By Jan Swafford - Slate Magazine


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Cool article--I've saved it for future reference.

Here's an interesting description I like from the article.


> (However, heh-heh, there's no precise record of which well-tempered system Bach used.) Here, in a new and gorgeous harpsichord recording of the WTC by Peter Watchorn, is the prelude in Eb minor, a key virtually unheard before Bach, and one that clearly for him (and later for Beethoven) represented piercing sorrow.


This statement wraps up the original thought in this thread--or at least the descriptions of each key.


> The various kinds of meantone and well-temperament help explain why, in the 18th into 19th centuries, keys had particular emotional associations. Key descriptions of the time sound outlandish, and indeed some were on the loony side, but they were founded on the reality that in unequal temperaments each key had its distinctive color and personality.


Thanks for posting


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

wayne_h said:


> This article explains how keys can have moods with well temperment
> The centuries-old struggle to play in tune. - By Jan Swafford - Slate Magazine


Great article. THanks!


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