Traditional jazz bands play 43% of their tunes in the key of Bb, 29% in the key of F and 18% in Eb. They don't have much use for other keys.
Why is this?
It is because the instruments used in jazz bands (particularly the 'front line instruments') are easiest to finger in those keys and also because (for technical reasons to do with their construction) a few of the notes sound very slightly out of tune in other keys.
But what about classical music? There, it's a different matter.
My friend Stephen Brown, who is a Canadian composer, wrote a classical piece called 'Northern Journey' that runs to 38 minutes and is in four movements. The key he chose was A minor. (Incidentally, Stephen takes traditional jazz very seriously too and has played plenty of it over many years.)
Now you would have to search very hard to find a traditional jazz band playing a tune in A minor!
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| Stephen Brown |
I told Stephen I found something curiously appealing about the key of A minor as I listened to his composition; but I also said I had no way of explaining or understanding why the key seemed so perfect in that context.
He sent me this very interesting reply, which both added to my education and gave me much to reflect on:
No explanation about why some keys affect folks in one way or another, but they certainly do. Beethoven chose C# minor for his most gut-wrenching music. D major for Mozart was bright and cheerful, and on and on. Debussy preferred 5 & 6 flats for his quiet pieces on the piano. Some of it has to do with the keyboard (one hears the bone on the end of your finger on the white keys and the flesh pad when you get on the black keys and also the finger is extended and relaxed on the black keys - tap on your table top the hear the difference). It also depends what one is writing for. Orchestra works rarely go beyond four sharps because writing them is a pain and strings favour 1 - 4 sharps. Of the four most popular violin concertos (Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Mendelssohn), three of them are in D major and one in E minor.
You might want to have a look at this book by Deryk Cooke, 'The Language of Music'.
For instance when we come to express death in a funeral march the tempo is quite slow, in a minor key appropriate to the the mood, and the rhythm used is pretty much quarter, dotted eight and 16th:
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C# minor, 'Quasi una fantasia', Op. 27, No. 2, dreadfully nicknamed (not by him) 'The Moonlight Sonata' uses this rhythm in Mvt 1. Note the key - C# minor, the tempo, and the rhythm of the melody (bar 5 - 6 and elsewhere). To me this mvt is a funeral march and is so darn sad I have trouble listening to it. How folks take it as a comforting night piece I’ll never know. Maybe the gentle triples in the intro imitate little waves on a lake at night but once we get to the theme it does anything but soothe. However, it is found on all the classical relaxation CDs:
Stephen's composition 'Northern Journey' can be enjoyed on YouTube:
