# Composers and their "signature" keys...



## sammusic93 (Jan 2, 2017)

Hello, 

I thought this would make an interesting topic. Which composers do you believe are the quintessential of a particular key signature? Not necessarily because they wrote vast numbers of works in a particular key (Mozart and C major for example), but because they are "at home" in that key; and they seem to write some of their best works in it.

I'll start with the obvious one... Beethoven and C minor.


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## Retrograde Inversion (Nov 27, 2016)

Ironically enough, all three of the Second Viennese School seemed to have a thing for D Minor.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

The obvious example is Irving Berlin. He wrote everything in F-sharp, because he could play the piano by ear in F-sharp and no other key. As a home key, it gives pianists an easy time: F#, B and C# (i.e. I, IV, V) are all relatively easy to finger. 

Violinists, help out my flaky memory. I'm sure I was told that violin concerti tend to be in the same key because it is the easiest for violinists. Might that have been D?


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## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

Mozart and G Minor - some of his best works are in this key.


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## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

Pat Fairlea said:


> The obvious example is Irving Berlin. He wrote everything in F-sharp, because he could play the piano by ear in F-sharp and no other key. As a home key, it gives pianists an easy time: F#, B and C# (i.e. I, IV, V) are all relatively easy to finger.
> 
> Violinists, help out my flaky memory. I'm sure I was told that violin concerti tend to be in the same key because it is the easiest for violinists. Might that have been D?


Plenty in D - or G,A,E - the tuning of violin strings going upwards.


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

Can we say G and D for Handel?


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## sammusic93 (Jan 2, 2017)

Great replies everyone .



manyene said:


> Mozart and G Minor - some of his best works are in this key.


I never thought about Mozart and G minor! I always associate Mozart with C major but you're absolutely right, despite not writing much of his catalog in this key he did write some real masterpieces in G minor.


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## Rhinotop (Jul 8, 2016)

For Beethoven, C minor and E-flat major
Haydn, D major and C major
Langgaard, F major


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Mozart and A major, too - clarinet concerto, clarinet quintet, piano concerto no. 23, piano sonata no. 11, violin concerto no. 5.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Chopin liked flat keys, because the fingering fit into his then new fingering system.


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

sammusic93 said:


> Great replies everyone .
> 
> I never thought about Mozart and G minor! I always associate Mozart with C major but you're absolutely right, despite not writing much of his catalog in this key he did write some real masterpieces in G minor.


Both G minor symphonies are fantastic. I cannot drive and listen to symphony no. 25 simultaneously, it could cause me a speeding ticket! There is a surge of adrenalin when I hear it.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Many of my favorite works by Bach are in D minor: Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, Violin Partita No. 2 (including the great Chaconne), the Toccatas and Fugues BWV 538 and 565...

Of course, Bach's brilliance is certainly not limited to D minor--he was brilliant in every key! But it seems to me that this particular key brought forth some of his most sublime and impassioned music.


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## sammusic93 (Jan 2, 2017)

I have another one, Scott Joplin and A flat major. He wrote many of his beloved works in this key (Maple Leaf Rag, Gladiolus Rag and The Easy Winners). I would also say Joplin and G minor, this was his default "dark key" and on the rare occasion he wrote Ragtime strains in a minor key it was pretty much always G minor.


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## chromatic owl (Jan 4, 2017)

Bettina said:


> Many of my favorite works by Bach are in D minor: Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, Violin Partita No. 2 (including the great Chaconne), the Toccatas and Fugues BWV 538 and 565...
> 
> Of course, Bach's brilliance is certainly not limited to D minor--he was brilliant in every key! But it seems to me that this particular key brought forth some of his most sublime and impassioned music.


Yes, you are absolutely right. The so called "Art of Fugue" is another great example. I suppose it is because he liked the dorian mode very much.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Mozart also had a special thing for E-flat major. Two piano concertos, a horn concerto, symphony 39, a lot of The Magic Flute... and the Masonic Music. That might be the link that binds them all together.


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## sammusic93 (Jan 2, 2017)

waldvogel said:


> Mozart also had a special thing for E-flat major. Two piano concertos, a horn concerto, symphony 39, a lot of The Magic Flute... and the Masonic Music. That might be the link that binds them all together.


He also wrote an E flat major Piano Sonata which is absolutely wonderful! The first movement is an "adagio" which was really unusual at the time.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I don't know about signature keys, but I love the Mozart of A Major: Clarinet Concerto, Clarinet Quintet, Piano Concerto No. 12, Piano Concerto No. 23, String Quartet No. 18, (one of the 6 "Haydn" Quartets), Symphony No. 29.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Handel and Bach, plus many High Baroque wrote in F major for instrumental concertos featuring the natural horn.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I love G Major Brahms as in the Second String Quintet and Second String Sextet.

I don't believe Brahms favored any one key to be considered a "signature" key.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

isorhythm said:


> Mozart and A major, too - clarinet concerto, clarinet quintet, piano concerto no. 23, piano sonata no. 11, violin concerto no. 5.


I agree. Also, Symphony No. 29 in A Major. I love the beginning of the first movement, with its repeated notes and ascending sequences. Elegant and yet intensely dramatic!


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## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

hpowders said:


> I love G Major Brahms as in the Second String Quintet and Second String Sextet.
> 
> I don't believe Brahms favored any one key to be considered a "signature" key.


I think Brahms' favorite key way B flat. These works are all in B flat and are particularly "Brahmsian" to my ear:

Piano Concerto #2 
Handel Variations
Hadyn Variations
String Quartet #3
String Sextet #1


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

Bettina said:


> I agree. Also, Symphony No. 29 in A Major. I love the beginning of the first movement, with its repeated notes and ascending sequences. Elegant and yet intensely dramatic!


A lot of the love arias and duets in Mozart's operas tend to be in A major as well. When he was still regularly writing his dad, before their relationship went sour, he wrote a detailed letter about one aria from Seraglio:

_Let me now turn to Belmonte's aria in A major, 'O wie ängstlich, o wie feurig'. Would you like to know how I have expressed it - and even indicated his throbbing heart? By the two violins playing in octaves. This is the favourite aria of all who have heard it, and it is mine also. I wrote it expressly to suit Adamberger's voice. You see the trembling, the faltering, you see how his throbbing breast begins to swell; this I have expressed by a crescendo. You hear the whispering and the sighing - which I have indicated by the first violins with mutes and a flute playing in unison._


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I love the Haydn of C Major. So grand and festive!

The Paris Symphony No. 82, "The Bear", and the London Symphony No. 97 are wonderful examples.


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## Rach Man (Aug 2, 2016)

May I ask, as a non-musician, how does the key affect the piece? For example, if Mozart's Jupiter Symphony was transposed to A, or F#, or to a minor key, what effect would it have on the piece? Other than someone knowing that the symphony was not in the key of C, would the transposition diminish the quality of the work?

Thanks.


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## Daniel Atkinson (Dec 31, 2016)

Mozart and C Major


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Rach Man said:


> May I ask, as a non-musician, how does the key affect the piece? For example, if Mozart's Jupiter Symphony was transposed to A, or F#, or to a minor key, what effect would it have on the piece? Other than someone knowing that the symphony was not in the key of C, would the transposition diminish the quality of the work?
> 
> Thanks.


A to F sharp is far enough that it would sound different; instruments would be playing lower in their registers so the timbres would be different, the overall texture would sound different, maybe darker and less clear, etc.

But this is really about general register and not about key. The exact key in some sense shouldn't matter, and in fact tuning has varied across times and places by a semitone or more, so that one orchestra's A might be another's B flat. When people talk about keys having different characters they are really talking about composers' and performers' psychology. Keys just "feel" different, in a way that is hard to explain. Flat keys feel more relaxed, sharp keys brighter. If you play the piano they feel different in your hands and I'm sure that's true of other instruments. But even a singer reading music will probably get some of this different feeling.


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