# Major or minor



## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Say you discover two new composers and each wrote one symphony. The first one wrote theirs in C minor and the second composer wrote theirs in A major, would the key signatures alone have any say in what symphony you listened to first?

I always have a tendency towards listening to minor mode music above the major key. I have a playlist on media player with all of Haydn's minor key symphonies as I find them more interesting then never ending ones in D and G major. 

Just wonder if others feel the same.


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## Gradeaundera (Jun 30, 2016)

I would listen to the one with the best rating on rottentomatoes ey matey


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Depends on the work. I much prefrer the Eroica in a major key, the Brahms Fourth in a minor one.


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## Agamemnon (May 1, 2017)

I also generally prefer the minor key work. Of course I am generalizing but I think major is typically classical (straightforward, open, lucid) and minor is typically romantic (melancholic, mysterious, deep). E.g. Mozart as a classical composer has his most works in major key but some of his later Sturm and Drang works are in minor key (e.g. Don Giovanni, piano concerto no. 20).

On Wikipedia I even found a sexist suggestion:



> In western music theory, keys, chords, and scales are often described as having major or minor tonality, sometimes related to masculine and feminine genders, especially in languages with insistent syntactical gender assignments. By analogy, the major scales are given stereotypically masculine qualities (clear, open, extroverted), while the minor scales are given stereotypically feminine qualities (dark, soft, introverted). German uses the word Tongeschlecht ("Tone gender") for tonality, and the words Dur (from Latin durus, 'hard') for major and moll (from Latin mollis, 'soft') for minor.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_and_minor


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

I love it when a major-key piece has sections that modulate into the tonic minor*. It's such an powerful way for a composer to convey loss of hope, or storminess, or mood swings...it's a technique that can take on many different expressive connotations, depending on how it's used. Given my obsession with this technique, I would probably choose the major key piece and wait with bated breath for a switch to the tonic minor!

*I'm not sure if this should actually be called a modulation or not, since it doesn't involve any change of keynote, just a change of mode. Sometimes I call it a "mood-ulation" because it usually involves a change in mood! :lol:


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Most of my favourite pieces tend to be in major keys but that would make no difference in this case. I would probably listen first to the one which was composed earlier.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

beetzart said:


> Say you discover two new composers and each wrote one symphony. The first one wrote theirs in C minor and the second composer wrote theirs in A major, would the key signatures alone have any say in what symphony you listened to first?
> 
> I always have a tendency towards listening to minor mode music above the major key. I have a playlist on media player with all of Haydn's minor key symphonies as I find them more interesting then never ending ones in D and G major.
> 
> Just wonder if others feel the same.


I incline toward the opposite, prefering the upbeat quality. Nonetheless, I also enjoy minor key works if I hear enough that sounds musically appealing.


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Bettina said:


> I love it when a major-key piece has sections that modulate into the tonic minor*. It's such an powerful way for a composer to convey loss of hope, or storminess, or mood swings...it's a technique that can take on many different expressive connotations, depending on how it's used. Given my obsession with this technique, I would probably choose the major key piece and wait with bated breath for a switch to the tonic minor!
> 
> *I'm not sure if this should actually be called a modulation or not, since it doesn't involve any change of keynote, just a change of mode. Sometimes I call it a "mood-ulation" because it usually involves a change in mood! :lol:


I know exactly what you mean. Bit like Beethoven's 6th Symphony which is predominantly major until the wonderful storm movement.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

beetzart said:


> I know exactly what you mean. Bit like Beethoven's 6th Symphony which is predominantly major until the wonderful storm movement.


Yes, that's one of the examples that I had in mind. I love it when a composer sets up an idyllic world - and then everything is shattered with a sudden twist of fate (or rumble of thunder). And then there's the bliss of hearing the tonic major come back toward the end of the work, as it does in the 6th symphony with the shepherd's song of thanksgiving.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Bettina said:


> I love it when a major-key piece has sections that modulate into the tonic minor*. It's such an powerful way for a composer to convey loss of hope, or storminess, or mood swings...it's a technique that can take on many different expressive connotations, depending on how it's used. Given my obsession with this technique, I would probably choose the major key piece and wait with bated breath for a switch to the tonic minor!
> 
> *I'm not sure if this should actually be called a modulation or not, since it doesn't involve any change of keynote, just a change of mode. Sometimes I call it a "mood-ulation" because it usually involves a change in mood! :lol:


Makes me think of Brahms's 3rd Symphony.


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

Given the situation laid out in the OP, I would go with the minor first. I do have a thing for minor keys. If I want to listen to a Mozart piano concerto or a Haydn symphony, not a specific one, I would almost always pick a minor key. Sometimes I'll listen to the minor key preludes or fugues in Bach's WTC. For a while, I had a playlist in iTunes that had only pieces in B minor.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

My answer would be different depending on the era. 

In the Baroque Era perhaps a slight preference for the minor mode.

In the High Classical I would definitely pick minor because those are the ones least likely to be "easy listening" snorers.

In the 19thc and early 20thc a majority of works starting in the minor mode end in the major. So, in this period I'd pick minor because one almost always gets the best of both worlds.  And I like tension and conflict.

With CPE Bach and his contemporaries I have found that works in the major mode are just as likely to have surprises and tension as the ones in the minor, so in that era I don't have a preference. Same for tonal 20thc music.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OP: Yes. I would naturally reach for the A Major. It is my favorite key signature.

C minor...way down the list.


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

Bettina said:


> I love it when a major-key piece has sections that modulate *into the tonic minor**. It's such an powerful way for a composer to convey loss of hope, or storminess, or mood swings...it's a technique that can take on many different expressive connotations, depending on how it's used. Given my obsession with this technique, I would probably choose the major key piece and wait with bated breath for a switch to the tonic minor!
> 
> *I'm not sure if this should actually be called a modulation or not, since it doesn't involve any change of keynote, just a change of mode. Sometimes I call it a "mood-ulation" because it usually involves a change in mood! :lol:


Would that be for example from C major to C minor? Isn't that a more dramatic modulation then for example from C-major to a-minor?

anyway, I can't even tell if my favorite pieces are in major or minor so I guess it's all the same to me.


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

Is'n it all a bit relative too?:

What if the first part of a 4-part symphony starts in C-major and modulates to a-minor and stays quite a while in a-minor and modulates back to C-minor. And the other 3 parts of the symphony are in a minor key. 

The whole symphony is so called in "C-major" but most if it is in a minor key. THEN WHAT?

or am I missing the point here?


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Razumovskymas said:


> Would that be for example from C major to C minor? Isn't that a more dramatic modulation then for example from C-major to a-minor?
> 
> anyway, I can't even tell if my favorite pieces are in major or minor so I guess it's all the same to me.


Yes, C major to c minor is an example of this. Somehow those types of shifts seem more dramatic (to me at least) than a switch to the relative minor. Maybe it's because of the chromaticism.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Razumovskymas said:


> Is'n it all a bit relative too?:
> 
> What if the first part of a 4-part symphony starts in C-major and modulates to a-minor and stays quite a while in a-minor and modulates back to C-minor. And the other 3 parts of the symphony are in a minor key.
> 
> ...


I know what you mean - the title key sometimes isn't the main key in the symphony. For example, the complete title of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is "Symphony No. 9 in D Minor." However, the final movement is mostly in D _major _(in keeping with Beethoven's tendency to move from minor to major throughout the course of a multimovement work, creating a triumphant conclusion).


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## HocusPocus (Jul 10, 2017)

Minor is always better to me


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Someday I have to figure out what all this minor and major stuff is all about. I have no knowledge of music theory so can't grasp this stuff. It baffles me and so I leave it alone and just enjoy the music.


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

Florestan said:


> Someday I have to figure out what all this minor and major stuff is all about. I have no knowledge of music theory so can't grasp this stuff. It baffles me and so I leave it alone and just enjoy the music.


Sometimes I wish I didn't know music theory! Not really, but I've had three semesters of it, and sometimes it would be nice to just be able to listen without all the clutter. Honestly, though, it does make me appreciate music a lot more.

I wouldn't recommend theory, but if you have a musician friend, have them just play you some different chords at a piano, major, minor, tonic, dominant, etc. And if they can very basically explain how they fit together, I think it would elevate your appreciation of music.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

T Son of Ander said:


> I wouldn't recommend theory, but if you have a musician friend, have them just play you some different chords at a piano, major, minor, tonic, dominant, etc. And if they can very basically explain how they fit together, I think it would elevate your appreciation of music.


That's what I was thinking. Demonstrate the difference in stead of trying to actually understand it from a theoretical aspect.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I used to be drawn to minor but now don't have a preference.

For some reason certain minor keys put me off because they seem overused. C minor, D minor...zzzzz.

F# minor, even A minor - yes!

Major keys don't carry this baggage for me, for some reason.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

HocusPocus said:


> Minor is always better to me


Just a feeling or better in general ?


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

MarkW said:


> Depends on the work. I much prefrer the Eroica in a major key, the Brahms Fourth in a minor one.


And have you _heard_ the Eroica in a minor key, or the Brahms Fourth in a major one? (Or is my confusion totally the result of listening to too much atonal music?)


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

SONNET CLV said:


> And have you _heard_ the Eroica in a minor key, or the Brahms Fourth in a major one? (Or is my confusion totally the result of listening to too much atonal music?)


I've heard Frere Jacques in a minor key and it creeps me out!!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I believe Mahler did a bit of that...


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Bettina said:


> I've heard Frere Jacques in a minor key and it creeps me out!!


So, you're saying you have a major problem with a minor brother? I find this a minor concern among major considerations. 
(Wasn't there an old cartoon that featured a character named Major Minor? Or was it a miner named Major? And, would such a person face identity crises?)

Mahler does do a minor key version/variation of Frere Jacques in the First Symphony, and that is my favorite movement of the piece.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

SONNET CLV said:


> So, you're saying you have a major problem with a minor brother? I find this a minor concern among major considerations.
> (Wasn't there an old cartoon that featured a character named Major Minor? Or was it a miner named Major? And, would such a person face identity crises?)


There was a character named Major Major in Catch-22(?)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Florestan said:


> Someday I have to figure out what all this minor and major stuff is all about. I have no knowledge of music theory so can't grasp this stuff. It baffles me and so I leave it alone and just enjoy the music.


I was afraid I was the only one....


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## Jacred (Jan 14, 2017)

I am more easily drawn to the minor mode. A piece in the minor mode will stand out to me instantly. The major mode, however, I tend to think of as a mixed-bag. The greatest works in major keys are more awe-inspiring (in my opinion, at least) than those in minor keys, yet the less impressive major-key works sound extremely trite and unmemorable.


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