Jumping ahead to the final subs concert of the year (because, of course, I’m meant to be focusing on the penultimate one), I’m inspired to post this:
Terry Riley’s In C – just the first part, YouTube will link you to the remaining instalments, but 10 minutes is enough to convey the hypnotic effect.
I’m also reminded of Renaissance Players concerts, which always left me with the distinct impression of everything having been in Dorian mode. (They weren’t, it was just an impression.)
And I’m moved to ponder, for the umpteenth time, the extent to which audiences register broader issues of tonality in concerts. How important is it, for example, to avoid (or be very careful about) a shift of a tritone between tonal centres of adjacent pieces, or one piece being followed by another a half-step down, or three pieces all from the same stylistic heritage and all in the same key?
I happen to think it very important. And my exhibit is Haydn’s great “English” piano sonata, the one in E flat, where the key of the second movement steps up a semitone to E major. It’s truly startling and, in this deliberately constructed situation, very effective. Point is: listeners do notice when this happens and they experience Haydn’s intended jolt, even listeners who can’t name the keys or articulate what’s going on. Similarly, although they may not be able to put a finger on it, they’ll also “notice” and at some level respond to key relationships between consecutive pieces.
Courtesy of Rita Steblin’s History of Key Characteristics, I leave you with C major through the ages:
M-A Charpentier (c.1692): Gay and militant.
Mattheson (1713): Has a rather rude and impudent character, but it is also suited to rejoicing and other occasions where joy is in full scope. Nonetheless, a clever composer, if he chooses the accompanying instruments well, can fit it for something charming and, where appropriate, also for something tender. It serves to rouse an army (namely, with trumpets, drums, oboes, etc.)
Rameau (1722): Songs of mirth and rejoicing.
JJK Ribock (1783): Perhaps serviceable for every affect, but will not express one that is very strong and marked; it is not very noble, but also not at all vulgar. It looks like lilacs and smells of stock-plants.
CFD Schubart (c.1784): Completely pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naivety, children’s talk.
Grétry (1797): Noble and frank.
Georg Joseph Vogler (1812): A majestic key, full of gravity, for it has little charm; splendid. No one has chosen C for a piece whose character required some charm.
ETA Hoffmann (c.1814): C major (fortissimo). “But let us dance with furious frenzy over the open graves. Let us rejoice! They cannot hear down there. Hurrah! Hurrah! Dancing and rejoicing! The devil is coming with trumpets and drums!”
JA Schrader (1827): Has a lively, fresh sound and is the key of simplicity, joy, gratitude and rejoicing; (Haydn’s Creation: ‘Mit Staunen sieht das Wunderwerk’…) Courage and confidence resound from its sounds. (Luther’s chorale: ‘Eine feste Burg ist einser Gott.’)
Henri Weikert (1827): Cheerful and pure; innocence and simplicity.
Anon, The Spectator (1828): Commonplace.
GF Ebhardt (1830): Moderate, occasionally also exuberant cheerfulness, as in the final chorus for autumn in Haydn’s The Seasons.
William S Porter (1834): Bold, vigorous, and commanding; suited to the expression of war and enterprise. The bold effect is exhibited in …‘The heavens are telling’ in The Creation.
August Gathy (1835): Innocence, simplicity, heroic greatness; (a remarkably grandiose key because of the variety of its interpretative capability). Carl the Great, Napoleon, etc.
Robert Schumann (1835): Simple, unadorned.
Hector Berlioz (1843): Grave; but dull and vague.