Classical Music

Characteristics of keys and compatible and non-compatible instruments

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MorkBen

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Opening post by MorkBen

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Good morning, is it possible to find on some website or in some publication what the specific characteristics of each major and minor key are, going beyond the usual and easy distinction between major/joy and minor/melancholy? And perhaps also knowing which specific keys are most suitable (or least suitable) for different musical instruments?

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Reply 2 by gianni22

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In my opinion, the question is formulated somewhat vaguely in the sense that the characteristics of tonality are technical aspects and not emotional ones, so major tonality brings one intervallic structure and minor tonality another. It can be discussed.

The fact that a tonality is more or less suitable for certain instruments depends on their construction; strings have strings and a sound for each open string, they can go out of tune, and above all, it is not certain that a composer prefers open strings to the keyboard. Let's just say that playing on open strings is technically easier.

Another example can be made with wind instruments; better tonalities with flats given their construction... but the A clarinet, for example, loves sharps. For the horn in F, the quintessential tonality is F, given the logic of harmonics. But the truth is, we are only talking about tonal music; I ask this because we are talking about 200 years of Western music and that's it.

...and so on for every instrument. A complex discussion.

Emotivity is a subjective thing; we are in equal temperament, so theoretically on the piano C major is equal to D major; one could not say the same for a string orchestra or choirs, where the intonation is natural, so the taste is a bit different. But then one can also talk about tuning. An articulated discussion

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Reply 5 by MorkBen

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Yes, I realize that the subject is complex, thank you for the help, I will try to buy the text mentioned in one of the cited discussions, the period that interests me is precisely that...

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