# Examples of cheerful minor key music



## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

I tend to think of minor key work as the frowning music, tunes that carry a bit of girth, the _hush-now-I'm-listening_ part of the work. The minor key is the key to the doldrums and it's where the beautiful negative turns golden. But are they many examples of minor key music which is relentlessly breezy and cheerful? And if so, is it forced cheerfulness, or the organic stuff? And do you think it works all the better for being in the minor?


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## Hildadam Bingor (May 7, 2016)

The rondo from Mozart's piano sonata 11 in A maj. #turkishnotturkish


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

The first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto #3 in C minor always puts a smile on my face; it's cheerful, uplifting, and as always with Beethoven, it's not forced.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Hildadam Bingor said:


> The rondo from Mozart's piano sonata 11 in A maj. #turkishnotturkish


Many of the sections are in the major, though, so I'm unsure how well it would count...

Some of the dance movements from Bach's B minor Orchestral Suite seem pretty upbeat, or at the least not particularly melancholy.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

This is pretty exuberant, gigue from Bach's English Suite in G minor:


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Thanks for the replies! So it makes me think that music in the minor key doesn't automatically veer into the maudlin and more moody. I often read in books that C major has certain traditional attributes, for example, and E Flat major, whereas minor key music is generally considered to deal with more sorrowful or harrowing themes. But this obviously isn't automatically so. The range is broader, just as, I suppose, music in a major key can be distressing and sad. I know, these are basic ruminations, but to those of us who are music illiterates, the technical side is mysterious and fabulous in strange ways...


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Bach: G minor fugue the "Little" 



Bach Orchestral Suite #2 in B minor. (especiaslly the last movement) 



Bach Solo Violin Partita #1 in B minor, Bouree 



Handel Messiah, And He Shall Purify the Sons of Levi 



Brahms Hungarian Dance #5 



Lecuona Malaguena 



Saint-Saëns - Samson and Delilah - Bacchanale 



Rimski-Korsakov Russian Easter Overture 



Annon. "Katyusha"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODqmB5-WRQc
Annon. "Lanigans Ball" 



Annon. "A Freylekhs" 




You will notice that after the Baroque period the Major/minor Happy/sad thing becomes more fixed. However in folk music, it has never been that strong. In the romantic period composers included more folk elements in their music and in those instances the happy/sad thing is not quite so important.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Great post, drpraetorius, thanks! I had a feeling that the happy/sad lines in the sand became more pronounced after the baroque period, but they're not as fixed as I imagined...

:tiphat:


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

The first piece that usually comes to mind for me in this category is Beethoven's 1st Piano Sonata in F minor.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Here's another one, last movement of Schubert's C minor sonata:


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

I think there are plenty among folk music and nationalism works.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

DiesIraeCX said:


> The first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto #3 in C minor always puts a smile on my face; it's cheerful, uplifting, and as always with Beethoven, it's not forced.


That's exactly what I was going to say :tiphat:


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