# Emotional state and keys



## pcnog11

I am not a musician and know very little about music theory. I am wondering if there is any association with emotional state and keys? For example does a certain key convey happiness or sadness. How about angry, confused, doubt, joy, frustrations etc. 

For those who excels in this area could educate the rest of us in this forum. Thanks.


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## Gordontrek

There are no hard-and-fast rules. Any key can convey almost anything. Typically, though, major keys are more flexible; a minor key doesn't convey happiness very well, but a major key can be used for both happiness and sadness if used right. Think of it as sort of a spectrum. Major stays farily constant throughout the spectrum but drops off the darker the emotion; minor drops away almost entirely in the brightest parts of the spectrum. The way the different emotions, like anger, confusion, doubt etc. are arranged on the spectrum varies by composer.


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## Ingélou

^^^ Great reply. :tiphat:

Once someone makes hard-and-fast rules, someone else will come along and break or bend them. But for interest, this is what James Scott Skinner, the Scottish fiddler, thought about keys used in Scottish traditional music:

C - Bold and piercing
A minor - sad and plaintive
G - plenty of body
E minor - sterile, thin
D - splendid body
B minor - rather sad
A - the fiddle key
F minor - exquisitely harrowing
E - brilliant but lacking in body
B flat - velvet, very rich & fine
E flat and C minor - weird, fascinating, and beautifully sad.

This probably says more about Scott Skinner than about the keys. I think he's dead wrong about E minor, since a number of hauntingly beautiful Irish jigs are composed in this key.


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## pcnog11

Thanks for the replies. Is there any study of what is the most popular key in classical music?


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## EdwardBast

A number of writers have written about the character of various keys. It is mostly silly and rooted in tuning systems in which the keys really were qualitatively different. With the universal adoption of equal temperament, most of the differences evaporated. Here are a couple of systems:

From Christian Schubart's Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806) translated by Rita Steblin in A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries. UMI Research Press (1983).

*C major* - Completely pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children's talk.
*C minor* - Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key.
*Db major* - A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least grimace its crying.--Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key.
*D major* - The key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key.
*D minor* - Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humours brood.
*D# minor* - Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depresssion, of the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key.
*Eb major* - The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God.
*E major* - Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major.
*F major* - Complaisance & calm.
*F minor* - Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave.
*F# major* - Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief uttered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key.
*F# minor* - A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language.
*G major* - Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship and faithful love,--in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key.
*G minor* - Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment and dislike.
*Ab major* - Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius.
*Ab minor* - Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this key is everything struggling with difficulty.
*A major* - This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one's state of affairs; hope of seeing one's beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.
*A minor* - Pious womanliness and tenderness of character.
*Bb major* - Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world.
*Bb minor* - A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for suicide sounds in this key.
*B major* - Strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring coulors. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury, despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere.
*B minor* - This is as it were the key of patience, of calm awaiting ones's fate and of submission to divine dispensation.

Key or mode descriptions from Charpentier's Regles de Composition ca. 1682

C major: gay and warlike
C minor: obscure and sad
D major: joyous and very warlike
D minor: serious and pious
Eb major: cruel and hard
E major: quarrelsome and boisterous
E minor: effeminate, amorous, plaintive
F major: furious and quick-tempered
F minor: obscure and plaintive
G major: serious and magnificent
G minor: serious and magnificent
A major: joyful and pastoral
A minor: tender and plaintive
B major: harsh and plaintive
B minor: solitary and melancholic
Bb major: magnificent and joyful
Bb minor: obscure and terrible

These I found by googling "musical key characteristics."


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## pcnog11

EdwardBast said:


> A number of writers have written about the character of various keys. It is mostly silly and rooted in tuning systems in which the keys really were qualitatively different. With the universal adoption of equal temperament, most of the differences evaporated. Here are a couple of systems:
> 
> From Christian Schubart's Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806) translated by Rita Steblin in A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries. UMI Research Press (1983).
> 
> *C major* - Completely pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children's talk.
> *C minor* - Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key.
> *Db major* - A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least grimace its crying.--Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key.
> *D major* - The key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key.
> *D minor* - Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humours brood.
> *D# minor* - Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depresssion, of the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key.
> *Eb major* - The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God.
> *E major* - Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major.
> *F major* - Complaisance & calm.
> *F minor* - Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave.
> *F# major* - Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief uttered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key.
> *F# minor* - A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language.
> *G major* - Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship and faithful love,--in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key.
> *G minor* - Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment and dislike.
> *Ab major* - Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius.
> *Ab minor* - Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this key is everything struggling with difficulty.
> *A major* - This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one's state of affairs; hope of seeing one's beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.
> *A minor* - Pious womanliness and tenderness of character.
> *Bb major* - Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world.
> *Bb minor* - A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for suicide sounds in this key.
> *B major* - Strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring coulors. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury, despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere.
> *B minor* - This is as it were the key of patience, of calm awaiting ones's fate and of submission to divine dispensation.
> 
> Key or mode descriptions from Charpentier's Regles de Composition ca. 1682
> 
> C major: gay and warlike
> C minor: obscure and sad
> D major: joyous and very warlike
> D minor: serious and pious
> Eb major: cruel and hard
> E major: quarrelsome and boisterous
> E minor: effeminate, amorous, plaintive
> F major: furious and quick-tempered
> F minor: obscure and plaintive
> G major: serious and magnificent
> G minor: serious and magnificent
> A major: joyful and pastoral
> A minor: tender and plaintive
> B major: harsh and plaintive
> B minor: solitary and melancholic
> Bb major: magnificent and joyful
> Bb minor: obscure and terrible
> 
> These I found by googling "musical key characteristics."


Good stuff! Thanks.


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## millionrainbows

Yes, EdwardBast is correct, "affeckt" has lost its meaning due to equal temperament. Maybe there's a perfect-pitch freak of nature who can hear ET differences.

Or maybe you just have to "believe." 

Blue always reminds me of D…

...A is a rich, egg-yolk yellow.

G is green.

C is a rich raw sienna, and smells like leather.


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## BabyGiraffe

Tuning changes the sound of the "keys", but these descriptions are pretty subjective.
The different variants of the modes also sound distinctive - there is a reason why melodic and harmonic minor aren't popular at all in the mainstream music - too dramatic and dark, compared to dorian and natural minor. 
Saying C minor sounds like xxx is wrong, most composers were using minor mode mixtures.


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## millionrainbows

BabyGiraffe said:


> ...The different variants of the modes also sound distinctive...


Yeah, I hear it! That's why the mixolydian mode, used in "Within You Without You" by the Beatles, always sounds psychedelic to me!


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## Bettina

millionrainbows said:


> Yeah, I hear it! That's why the mixolydian mode, used in "Within You Without You" by the Beatles, always sounds psychedelic to me!


Yes, I totally agree! The Beatles were great at using modes to create that "trippy" sound. Another example is Norwegian Wood, with its shifts between Mixolydian and Dorian.


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## millionrainbows

EdwardBast said:


> C major: gay and warlike


The description leaves me befuddled. Is this like, two gays wrestling?


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## JAS

millionrainbows said:


> The description leaves me befuddled. Is this like, two gays wrestling?


Maybe Spartans?


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## millionrainbows

Bettina said:


> Yes, I totally agree! The Beatles were great at using modes to create that "trippy" sound. Another example is Norwegian Wood, with its shifts between Mixolydian and Dorian.


You know, Bettina, this leads us into an area which I think might bear more _real _fruit: the Indian raga system. Each raga set of notes is supposed to invoke a sentiment or emotional state.


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## sjwright

C Minor = Angry, powerful
G minor = sad
D minor = mysterious, intense
E minor = depressing
B minor = most depressing key
C# minor = intense with a 'nocturnal' feel
F# minor = serious sounding
A minor = least intense sounding key, use it for more neutral compositions

A major = very pure sounding key
C major = happy, upbeat
D major = too sugary and sweet
E flat major = even happier and more upbeat than C major
B major = best "neutral" key for compositions, least "upbeat" major key
G major = happy and upbeat but less so than C major or E flat major, good for dance pieces.


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## millionrainbows

Emotional states in equal-tempered tuning:

Major=happy
Minor=sad
Diminished=anxious
Augmented=expectant
Half-diminished=sorta sad and anxious


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## Zellibrung

As other people have already answered the OP better than I could, I'd just like to add that tempo is an important factor. I've heard songs at fast tempos that are cheery and somewhat melancholy, but if were played at half speed would be much more sad and serious.


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## Phil loves classical

Zellibrung said:


> As other people have already answered the OP better than I could, I'd just like to add that tempo is an important factor. I've heard songs at fast tempos that are cheery and somewhat melancholy, but if were played at half speed would be much more sad and serious.


Good point. The tunings of period instruments vs. modern may also complicate things a bit, as the modern tunings are half a tone lower I recall. When I compare a recording of a mass between modern and HiP, The HIP sounds less grave side by side.

Another trick I hear done is a piece of music may go through a transposition of a theme from minor to major, and sounds triumphant like Dvorak's Cello Cincerto first movement. I doubt exactly which major key is that important. Also as in some pop songs also transpose later to a higher key which gives a feeling of being taken to the stratosphere, like Dion's My Heart Will Go On, or Mackenzie's San Francisco (Be sure to wear Flowers).


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## millionrainbows

As long as it doesn't modulate, Just tuning sounds great! Try it on drones, ostinatos, burgers, and more!


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## Sekhar

I don't believe there is any difference between one major key and another (or one minor key and another) in terms of emotion these days as we generally use equal temperament. The ratios between the different notes is EXACTLY the same regardless of the key when using equal temperament, so there is no basis I can see in attributing different emotions to different keys, other than the overall effect higher pitches on emotion (just as we attribute higher pitch to an animated state vs. lower pitch for a subdued one). I think choice of a key today has more to do with practical issues like instrument ranges, say when working in an ensemble.


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## JCLEUNG

Hi yes,
There is a great book by Rita Steblin "A History of Key Characteristics in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries" you may want to check out. Also, not only that but do note that the tuning and temperament of the instrument is also responsible for the "affect"/emotional key characteristic.


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## Sekhar

I don't have access to this book, but did find a detailed review by Karol Berger in "Music & Letters," vol. 66, No. 4 (Oct., 1985), pp. 388-391 (I got it from my school library, I don't believe it's freely available). Per the review, Rita Steblin's emphasis is on the affect of key for the whole composition, which according to the reviewer is much less important than that of alternating keys within, as through modulation. The point was that it's the contrasting effect that's significant, not the key itself.

I also found a good Master's thesis on this subject by Maho A. Ishiguro from UMass that discusses this topic well and references Rita Steblin's work extensively, and it also questions the affect of a key and its role in emotion.

Both the review and the thesis essentially conclude that any attribution of emotion to keys for a composition are personal interpretations and suggested explanations, such as the "sharp-flat" principle (where more sharps in a key are supposed to be brighter and flats darker in emotion), open-stopped string effect (keys like A on violin use a lot of violion's open strings, so is supposed to be brighter when played on a violin), etc., is unreliable and questionable.

Here's the final para in Ishiguro's thesis conclusion:



> Finally by the mid-twentieth century, no acoustical discoveries had been done to
> support the argument that keys themselves possessed unique characteristics. From studies
> on human minds and psychology, the phenomena of affective properties of keys are
> results of personal interpretations. Discussions of the idea of key characteristics no
> longer searched for the proof of the validity of the phenomenon. Instead, it was up to
> individuals whether to take the idea as a meaningful and intellectual one or foolish one.
> As the number of articles on the topic became more scarce after the 1950's, the rare
> findings speak on the topic as one of the historical aspects of musical art, instead of
> continuously used musical elements for successful compositions and a living tradition.


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## JeffD

Its wonderfully complicated isn't it.

If music and meaning corresponded exactly it would be more like reading an essay than listening to music.


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## Bettina

JeffD said:


> Its wonderfully complicated isn't it.
> 
> If music and meaning corresponded exactly *it would be more like reading an essay* than listening to music.


I'm not sure if words and meaning always correspond either*, but that's probably a topic for a different thread!

*My love of Derrida is showing through here...


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## Dumbo

Bettina said:


> I'm not sure if words and meaning always correspond either*, but that's probably a topic for a different thread!
> 
> *My love of Derrida is showing through here...


I have a lot to say about that. Not here.


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## Dumbo

To people with perfect pitch, it might matter a lot, but not to the rest of us.

But...

Instruments have ranges within which they can play where they have different tones. For instance, violins, which are the workhorses of any orchestra, have a pitch range where they start to become shrill. Which can be a good effect, depending on the composer's intention. Mahler exploited that shrillness beautifully, for instance. So a melody that might sound warm and beautiful in one key can be weird or uncomfortable in one just a couple of pitches away.

Like, listen to some of this. I don't know if we can embed youtubes here, but it's Mozart Quintet in B Flat, K174. Listen to any part of it, and listen to the high violin pitch, and how weird it is.






or 




Maybe you hear it differently, but to me, it sounds wrong. Maybe Mozart wrote it originally in a different key and transcribed it for a different key for some urgent reason. Maybe he composed it for piano and transcribed it from that? I don't know. But he wasn't a kid anymore by the time of K.174, and that quintest sounds just as odd when played by other ensembles.

This is a case where choice of key obviously matters a great deal.

I won't embed it, but I could point to his A Major Piano Concerto, a very beautiful work. Close to B flat, but totally different effect from the strings. The choice of A Major dictates the range within which the violins can achieve their effects. It SOUNDS like A Major to me, and I don't have perfect pitch. That opening theme in the strings sounds the way it does specifically because it's in A. I can't do it here, but transcribe it to F major, either up or down, and it just wouldn't have the same perfect effect.

Boring trivia... There was a Doctor Who episode years ago where Tom Baker, as The Doctor, casually whistled the opening theme of the A concerto and did a great job of it. It's not easy! Try it yourself.

Somebody tell me how to embed youtubes here?


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