# Statistical visualization of some composers' favorite keys



## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)




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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

I got this from Reddit and learned a lot from the comments.


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https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/1hh4bs


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https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/1hhwkv


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

zOMG someone had waaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands and faaaaaaaaar too little real interest in the music.


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## apricissimus (May 15, 2013)

PetrB said:


> zOMG someone had waaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands and faaaaaaaaar too little real interest in the music.


How are you able to tell their level of "real" interest in the music?


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Yes, until one sits down and actually quantifies it, there is no starting point for analysis. For example, the overwhelming bias Haydn has for D major. The difference between key bias based on instrumentation, composition period, etc. I thought it was fascinating.


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

This is interesting! But lacks several more important composers, eg. Schoenberg, Webern...



Best regards, Dr


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Lunasong said:


> Yes, until one sits down and actually quantifies it, there is no starting point for analysis. For example, the overwhelming bias Haydn has for D major. The difference between key bias based on instrumentation, composition period, etc. I thought it was fascinating.


Dealing with well-temperament, not equal temprerament, Haydn may have found D, and the modulations he explored, just 'better sounding.' Haydn was also not known as the big virtuoso keyboardist -- perhaps that key was just literally 'handier' for him, perhaps instrumental thinking (strings) had him leaning toward D.

Why, I think is unanswerable.

I also wonder just how equal equal temperament was in those earlier days when it first took hold. Topping that off, Haydn's D is somewhere between our current Db and C


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

DrKilroy said:


> This is interesting! But lacks several more important composers, eg. Schoenberg, Webern...
> 
> 
> 
> Best regards, Dr


I know you were joking, but Schoenberg had a predilection for D minor.


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

Yes, I just knew that someone would remind me that Schoenberg also wrote tonal pieces... 

Best regards, Dr


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

I find this interesting too  Obviously I wouldn't expect baroque and classical era composers to have much love for keys like Eb/D# minor or F# major. But I think it would be interesting to look at a composer like Chopin. He used a variety of keys and I remember seeing a lot of music in Ab major...


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

DrKilroy said:


> Yes, I just knew that someone would remind me that Schoenberg also wrote tonal pieces...
> 
> Best regards, Dr


His "atonal" pieces have tonal leanings too, you know. There's no such thing as "true" atonality.


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## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

I didn't realise just how fond Beethoven was of E flat major


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

Mahlerian said:


> There's no such thing as "true" atonality.


True, but Webern was quite close! 

Best regards, Dr


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

as a composer and one familiar with complexities of orchestration.composers used keys that worked with there chosen instriments.
chopin composed mainly for piano and piano can do anything.the second movement of the emperor concerto by beethoven was in B major.which makes sense,its a slow movement so it is not a challeging to have use all those black keys.

most violin music were in D or G 

most cello works were in C or G

most classical guitar is in E,A,D

and so many symphonies in Eb,Bb,F,C because flat keys work well with winds and horns

the only beethoven symphonies not in either a flat key or nuetral like C major or A minor was the 2nd in D,7th in A major


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

I wonder how many of the c-major Mozart pieces were contredanses written on commission when he was broke.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

DrKilroy said:


> Yes, I just knew that someone would remind me that Schoenberg also wrote tonal pieces...
> 
> Best regards, Dr


It runs deeper than that. within a piece, body of work, a composer will consciously or other favor one pitch, one interval over all others, and you will get a similar spread of 'higher percentile' usage of one or both if you scanned all their work. Personal tic, preference / taste not every really accounted for. Bartok, case in point, dramatically favored the major second.


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