# which key can I modulate to from A minor?



## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

Which key shall I modulate to from A minor at measure 11. This piece is supposed to sound like dramatic baroque music as that was the task I have been set from my school.

I have used a circle of fifths so I can modulate from A minor but to which key?


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https://soundcloud.com/user305636706%2Fa-minor-ii

http://i.imgur.com/KCgMas0.png

Any ideas?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

In Baroque music, you'll typically modulate to the relative major, C. You can treat other notes as temporary tonics perhaps, with secondary dominants and all, but it will sound odd for the period if you move somewhere other than C major.


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## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

Mahlerian said:


> In Baroque music, you'll typically modulate to the relative major, C. You can treat other notes as temporary tonics perhaps, with secondary dominants and all, but it will sound odd for the period if you move somewhere other than C major.


That's what I initially thought but I have listened to well known pieces from Bach and Vivaldi in which they modulate to many, many keys. A key could start in A minor, then a couple of measures on, an F# is introduced, then a G# then D# etc and before I know it, I am lost in a lot of ambiguity. This is what I don't understand.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Gondur said:


> That's what I initially thought but I have listened to well known pieces from Bach and Vivaldi in which they modulate to many, many keys. A key could start in A minor, then a couple of measures on, an F# is introduced, then a G#. Then a D#. This is what I don't understand.


Those are the most common accidentals you'll find in a minor key piece. You'll have a D# leading to E as part of a II-V-i progression in A. As for F# and G#, they are part of the normal A melodic minor ascending scale. Baroque (or other Common Practice Classical) pieces will not stick to the so-called "natural" minor, and at all cadences, you will use the sharpened 6th and 7th degrees to produce a fuller cadence ("modal" aeolian cadences tend to have an inconclusive, floating quality to them).

Just because you're using accidentals doesn't mean you're in a different key, necessarily. Modulation means that the center of gravity shifts from one central triad to another, and you can introduce any given pitch (even something as distant as b-flat, say) and still not deviate from A minor as your home key.


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## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

Mahlerian said:


> Those are the most common accidentals you'll find in a minor key piece. You'll have a D# leading to E as part of a II-V-i progression in A. As for F# and G#, they are part of the normal A melodic minor ascending scale. Baroque (or other Common Practice Classical) pieces will not stick to the so-called "natural" minor, and at all cadences, you will use the sharpened 6th and 7th degrees to produce a fuller cadence ("modal" aeolian cadences tend to have an inconclusive, floating quality to them).
> 
> Just because you're using accidentals doesn't mean you're in a different key, necessarily. Modulation means that the center of gravity shifts from one central triad to another, and you can introduce any given pitch *(even something as distant as b-flat, say) and still not deviate from A minor as your home key*.


Which reminds me of






Look at measure 6!


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