psychology of keys

[BillChin]

Now I know why D is the favored key of whistles...

From http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html

Affective key characteristics 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 utered 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.

[BillChin]

More, colors...

Scriabin's system of colored musical keys:
C# -- Purple
F# -- Bright Blue/Violet
B -- Blue
E -- Sky Blue
A -- Green
D -- Yellow
G -- Orange
C -- Red
F -- Deep Red
Bb -- Rose/Steel
Eb -- Flesh
Ab -- Violet
Db -- Purple (same as C#)
Gb -- Bright Blue/Violet (same as F#)

The composer Amy Beach heard keys in color. She had perfect pitch and discovered that various colors corresponded with certain keys in her mind. The key and color relationships remained the same with Amy all her life. The following is the color code she assigned to keys:
Ab Blue
A Green
Eb Pink
Db Violet
C White
G Red
E Yellow
F# minor Black
G# minor Black

[Darwin]

I had a little piano that had different colors for each key, but I don't remember what they were. It's old age, I guess.

I loved that little piano...

[Wombat]

All this stuff, except differences betwen modes, depends crucially on the temperament of the tuning. We've had some very thorough discussions recently. The bottom line, though, is that it makes no sense to think of C major and D major as having different colours in either just intonation or in equal temperament but it does in any compromise tuning.

One really misleading thing is this. When keyboard instruments were tuned to different temperaments in the baroque period, a lot of differnet compromises were tried. This meant that certain chords were very bright and sweet and others more remote so darker or downright sour. But these differences between chords and therefore keys disappear again as soon as one goes to a system in which the interval proportions remain the same, as they do in equal temperament. Unfortunately, the vocabulary of colours didn't go away, even though the mathematics that gave sense to it did in most western concert music.

I was mighty confused about this stuff myself until recently.

[Wombat]

The composer Amy Beach heard keys in color. She had perfect pitch and discovered that various colors corresponded with certain keys in her mind. The key and color relationships remained the same with Amy all her life. The following is the color code she assigned to keys:
Ab Blue
A Green
Eb Pink
Db Violet
C White
G Red
E Yellow
F# minor Black
G# minor Black

Oddly, this seems to be a different phenomenon to what you mentioned in your original post Bill. Some people seem actually to be wired to experience a certain colour when a pitch sounds or vice versa. Some people apparently find it unbearable to be in a place like Times Square or Picadilly Circus because the flashing bright lights trigger an unbearable cacophony of sounds.

[Nanohedron]

Now I know why D is the favored key of whistles...(etc. etc.)

But where is E minor?

It must be the key which dare not speak its name.

[vomitbunny]

Different keys are also assigned a flavor too I believe. D major is grape soda, and C major is orange soda. Bb is hot sweet mustard I believe. F is Deviled Egg, and G is Spearmint. I think Eb might be Crunchy Peanut butter. Or Carmel Corn. I can't remember. A major is either Tuna or Mahi Mahi. I don't remember the minor keys, except that D minor is Better than Sex Chocholate Cake.
I didn't pay attention like I should have in Music Theory.

[blackhawk]

Different keys are also assigned a flavor too I believe. D major is grape soda, and C major is orange soda. Bb is hot sweet mustard I believe. F is Deviled Egg, and G is Spearmint. I think Eb might be Crunchy Peanut butter. Or Carmel Corn. I can't remember. A major is either Tuna or Mahi Mahi. I don't remember the minor keys, except that D minor is Better than Sex Chocholate Cake.
I didn't pay attention like I should have in Music Theory.

You're always worth reading, Vomit!

[oleorezinator]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Nigel is playing a soft piece on the piano]
Marty DiBergi: It's very pretty.
Nigel Tufnel: Yeah, I've been fooling around with it for a few months.
Marty DiBergi: It's a bit of a departure from what you normally play.
Nigel Tufnel: It's part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy I'm working on in D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why.

[vomitbunny]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Nigel is playing a soft piece on the piano]
Marty DiBergi: It's very pretty.
Nigel Tufnel: Yeah, I've been fooling around with it for a few months.
Marty DiBergi: It's a bit of a departure from what you normally play.
Nigel Tufnel: It's part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy I'm working on in D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why.

Marty DiBergi: And it tastes like Mahi Mahi grilled in grape soda.

Nigel Tufnel: Wait untill you get to the second part. Really really strong horseradish flavor. I think that's why people appeared to be weeping. It was the horseradish.

Marty DiBergi: Actually I think it's hot sweet mustard.

Migel Tufnel : Is it? I wasn't a very good student in music ed.

[John S]

Melodic music works because of the relationships between intervals not on their relation to an arbitrary absolute frequency.
Perfect pitch is an ability I'm glad I don't posses, because it drifts sharp as you age.

John S

[thurlowe]

By the way Bill, the link you posted is from the place I work, Western Michigan University. It has a very good music school, for being a low-cost state college. Neat.

Cara

[SirNick]

This website sells Aquarian Survival Flutes which appear to be heavy duty PVC. The maker has an interesting section that matches zodiac signs to key signatures.http://users.netonecom.net/~sos/Flute1.htm

[Zubivka]

Affective key characteristics from Christian Schubart's Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806)

Fascinating...
We'll just have to transpose it at least by a half-tone, given our modern "low" (A=±440Hz) pitch

Scriabin's system of colored musical keys:
C# -- Purple
F# -- Bright Blue/Violet
[etc.]

With all my respect (if not passion) to his music, he ended totally bonkers. May have started as such, too...

Btw, didn't I hear the phenomenon of one sense (say, hearing) triggering a parallel one (say, vision) to be a rare neurological anomaly?

Different keys are also assigned a flavor too I believe. D major is grape soda, and C major is orange soda. Bb is hot sweet mustard I believe. F is Deviled Egg, and G is Spearmint. I think Eb might be Crunchy Peanut butter. Or Carmel Corn. I can't remember. A major is either Tuna or Mahi Mahi. I don't remember the minor keys, except that D minor is Better than Sex Chocholate Cake.

Thanks for the laugh!
Yet prototyped by Satie's "Pear-shaped pieces"...

All this stuff, except differences betwen modes, depends crucially on the temperament of the tuning.

With you. In the sense of what specific scale was it "just-tuned" to originally? And Western modes "moods" may be connected, too.

Take a simple-system just-tuned woodwind in C, say an early, "baroque", flute. Or recorder, yuk-yuk.
Play it from C : perfect pitch. Balance, fullfilment...
Play from D, minor scale is easier yet something's special, uncomplete, wailing, with its pitch. Uneasiness, longing...
G gets back to major, yet not totally "just". Etc.

Analogies and maths are fine, as long as you don't confuse the map with the territory...

This is my opinion, and I mostly share it.

[Redwolf]

The composer Amy Beach heard keys in color. She had perfect pitch and discovered that various colors corresponded with certain keys in her mind. The key and color relationships remained the same with Amy all her life. The following is the color code she assigned to keys:
Ab Blue
A Green
Eb Pink
Db Violet
C White
G Red
E Yellow
F# minor Black
G# minor Black

Oddly, this seems to be a different phenomenon to what you mentioned in your original post Bill. Some people seem actually to be wired to experience a certain colour when a pitch sounds or vice versa. Some people apparently find it unbearable to be in a place like Times Square or Picadilly Circus because the flashing bright lights trigger an unbearable cacophony of sounds.

I think it's called "synesthesia." There was a graduate student at my daughter's school last year testing children for it. Some people have the same experience with certain letters or words...they get a physical impression (either of color or of taste) associated with them.

Here's more info:

http://web.mit.edu/synesthesia/www/synesthesia.html

Redwolf