In this programme we explore two keys that are intimately related. C# minor and D flat major. C# minor is an interesting key. It is not a common choice in keys, yet there’s a high chance that, if you choose it, your piece will become famous. We’ll meet some of the most celebrated pieces ever in this programme. C# minor is also interesting because composers find it difficult not to slip into D flat major, our other key in this programme, for a little sip of nectar. D flat major is a very special key. Some of the most beautiful creations in music are in D flat – it is almost a chocolate box key. A beauty too easily assimilable. We’ll listen to some examples later, but we start with C# minor. Rachmaninov’s most famous work, and the piece he came to hate, is in C# minor. The prelude -  So let’s hear those 3 portentous notes as they introduce Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C sharp minor.

Rachmaninov Prelude in C# minor

An excellent example of how you can become famous on the back of C sharp minor – Rachmaninov’s prelude in the key. And while we’re in C# minor unalloyed by D flat, here’s Mahler. In the 1st movement of his 5th Symphony the trumpet sets the scene for an angst-ridden few minutes.

Mahler 5th Symphony 1st movement

The echo of the fanfare that opened the 1st movement of Mahler’s 5th Symphony.  And we’re not finished with the angst of C sharp minor yet.

Here’s a very famous piece in that key: Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu. And it’s a very neat example of a composer finessing into D flat major from C# minor. That happens when the “I’m always chasing rainbows” theme appears. It’s like the eye of the storm in this piece. And here’s a surprise: the second note of Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C sharp minor seems to have migrated to the first note of this piece!

Chopin Fantasie Impromptu

Chopin in C sharp minor though it’s the D flat major bit that really put that piece, the Fantasie Impromptu, on the map.  The piano is having quite an outing today and we’ll hear lots when we get to D flat major – the key being a source of much inspiration for composers for the piano. But let’s stick with C sharp minor a wee bit longer for one of the most famous pieces in all music. I’m not even going to say what it is but I’m going to play the 1st and 2nd movement of this particular work. The 2nd movement is in D flat major and the first is in C sharp minor.

C sharp minor ‘mystery piece’.

Well, they don’t come more famous than that, do they? Good old Beethoven for choosing C sharp minor – he knew he was on to something. That was the Moonlight Sonata, so called, otherwise known as Sonata quasi Fantasia. Now let’s shift back to Chopin. His 2 preludes for the piano in the two keys of this programme. The C# minor Prelude stays in its key but, inverting the usual pattern, the D flat Prelude – the famous Raindrop Prelude – goes into C# minor for its drumming middle section before the calm of D flat major returns. The intimacy of the 2 keys demonstrated once more.

Chopin Preludes in C# minor and D flat major

And now we’re going to spend a long time in D flat major exploring its merits – and great merits they are. The Romantic composers loved them. So, here’s a medley of lyrical pieces. Let’s forget that the 20th century and recorded music turned them into chocolate box pieces. Let’s reclaim them as masterpieces of music by great artists. I’ve thrown some 20th century composers masquerading as Romantics into the medley. I’ll ‘Liszt’ all the pieces – and Liszt is a clue -  at the end of this section. Relax and enjoy.

Liszt Consolation

Grieg Piano Concerto 2nd movement,

Debussy Claire de Lune

Khachaturian Spartacus Adagio

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 2nd movement

Liszt Un Sospiro

Shostokovitch Gadfly

Rachmaninov 18th variation from Paganini Variations

And there’s plenty more where those came from: try Chopin’s Berceuse for starters. And D flat major is the reason you love them all, as do most people who hear those pieces, but I wonder if your appetite sickened hearing them without a break like that? Now here’s an interesting facet of D flat major. If you are a parent in a Verdi opera and need to plead for or with  your offspring, you do it in D flat major. Rigoletto does it, as does Germond in La Traviata. .

Verdi – La Traviata

A man who knows how to be persuasive – he just chooses D flat major. Alfredo’s father in la Traviata by Verdi singing Di Provenza il Mar. Time has caught up with us. There hasn’t been time for the slow movement of Dvorak’s New World Symphony which also juxtaposes the 2 keys we’ve been enjoying. I haven’t had time to show you how Prokofiev destroyed D flat major for ever with his 1st Piano Concerto. There hasn’t been time for any Fugues – how indulgent I’ve been! No, let’s have a bit of Shostokovitch’s Fugue in D flat major. You’d never guess it was in same key as the rich feast we had earlier!

Shostokovitch Fugue in D flat excerpt

A sample of Shostokovitch’s neutering of D flat major in his Fugue.

I’m going to play a real piece of chocolate box music to end with. This is Cecile Chaminade’s Autumn. It’s in D flat major as any chocolate box piece should be, although the agitated middle section is in that dyspeptic key, F minor.

Chaminade Autumn

Chaminade’s Autumn ends our excursion into D flat major.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this exploration of 2 twinned keys, C sharp minor and D flat major,  and will join me next time we take a look at another key in Keynotes. Goodbye.

A minor

Hello and welcome. It’s a minor key this time. Yes, it’s A minor key, A minor. Like C major there are no sharps or flats in A minor. This baldness seems to have inspired a depressive emptiness in at least 2 composers as we’ll hear later, but really, though a minor, there’s not a lot or worry or sadness in this key. And as you (would have) heard at the beginning there, A minor is Grieg’s key so let’s continue the marvellous Piano Concerto that Liszt approving sight- read, according to popular rumour.

Grieg – Piano Concerto 1st movement

The first movement of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor. In case you were having doubts as to Grieg’s affinity with this key, here are two A minor ladies to prove it: Anitra and Solvieg.

Grieg –  Anitra’s Dance, Solveig’s Song

Anitra’s Dance and Solveig’s Song by Grieg. Both in A minor, both from Peer Gynt. I mentioned that A minor has no sharps or flats. I think Chopin took advantage of this in his A minor Prelude. The piece is almost atonal and dissonant. Listen.

Chopin – Prelude in A minor

Very odd! I think we’d better give Chopin a chance to redeem himself. Here are a couple of very tuneful Mazurkas in A minor. Chopin wrote more Mazurkas in A minor than in any other key.

Chopin – 3 A minor Mazurkas

3 A minor Chopin Mazurkas in sequence.

It’s time now to breathe deeply and prepare for a cold shower. Here comes Jean Sibelius. He goes very bald in his A minor 4^th Symphony. Emptiness in music, one might call it.

Sibelius – 4^th Symphony 1^st movement

Let’s get lighter again. Here’s a very famous A minor piece: Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca.

Mozart – Ronde alla Turca

A special quality of A minor is plaintiveness. A gentle sadness. Here is the slow movement of Bizet’s Symphony in C, and what better instrument than the oboe to lament gently.

Bizet – Symphony in C 2nd movement

The oboe leading in that the second movt of Bizet’s Symphony. In similar vein, Rodrigo and the guitar. The Fantasia para uno Gentilhombre. With music like this one is reminded of Shakespeare’s characterising “parting” as “sweet sorrow”. It’s almost addictive.

Rodrigo – Fantasia para uno Gentilhombre (Slow movement)

Sweet sorrow. That was Rodrigo: his Fantasia. Did you notice the oboe? It was used by Rodrigo to produce a kind of antique sense, and this also happens in Elgar’s Symphonic Study, Falstaff. Oboe and tabor in A minor.

Elgar – Falstaff (excerpt)

A quiet A minor interlude in Falstaff by Elgar. A minor may be sweet sorrow for many, but for Mahler A minor was THE tragic key. I’m going to play the last part of his 6^th Symphony. If you have tears to shed, prepare to play your trombone. It doesn’t get more self-indulgently miserable than this.

Mahler – 6^th Symphony Last section of 4^th movement

Well, what to do after that? We’d better go small and inconsequential. But first let me tell what that was. That was the end of Mahler’s 6^th Symphony. Almost sounded like the end of Mahler! A very well known A minor piece is Fur Elise by Beethoven and a very well known film theme is that from Zeferelli’s Romeo and Juliet by Nino Rota. I haven’t got time to play them individually so I’m going to play them simultaneously.

Beethoven/Rota – Fur Juliet

Perhaps we should call that piece, played there by Tom Read, The Theme from Romeo and Elise. That was Rota’s Romeo and Juliet theme in the style of Fur Elise by Beethoven. To the cello now: If you were a 19^th century composer and you wanted to write a cello concerto in a minor key and your name wasn’t Antonin Dvorak, you would write it in A minor. It’s a good key to exploit the instrument’s inherent Melancholia. I’ve chose Schumann ahead of Saint-Saens or Brahms. Here’s part of the 1st movement of his Cello Concerto.

Schumann – Cello Concerto 1

The cello and A minor in the 1^st  movement of Schumann’s Cello Concerto. A quick change of mood to Prokofiev’s 3^rd piano Sonata in A minor. A minor as a percussive key.

Prokofiev – 3^rd Piano Sonata

We’ll stay with A minor, Russia and the piano. Now moving from Bavaria to Russia, here is the toccata-like prelude from Shostokovitch’s Prelude and Fugue in A minor.

Shostokovitch – Prelude in A minor

Shostokovitch’s Prelude in A minor. And now the Fugue who’s theme is definitely a bouncing ball.

Shostokovitch –  Fugue in A minor theme

And here’s Keith Jarred to play with it.

Shostokovitch – Fugue in A minor

Shostokovitch’s Fugue in A minor. We end with Beethoven. A very special piece that begins gruffly and becomes more and more lyrical. A wonderful exploration of A minor beginning and ending with identical chords in the home key but wandering through C major and A major on the way. The 2^nd movement of Beethoven’s 7^th Symphony. Magic.

Beethoven – 7^th Symphony 2nd movement

We ended our exploration of A minor with that questioning chord at the end of Beethoven’s 7^th Symphony 2^nd movement. And whether it was a cold shower or sweet sorrow, I hope you’ve enjoyed this hour with A minor and Keynotes and me. Till next time, goodbye.                                                           

 

C minor

Hello and welcome. The key for this programme is clearly the one Beethoven wrote his 5^th in. It’s C minor. C minor is a very grave key – one almost might say ‘the grave’. If you want to make a weighty statement about the problems of life you write in C minor. It could be said that C minor is German. It is Nietzsche; it is Schopenhauer. It is dialectic. It is Beethoven’s 5^th symphony.

Beethoven – 5^th Symphony 1st movement

Yes, the serious, questing side to Beethoven epitomises C minor. That was (as if it needed announcement ) the 1^st movement of Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony.   Here’s more Beethoven: 2 sonata movements. The first movement of the Pathetique piano sonata starts with a heavy C minor chord. It says, ‘Listen to me! I have something important and serious to say.’

Beethoven –  Pathetique Sonata 1st movement

The next first movement is from Beethoven’s last piano sonata. It, too, starts with the human intellect stating that there’s a problem. And the rest of the movement wrestles with it.

Beethoven -  Opus 111 1st movement

The restless dialectic of C minor. That was the first movement of the last piano sonata that Beethoven ever wrote, Opus 111. Superstitious cricketers might have something to say about that opus number.  I think we’ll move away from the very weighty dialectic to another pianist who made C minor his own. Sergei Rachmaninov. He appropriated the key pretty effectively with  his second Piano Concerto; the first movement leaving us in no doubt that he understood C minor’s character – although he sidles in with chords of F minor to trick the unwary.

Rachmaninov – 2^nd Piano Concerto 1st movement

That was part of the 1^st movement of Rachmaninov’s 2^nd Piano Concerto. Let’s move away from big works for the moment and go to our Bach Prelude and Fugue for this programme.  I’ve chosen the pair from Book 1. The Prelude in C minor is a 2-part invention, in other words 2 voices share and alternate the musical ideas.

JS Bach – Prelude in C minor Bk 2

And the Fugue has a very brief morose subject.

Bach – Fugue in C minor subject

“I’m not happy”, it states, but the 4 voices in the Fugue never tell us why.

JS Bach – Fugue in C minor Bk 2

Chopin’s C minor Prelude is one of the most famous in the set of 24. It picks up on the idea from Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata we heard earlier: start by plonking down a heavy chord of C minor. “I have something of importance to say”.

Chopin – Prelude in C minor

Fading away into wistfulness, Chopin’s P in C minor. You’ll be pleased to know that there is a lighter side to C minor. – and I’m going to show you some in Mahler of all the composers. In his Resurrection Symphony whose serious discourse is largely in C minor, he uses the key to great effect in describing St Anthony’s sermon to the gaping fishes in the 3^rd movement. C minor has its ironic side.

Mahler – 2^nd Symphony 3rd movement

The first section of the 3^rd movement of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony.  Moving from irony to another smaller work in C minor. Here is the C minor Song without Words by Mendelssohn.

Mendelssohn – Song without Words in C minor

When Mozart comes across C minor, it induces in him a tendency to write tunes that turn in on themselves, complex (for Mozart) statements. Here’s an example in the 1^st movement of the 24^th Piano Concerto.

Mozart – 24^th Piano Concerto 1st movement

The working out of the complex tunes that C minor induces in Mozart.  And if you want another example of this effect of C minor try Mozart’s Quintet for winds and piano. There’s an amusing passage in EM Forster’s novel Howard’s End in which the 3^rd movement of Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony is described. Have you ever thought of it in these terms? ‘The music started with a goblin working over the universe from end to end. Others followed him. They were not aggressive creatures. It was that that made them so terrible to Helen.  They merely observed in passing that there was no such thing as splendour or heroism in the world. Helen could not contradict them because, once at all events, she had felt the same. And had seen the reliable walls of youth collapse. Panic and emptiness. Panic and emptiness. The goblins were right.’

Beethoven – 5^th Symphony 3rd movement

The 3^rd movement of Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony. Did the imagery from EM Forster help? We return now to weighty matters – funerals. The slow movement of Elgar’s 2^nd Symphony – his tribute to a king. C minor an appropriate key, but also taking advantage of the key’s close connection to E flat major, the heroic key. Both keys have 3 flats.

Elgar – 2^nd Symphony 2nd movement

Heroes and funerals in Elgar’s 2^nd Symphony slow movement. We’ll be having a hero and a funeral to end the programme. But let’s have something upbeat now;  something noisy, something to wake us up, something fiery, something angry, something C minor, something Chopin.

Chopin –  Revolutionary Etude

Chopin’s so called Revolutionary Etude; really a study for the left hand. Two deaths to end the programme with: one anticipated by a minor composer and one imagined by a major composer. Our minor composer is Arthur Sullivan who, I have no doubt, was influenced by our major composer, Beethoven, when he wrote the March to the Scaffold in his Yeomen of the Guard.

Sullivan – March to the Scaffold, Yeomen of the Guard

The Prisoner Comes in C minor from the Yeomen of the Guard by Arthur Sullivan. In fact , he didn’t come – he’d escaped. We end with our major composer, Beethoven, writing the funeral march to end all funeral marches (but actually spawning many other C minor funeral marches – think of Siegfried‘s, for example). Beethoven, C minor – the same thing. Here’s our last hero, our last funeral. The 2^nd movement of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. I regret that I cannot play the whole piece but I’m sure you’ll get the flavour of it from this last section.

Beethoven – 3rd Symphony 2nd movement

Gentle listener, you are probably the first person who has ever sat through 1 hour of continuous C minor. I wonder how you feel? Well, chin up! We’ll have a major key next time. We ended with the Funeral March for a Hero 2^nd movement of Beethoven’s 3^rd Symphony, known as the Eroica. Goodbye from me, and goodbye from C minor and goodbye from Keynotes.

F# MAJOR, G FLAT MAJOR AND
F# MINOR

Start with the short thematic statements that begin Franck’s Symphonic variations

Well, that was a very misleading introduction. I am sorry. You’d get the impression
that this Keynotes programme is about a minor key but it’s not. It’s about F
sharp major and G flat major. The problem is that those 2 keys are so involved
with the infinite that it is very difficult to cut them up into little pieces,
so I had to go to F sharp minor, which is a very quirky little key, in order to
do that. So… welcome. Please step on to my rainbow and come in

Wagner   Entrance of the Gods

You were ushered in there in G flat major courtesy of Richard Wagner – the Gods enter Valhalla on a
shining rainbow of G flat major. G flat major has 6 flats and F sharp major has
6 sharps. G flat and F sharp are the same note so they are identical keys, so
symmetrical that their mirror images are identical. Their surface is as smooth
as glass. Still waters run deep. Here is Schubert to show what I mean.

Schubert – Impromptu in G flat

The rippling contemplation of Schubert’s Impromptu in  G flat major.  That piece can also be played in G  major but it is just NOT the same. Further illustrating this almost static  quality here is a Romance by Robert Schumann. This is written in F# major.

Schumann – Romance

Schumann’s F sharp major.  A song now that encourages immobility by
using G flat major. It says,  ‘stay in  bed’. Here’s Benjamin Godard’s Berceuse.

Godard – Berceuse

The Berceuse from  Jocelyn by Godard. Clearly Frederick Chopin thought the same about these keys.
Here is his Barcarolle for piano gently rocking on the water hoping never to get to its destination. This is in F# major.

Chopin – Barcarolle

Rocking gently in Chopin’s Barcarolle. Now, what key would you sing in if you were paralysed by past losses while sitting next to deep, still – but foreign – waters? Well, F# major naturally, or so Guiseppe Verdi thought.

Verdi –Va pensiero

The chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco by Verdi. That was F sharp major. We’re going to stay with Verdi and shift into G flat major. Verdi introduces the ecstatic love duet from Otello with a group of cellos playing in this key. Two lovers under the stars
reaching for the infinite in their love.

Verdi Otello Love Duet (first 55 seconds)

When Desdemona starts to sing she shifts away from G flat major. Maybe that’s significant. But when Otello wants his kiss, he goes back to G flat. Very winning.

Verdi Love Duet Kiss (start 7′ 51″ into this recording)

An eternal kiss from Verdi’s Otello. Unfortunately, Otello didn’t look at the Key Iago sings in which is F
minor. Here’s another Love Duet – from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers.
Casilda and Luis, lost in love in F sharp major.

Sullivan There was a time

The touching There was a Time from the Gondoliers by G&S. A further example of love in G flat major can be found in Tchaikovsky’s Swan  Lake in the most famous Pas de Deux. A change of feeling now as we switch to F sharp minor. One can make deep statements in this key – take the slow movement of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata as an example – but it has a uniquely quirky side. Here are Tchaikovsky’s baby swans.

Tchaikovsky – Dance of the little swans
(SwanLake)

Tchaikovsky’s cygnets dancing with linked little wings as they always do in F sharp minor. One is not expected to take them seriously. And this mood exactly is picked up exactly by Shostakovitch in his Prelude for the piano.

Shostokovitch – Prelude (Link also includes Fugue – apparently Vladimir Ashkenzy playing)

Keith Jarrett with Shostokovitch’s quirky little F sharp minor Prelude. JS Bach’s Prelude in F sharp minor is not exactly dignified either.

JS Bach Prelude in F sharp minor.

JS Bach’s Prelude in F sharp minor played by Sviatoslav Richter. Let’s extricate ourselves from F sharp minor and get back to F sharp major and G flat major for a dip into the infinite. To do this we’ll hitch a ride on Cesar Franck’s Symphonic Variations. As we heard at the start of the programme, these begin in F sharp minor…..

Franck excerpt

….but, by the end, Franck has brightened up that theme and has the pianist playing cascading black notes on the piano in F sharp major.

Franck – Symphonic Variations (Start 11 minutes 23 seconds in – Myra Hess recording)

Part of Cesar Franck’s Symphonic Variations. In the last section the pianist spent much of the time on the black notes of the piano. That’s one of the things about F sharp major and G flat major: with so many sharps or flats the black keys of a keyboard instrument are in heavy use. Chopin wrote 2 Studies in these keys: the first is indeed called the Black Note Study because the pianist’s right hand spends most of the time on the black notes. And the second Study is known as “The Butterfly” because the way it’s written the pianist’s right hand opens and closes like a butterfly’s wings.

Chopin –Black note study

Chopin – Butterfly Etude

Two G flat major Etudes or Studies by Chopin. The so-called Black Note and Butterfly Etudes.  I would be wrong not to include some Scriabin in this programme. These 2 keys incorporated or represented the infinite as far as this synaesthetic composer was concerned. Here’s the theme from the slow movement of his piano concerto. Perfect looking-beyond-the-clouds music.

Scriabin Piano Concerto 2nd movement short (Theme statement in the first 1 minute 38 seconds)

The theme from the slow movement of Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Concerto, and later in his life he produced this in F sharp major.

Scriabin – Piano Sonata No4 1 OR

[Scriabin – Poeme no 1 Op 32]

The infinite in the first movement of/ Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No4 in F sharp major. [ Wandering through an infinite universe, that was the hard-to-pin-down Poeme in F sharp major Opus 32 by Alexander Scriabin. ]

Another composer for whom F# major represented the infinite was Olivier Messiaen. To complete the spiritualisation of the key he adds the 6^th note to the basic chord.

Messiaen Chord

I’m going to play the final movement of Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony. The whole apotheosis ends with a very long F sharp major chord that gets louder and louder, filling the universe. A feast for the ears as we join in the quest for the infinite. The unusual instrument you hear is an electronic one called the Ondes Martinot

Messiaen – Turangalila Symphony 10

That wonderful F sharp  major chord was created by Messiaen in the last movement of his Turangalila Symphony. Essa Pekka Salonen conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra. For our last piece we shift from F sharp major to G flat major – in other words we have no shift at all – and from one religious composer to another, though very different. This is John Rutter. We’re going to end with a  benediction in G flat major. The Lord Bless
you and Keep you, and if he keeps you in G flat major, you are very blessed.

Rutter – The Lord bless you and  keep you.

I couldn’t think of a  nicer way to end a series and to end a programme. That was a G flat major composition by John Rutter called The Lord Bless you and Keep you, though I imagine you heard that.

Start the Haydn Farewell

(Over the music) Well, here we are: it’s time to say farewell. It’s been a great pleasure for me to wander through the musical
keys with you over the last 18 weeks. My thanks to FMR 101.3 for giving me time on air and support and thanks to the staff at the Wynberg Public
library who helped me find much of the music. And so, for the last time and with the help of the F sharp major ending of Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, it’s goodbye from me, Tony Westwood, and goodbye from all the musical keys (well, we missed out two – I wonder if anyone noticed?) Farewell -  from Keynotes.

Haydn Farewell Symphony ending

KEYNOTES PROGRAMMES (as first presented in 2006)

Sundays at 7pm on Fine Music Radio

 

5^th March                     Introduction and C major                Fundamentals

12^th March                   F major                                             Innocent and unsophisticated

19^th March                   G minor                                            Plaintive and passionate

26^th March                   E flat major                                      Of heroes and kittens

2^nd April                      B minor                                            Motifs and autumn leaves

9^th April                       A minor                                            Scandinavian sadness

16^th April                     A flat major                                      The deepest beauty

23^rd April                     D flat major & C sharp minor          Inseparable

30^th April                     E keys                                              Folksy and chocolatey

7^th May                        B flat major                                      Beery, bibulous and brassy

14^th May                      A major                                            Narcissus

21^st May                      Fives and Sevens                             Orphan keys

28th May                     C minor                                            The scowling philosopher

4^th June                        D major                                            The golden key

11^th June                      D minor                                            Iron or irony

18^th June                      G major                                            Sunny smiles and strings

25^th June                      F minor                                             The toothache!

2^nd July                        F sharp major & G flat major           Transcendence

 

© Tony Westwood 2005

E flat major

Tonight one of the most easily characterisable keys, E flat major. E flat is a key for heroes (dead or alive or heroes to be); it is the key of the river Rhine; of large edifices.  But if these imposing emanations of Nature and the human spirit are the Ego (capital E as in Emperor) of E flat major, there is an alter ego – no, really and anti-ego with a small ‘e’. A skittish, playfulness like a kitten with a cotton reel. So in order to prevent listener indigestion, I shall intersperse mouthfuls of main course with light-as-air meringues.

For starters – actually there are no starters, straight into main course. To start with, let’s say – Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture. This piece has both sorts of E flat major in it: the imposing chords of the Masons which we heard at the beginning of the programme, and the skittish Birdman. Papageno.

Mozart – Magic Flute Overture

That piece started with an imposing E flat major chord. The resonances of a loud chord in E flat are used for the imposing start to a piece of music by many composers. Here are some examples. Can you name the composers of these E flat major chords?

005 E flat chords

How did you do with those chords? You should have got the first one – that was The Magic Flute overture again. The we had the first two chords from Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony; then the beginning of the Rhenish Symphony by Schumann. Mozart’s 39^th Symphony – the very beginning; then it was the start of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto – I’m sure you heard the piano in that one; a massive chord from 4 brass bands in Berlioz’ Requiem. Sheakily coming in were Simon and Garfunkel – Bridge over Troubled Water – I wonder if you would have got that just with the first chord – it’s so characteristic, isn’t it? Then it was the Grand March from Aida; the beginning of Mahler’s 8trh Symphony; and the Great Gate of Kiev by Mussorgsky.We’ll hear more from some of those works later – but here’s another starter.

“The scene begins in the River Rhine – IN IT”! The River Rhine flows in E flat. Ask Wagner. Ask Schumann. Wagner begins his Ring Cycle in the depths of the river – in E flat and for the first few minutes all we hear is the chord of E flat – till the 3 Rhinemaidens start carolling. Here we go……

Wagner – Introduction to Das Rheingold

Singing in the Rhine. Carolling Rhinemaidens conducted by Karajan. That was the beginning of Das Rhinegold by Richard Wagner.  Well, while Wagner starts in the murky Freudian depths of the unconscious Rhine, Robert Schumann shows us its grand, broad nature as it rolls through a proud German nation: the beginning of his Rhenish Symphony, Number 3.

Schumann – Rhenish Symphony 1^st movement

The 1^st movement of Robert Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony. We’ll leave the Rhine now to flow away on its own.

I wonder who started this business of E flat major being the heroic key, the imposing imperial key? I suspect it may have been Mozart as we heard in the Magic Flute Overture. Here’s further evidence that it was Mozart. The stately begninning of the 39^th Symphony in E flat. Did this not perhaps call the world’s attention to E flat? See what you think.

Mozart Symphony no 39 1^st movt

The 1^st movement of Mozart’s 39^th Symphony.

As we heard in the Magic Flute Overture and in that symphony, Mozart can be credited with giving E flat its noble character, but it was Beethoven who set the mould for all time. The Eroica Symphony, of course. The heroic human spirit; a symphony half as long again as any that had gone before. Heroic proportions, epic. And starting with 2 E flat major chords as we heard earlier.

Eroica chords

I would like to shared the whole of the 1^st movement of the Eroica Symphony with you but there just isn’t time. So we’re going to listen to the last bit, the Coda, as it’s known in the trade. Here the heroic theme receives its full magnificent treatment.

Beethoven – Eroica Symphony  1^st movement.

After Beethoven, as I said, it was hard to write music about heroes without invoking E flat. Witness Richard Strauss in A Hero’s Life. (His own, by the way). I won’t subject you to the whole work. Apart from the fact that I haven’t got time, I find it an irritating work. But it does have a grand opening in E flat.

R Strauss – Ein Heldenleben – opening (start 20 second in)

Yes, well I think he’s made his point. That was ‘our hero’, Richard Strauss clothing him self in E flat major in Ein Heldenleben.stra.

Elgar put his heroic hunter Nimrod in E flat, too.

Elgar – Nimrod

Nimrod, the heroic E flat major variation from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. George Hurst was conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

And Verdi to prove my point about heroics. The Grand March from Aida. I think I can rest my case.

Verdi – Aida – Grand March

The noble glories of Egypt.

Even Arthur Sullivan caught the E flat bug. The majestic peers pass by in E flat in Iolanthe. “Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes”. Heroes indeed!

Sullivan – Loudly let the trumpets bray, Iolanthe

Sullivan’s music for the Entrance of the Peers from Iolanthe. Music too good for its subject perhaps, but leading nicely into the less serious side of E flat major.

Here is Saint Saens in skittish mood in his second piano concerto.

Saint Saens – 2^nd Piano Concerto 2nd movement

Definitely a kitten on the keys there: the 2^nd movement of Saint Saens’ second Piano Concerto. I hope you enjoyed the very skittish side of E flat major.

Chopin uses E flat as a gossamer-light web spread over the piano in his Prelude.

Chopin – Prelude in E flat

Where shall we go now? Let us visit Kiev through its massive gates. The first of our imposing edifices. Composed by Mussorgsky, arranged, not by Ravel, but by Leo Funtec.

Mussorgsky –  Great Gates Of Kiev

The Great Gate oF Kiev from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. And now the stone walls of the Tower of London. Here to tell us about them (in E flat , of course) is Dame Carruthers.

Sullivan – When our gallant Norman foes

Dame Carruthers in Gibert and Sullivan’s Yeomen of the Guard.  I’m leaving the biggest musical edifices in E flat major till last. Let’s go in the meantime to our Bach fugue. The fugue has a bold subject that would sound good and heroic if played on a trombone.

Bach  F in E flat – Book 2

I think you deserve something skittish now and here’s some Mozart – very frothy. The final movement of his Piano Concerto number 22.

Mozart Piano Concerto no 22 3rd movement

Quite the most delightful piece of E flat whimsy that movement: the 3^rd movement of Mozart’s 22^nd Piano Concerto.

Staying with the piano, we’ve had our Chopin Prelude and our Bach Fugue – now time for some Shostokovitch. His prelude in E flat contains both the skittish and the solemn, but he skittish gets more and more sinister as the short piece goes on.

Shostokovitch -  Prelude in E flat

Shostokovitch’s prelude in E flat major.

Now we’re going to go really big:

When Hector Berlioz exploited the possibilities of E flat major, he didn’t stop with orchestral forces. He added 4 brass bands, dozens of kettle drums and a huge chorus. The sound is awesome (I use the term literally, not in the teenage American way.) This is the Dies Irae from Berlioz’ titanic Requiem.

Berlioz – Requiem

You’d think that anything after that would be an anticlimax.  That was the Dies Irae from Berlioz’ Requiem. There’s someone who can out do that.

I end the programme with some Mahler. This is the concluding Gloria section from his Symphony of a Thousand, the number 8. It can only be done in E flat as Mahler understood – his biggest choral movements are in E flat. It all ends with ‘ the sound of a great Amen’, rolling on bar after bar – one of the greatest in all music.

Mahler – 8^th Symphony. End of 1^st movement (Start 20 minutes 32 seconds in)

I really don’t know how to put you down gently after that.  Mahler’s 8^th Symphony is like that. I suppose I’ll have leave you sitting there transfixed as I bid you farewell from Keynotes and E flat major, hoping that you will join me the next time we explore the world of the musical keys. Goodbye.

G minor

Hello and Welcome! The key for this programme is G minor. G minor is a shy violet – but inside beats a heart of pure, raw passion. Her plaintive gentleness hides a fiery soul of molten lava.  So we’re in for a mixture of plaintiveness and passion. I hope you’ll stay with me.

Shakespeare wrote about G minor in the following terms: She never told her love, but let concealment, like a worm in the bud, feed on her damask cheek; she pined in thought; and, with green and yellow melancholy, she sat like patience on a monument, smiling at grief.

Well, here’s a green and yellow piece: plangent, plaintive and poignant – Chanson Triste by Tchaikovsky

Chanson Triste – Tchaikovsky

And if you want more of the same, try Sibelius’s Valse Triste.

Now listen to this – a marvellous illustration of how keys can dictate to composers how they compose. Here are 5 short tunes, each by a different composer and each is a descending phrase, bringing our the sadness that is part of G minor.  I think you’ll recognise more than one of these tunes.

Descending tunes

Well, do you believe me? Those pieces were Albinoni’s Adagio, Chopin’s Nocturne in G minor, Beethoven’s Bagatelle in G minor, the 3^rd movement of Dvorak’s 8^th Symphony and The Shepherd Boy, a Lyric Piece by Grieg. – And now in the same order we’re going to hear all 5 pieces.

Albinoni

Chopin Nocturne in G minor

Beethoven Bagatelle in G minor

Dvorak 8th Symphony 3rd movement

Grieg Shepherd Boy

Those pieces in G minor with descending tunes were Albinoni’s Adagio; then there was Chopin on the Piano – Nocturne in G minor. The Beethoven Bagatelle followed, and then we had Dvorak, Symphony No 8, the 3^rd movement. We finished with a wistful Shepherd Boy sitting on a rock somewhere, not Schubert’s rock, but Grieg’s rock. That was a Lyric Piece in G minor.

The violin is very at home in G minor. Bitter sweet or passionate? Choose the violin. To illustrate the bitter-sweet here is Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, the 2^nd movement.

Violin Concerto 2^nd movement – Tchaikovsky.

The violin and G minor: that was Tchaikovsky, the 2^nd movement of his Violin Concerto.

And now the passionate violin. This is Bruch’s Violin concerto, in G minor of course, the first movement.

Bruch – 1^st Violin Concerto 1

Did you note how all the violins join in the G minor passion at the end of that – the 1^st movement of Bruch’s Violin Concerto? I think we should allow those orchestral violins a little more flashing of the eye, don’t you? Here’s Brahms!

Brahms – Hungarian Dance No 1

The gypsy passion of Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No 1 in G minor. And now to some Preludes and Fugues. Chopin’s Prelude in G minor is a very passionate affair:

Chopin Prelude in G minor

And  now JS Bach’s Prelude in G minor followed by Shostokovitch’s Fugue in G minor. We’ll mix up the centuries a bit, shall we?

Bach – Prelude Book 2

Shostakovitch –Fugue in G minor Start at 3 minutes and 23 seconds

A change now. Some quite passionate music hiding behind English reserve. Elgar: his Enigma theme – or at least its G minor counter theme – and his G minor friends pictures within – just the G minor ones.

Enigma Variations – Elgar

CAE

HDS-P (the first 50 seconds of this clip)

WMB

GRS

BGN

Elgar and his friends pictured within. Well, at least some of them. His Enigma Variations – the G minor ones at least. What is the most famous G minor theme ever? This one made it to the pop charts in the 1970s!

40^th symphony 1^st movement – Mozart

Mozart 40, do you remember that? I spared you the version with the rhythmic backing . That was the version with oboes, Mozart’s orchestration – so much more suited  G minor than the version he did with clarinets, I think.

The 3^rd movement of Mozart’s 40^th Symphony seems to have set off a little bit of a trend in G minor 3^rd movements. Here are 3 orchestras and 3 composers – Mozart, Schumann and Schubert – so here we have Mozart’s 40^th Symphony 3^rd movement, Schumann’s Spring Symphony 3^rd movement and Schubert’s 5^th Symphony 3^rd movement, more or less simultaneously.

G minor 3rd movements

Just escaping disaster by the skin of their teeth were the following 3 orchestras: bravely sticking to Mozart’s 40^th Symphony 3^rd movement were Sir Charles Mackerras and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Inserting the 3^rd Movement of Schumann’s Spring Symphony were the BRT Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alexander Rahbari and getting their oar in with Schubert’s 5^th Symphony 3^rd movement were the Wes Deutsche Sinfonia, Dirk Jures conducted. And it cost a lot to get them all so please don’t complain.

A fury of passion to end with. Saint Saens in racing mood in the last movement of his 2nd Piano Concerto in G minor. A tear-away tarantella. Get ready, GO!

2^nd piano concerto 3^rd movement  – Saint-Saens. (Young pianist in action)

Orchestra and pianist working up a considerable sweat there: they were playing Saint Saens’ 2^nd Piano Concerto 2^nd movement. I think G minor has been revealed to be a lot more than a shy violet.

And with that it’s goodbye from G minor and Keynotes and me. Till next time, from Tony Westwood, Goodbye.



F MAJOR

Hello and Welcome. The key for this programme is F major. F major is the simplest of the keys. It’s unselfconscious, innocent and undemanding. It does not worry about its place in the world. It is like a quiet, gently pretty younger sister in an 19^th century novel, sitting in a corner, contentedly doing her tatting or some such needlework. Do not expect complex musical statements or thought-provoking originality from F major.

To illustrate F major’s temperament, let’s take a little Bagatelle by Beethoven that most aspirant pianists will have had to learn quite early on in their studies. It contains a simple tune that Beethoven gently bends around but never twists into a complex shape.

Beethoven – Bagatelle in F

And while the piano is open, let’s enjoy another simple F major piece that young pianists are likely to meet: JS Bach’s 2-part invention in F.

Bach – 2 part Invention in F

Narry a hint of gravitas so far, you’ll agree. Well, let’s put F major’s character to the test by wheeling in Johannes Brahms. Brahms finds it difficult not to sound a note of gravitas, but in his 3^rd symphony, when he wanted to express how carefree he was feeling, how light were his spirits, he turned to F major. This is Free and Frolicsome, Brahms style.

Brahms 3^rd Symphony 1^st movement

Not entirely unscathed is F major, I fear, but we shouldn’t have trusted Brahms – he writes the last movement of that “Free and Frolicsome” symphony in a minor key! But to restore the key’s reputation I wish to point out how it tamed the bombast and philosophic churnings of the great Gustav Mahler. When he met F major in his airy Austrian composer’s retreat, he succumbed to her quiet, uncomplicated charms by paring down his vast orchestral cravings to a piece of night music, almost chamber music-like in scale with mandolin and gentle guitar. The 4^th movement of his 7^th Symphony.

Mahler 4^th movt 7^th Symphony

The perfumes of the night in the 4^th movement of Mahler’s 7^th Symphony. And now we can be wafted off into dreamland with Traumerei by Robert Schumann – a very small F major piece compared with the Mahler, but there are connections in the shaping of certain phrases and in the harmonies.

Schumann Traumerei

Traumerei or Dreaming from Scenes from Childhood by Robert Schumann. Mr Schumann, please will you stay. We’d like to hear how that younger sister we heard of earlier is depicted in you Piano Concerto, in the 2^nd movement, the Intermezzo. Don’t look at me – look at the 1^st movement, look at the 3^rd movement. I’m just in between, just in between, just in between.

Schumann Piano Concerto 2

We’ll stop that before it gets into the big stuff. That was the Intermezzo from Schumann’s Piano Concerto .

Now back to the solo keyboard again for our Preludes and Fugues. Chopin’s Prelude first. The F major prelude, though not easy to play, is constructed very simply. In the upper voice is a repeated rippling phrase; and in the lower voice there is a short repeated melodic phrase.

Chopin Prelude in F

43 seconds of F major , ending with a little question mark. In Shostokovitch’s Prelude in F, the younger sister we talked about earlier stands up. She’s worthy of second look, quite statuesque.

Shostokovitch Prelude in F

In Shostokovitch’s Fugue in F major a simple theme is treated very classically. This is Shostokovitch controlling himself under the influence of F major.

Shostokovitch Fugue in F (starts at 3’48”)

I think we’ve had enough of Preludes and Fugues. Let’s get into some slushy stuff. Here’s one of those pieces that’s known by the key it’s written in. Melody in F by Anton Rubenstein

Rubenstein – Melody in F

A beautifully schmaltzy version of Melody in F by Rubenstein. And now another take on F major’s simplicity – clod hopping lack of sophistication. Ask Beethoven. Why did he choose F major for the Pastoral Symphony? Just listen to the 3^rd movement. Peasants’ merry making. [Pause] You don’t believe me, do you? I call my first witness. Robert Schumann, what do you say, Robert?

Schumann The Merry Peasant

That was Schumann’s clodhopping Merry Peasant. Will my second witness  to this aspect of F major’s character please step forward? Engelbert Humperdinck. No, Not that one! The Hansel and Gretel one. Here’s simple song sung by Gretel. Very rural, very simple, even to the point of having birds singing!

Humperdinck – Gretel’s song

That rustic song sung by Gretel in Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck was in F major. Now do you believe me about this aspect of F major’s character? Let’s listen to Peasants Merrymaking by Beethoven and jum p from there to the last movement in which we meet the merry peasants recently refreshed by water from a storm singing a tune based on the basic chord of F major. F major, or course.

Beethoven Pastoral Symphony 3,5 movements

Movements 3 and 5 of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, number 6.  And as the ignorant peasants went back to their back-breaking work, we heard a French Horn in the back ground. Perhaps it was a hunt? The French Horn is very at home in F major. When Richard Strauss, whose father was a horn player, wished to demonstrate and use the horn’s agility as a representation of the practical joker of German legend, Till Eulenspiegel, he wrote in F and gave the French Horn a very prominent part.

R Strauss – Till Eulenspiegel

Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. And we’re not finished with horns. Here comes another hunt though these horns are played on the violin!

Vivaldi Autumn 1^st movement

That was the 3^rd movement of Autumn from the Seasons by Vivaldi. The violins giving a good representation of a hunt and horns. Horns again and a rural setting, but now we shift from the French Horn to the English Horn or cor anglais. Both instruments are tuned in F. I don’t know if Hector Berlioz had this in mind when he gave the cor anglais a prominent part in the rural 3^rd movement of his Symphonie Fantastique – maybe it was the peasant again – but it is in F major and we’re going to listen to it now.

Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique 3^rd movement

After that, I think we need to give that young sister a second look. What sad motifs is she weaving into her handwork? She is clearly more melancholic than our first judgement suggested.

Perhaps we should marry her off. And so, as we come to the end of the programme, we have to choose between making her A Merry Wives of Windsor – or A Bartered Bride. A wife or Bride? Both are in F major. I think I’ll take the bride because she has the better joke – one of Frank Muir’s bon mots. He suggested that there was one thing he could say about Bedrich Smetana, the composer: he always knew which side his Bride was Bartered on!

Smetana – Bartered Bride Overture.

Bedrich Smetana’s Bartered Bride Overture . And with that we’ve reached the end of our exploration of F major. I hope you’ll join me next time when we explore another key in Keynotes. Good bye.

FURTHER LISTENING IN F MAJOR

Simplicity and Innocence

Chopin                                                     Ballade in F major (Contrasting restless D minor section in the middle)

Mahler                                                      Adagietto from 5^th Symphony (another example of the taming of his vast orchestral cravings)

Mozart                                                      Minuet in F (one of the first pieces he wrote)

Clodhopping simplicity

INTRODUCTION

Hello and Welcome! This is the first of series of programmes in which we will travel through the musical keys. You will recognise their names: C major, A minor, B flat major and so on. We will sample music that illustrates the character of particular keys. Yes, keys have character, often more than one, and different composers may have seen different features of the same key. Major keys tend to be happy, brighter; minor keys sadder, more brooding – but these are only general rules as we shall see. It’s not just character that makes a composer pick a particular key. It might be the range of a prominent or solo instrument, the type of voice he wishes to work with. Brass instruments are happier in flat keys; strings in sharp keys. Which key a piece of music is in can be read from the extreme left of the written music. Anyone who has tried to learn music knows that the more sharps or flats there are to the left, the more difficult the music is to read.

[C MAJOR]

In this first programme we start with the key that has no sharps or flats on the left of the written music – C major. On the piano the C major scale played only on white notes so it’s often where you start when learning the instrument.

Here’s Claude Debussy illustrating some piano exercises in C major in his Dr Gradus ad Parnassum from the Children’s Corner Suite for piano.

Debussy: Dr Gradus ad Parnassum from Children’s Corner Suite

Debussy reproducing the sound of C major piano exercises in Dr Gradus ad Parnassum from Children’s Corner.

The budding C major pianist on his or her way to Parnassus is likely to meet this little melody early in his or her studies.  This piece – called Melody – is the first piece in Robert Schumann’s Album for the Young. It’s what you learn soon after that great moment when both hands are put on the keys at the same time:

Schumann: Melodie from Album for the Young

The fundamental simplicity of C major seems to have exerted its influence on composers. Haydn represented the beginning of all things with a solid C at the beginning of his oratorio, Creation. C And the first arrival of light on the scene of Creation blazes in a C major chord after some murky music in C minor and E flat major.

Haydn: ‘And there was Light’ from TheCreation

….. ‘in the beginning’ of Haydn’s Creation.

And here’s Richard Strauss at the beginning, right down on the lowest note of the double basses – the note being a fundamental C, of course. The dawn of humans was the way Stanley Kubrick saw this piece of music in his film 2001 A Space Odyssey

Strauss: Opening of Thus Spake Zarathustra

The opening of Thus Spake Zarathustra by Richard Strauss.  Back to Haydn now and his creation, Creation. When they first appear, Adam and Eve sing in C major wearing little more than an oboe in their naked bliss.

Haydn: ‘Von deiner Gut’, o Herr und Gott’ from The Creation

Adam and Eve singing in C major.

A number of composers took up the challenge presented by the musical keys and wrote a series of pieces covering the full range – every major and every minor. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well Tempered Clavichord contains 48 Preludes and Fugues, 2 in each key. This set is known in the trade as the 48. The first 24 constituted the first attempt to cover all the keys in one work. Bach put together the other 24 later in his life. Here’s Prelude number 1 of the 48 – in C major. I’m sure you will recognise it – and might even hum some Gounod to it.

JS Bach: Prelude in C major

Glenn Gould playing Bach’s Prelude in C major.  Now for the Fugue in C major. At the risk of boring the more weathered listener, I’m going to give a short explanation of what a fugue is before we hear our first in this series of programmes. A composer writes a theme that is played completely alone, by itself. Here’s the theme. Bach F in C subject.  Listen again.  You get the feel of it? Well, once this theme is stated, it appears again and again in the texture of the music like a bouncing ball while other things go one around it – sometimes it’s under the music, sometimes on top, sometimes in the middle. If the composer is feeling really clever he may put the theme in upside down or stretch it out or play little bits of it and generally have fun – both musical and it must be said – at times, intellectual. The best composers always preserve the musicality of their music in these exercises. So here’s the daddy of them all, Johann Sebastian Bach and his C major theme again Bach F in C subject,  followed by what he does with it. Follow the bouncing ball…..

JS Bach: Fugue in C major

How did you enjoy that?

Frederick Chopin also wrote a Prelude in each key. His Prelude in C is a tribute to Bach’s, I think. It’s faster but each bar has just one chord, shifting the colours in the same way as Bach.

Chopin: Prelude in C major

Chopin’s Prelude in C, the first of his 24 Preludes. In the 20^th century when the range of musical expression was much wider than it was for Bach, Dimitri Shostokovitch had some fun tying himself down to writing short pieces in a single key. Like Bach he produced a Prelude and Fugue in each key. Here is the Prelude in C major by Shostokovitch.

Shostakovitch: Prelude in C major

Shostokovitch’s Prelude in C, the first of his 24 essays in all the keys. Here is the slow theme from hi s Fugue in C. Shos F in C subject This C major fugue contains not a single sharp or flat, not a single black note. What control for someone like Shostokovitch!

Shostakovitch: Fugue in C major (The Fugue starts 2’38” into this performance)

Shostokovitch ‘s Fugue in C major

The basic nature – (if one may use that term after hearing Adam and Eve)  – the basic nature of C major also brings some big statements from composers. Here’s Chopin’s first Etude for piano. It strides over the landscape like the immortal El-dils from CS Lewis’ Voyage to Venus.

Chopin: Etude in C major

Jupiter, the God and the planet, brings a larger than life C major, too. Holst first – Jupiter from the Planets – and note the middle section with the well-known tune in the grandest of all the keys, E flat major. More of that key in a later programme.

Holst: Jupiter from The Planets

Jupiter in C major – composer Gustav Holst.

Although he didn’t attach the name to it, Mozart’s final symphony, known as the Jupiter – in C major – has all the attributes of that Olympian. The first movement is solidly Jovian:

Mozart: Jupiter Symphony 1st movement

The Jupiter Symphony by Mozart otherwise known as number 41. And Brahms in his 4^th symphony makes an Olympian statement in the Scherzo. One can hear the Jovian laughter through this C major  – rich certainly, but not really funny somehow – but that’s Brahms.

Brahms: 4th Symphony 3rd movement

Olympian Laughter as it has been described – the 3^rd movt of Brahms’ 4^th Symphony.

Now a little surprise. The fundamental simplicity of C major expressed in the tune and variations in the slow movement of Haydn’s Surprise Symphony. Another Big Bang from Haydn, perhaps?

Haydn: 2nd movement of Surprise Symphony

The second movement of Haydn’s Surprise Symphony. C major in all its simplicity.

And now – Allegro ordinario: “an ordinary quick speed” – that is Gustav Mahler’s take on C major. He writes a massive Rondo in C at the end of his very varied 7^th symphony. He does this in part, I think,  to get repeated high fanfares at the top of the range of a group of trumpets in C. Listen out for them. Now, clear the decks, here comes a fanfare on the kettle drums:

Mahler: Finale 7th Symphony opening

The sound of the Finale of Mahler’s 7^th Symphony.

Have you noticed how little tenderness there has been in this programme? It is difficult to squeeze the softer and more sophisticated emotions out of C major. Felix Mendelssohn managed it though, in the 2^nd movement of his violin concerto. Quite a feat – especially on the violin whose sweetness is better suited to more complex keys as we shall see in future programmes.

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto 2nd movement

The tender C major 2^nd movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.

Now to end here is the piece which holds the record for the most C major chords in a single symphonic movement. I remember when my music appreciation was dawning in my teen years hearing this played and wishing it would never end. The way Beethoven writes it, my wish was nearly granted! The famous last movement of the 5^th symphony. The darkness of C minor is gone: the glory of C major has triumphed.

Beethoven: Finale from 5th Symphony

I hope enjoyed meeting the first of our Keys – C major and will join me when we explore another key in Keynotes. Good bye

THIS PROGRAMME CAN BE HEARD AT https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32607402/101%20C%20major%20Keynotes.mp3

FURTHER LISTENING IN C MAJOR

Learning the Piano

Clementi                                  Sonatina in C

Mozart                                     Variations on Ah vous dirai-je, maman.

Dohnanyi                                Variations on a Nursery Theme (Beware – begins in a grappling C minor)

Fundamental

Wagner                                    Overture from  Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg
(Fundamentalists when it came to German songs!)

Beethoven                               Symphony No 1 1^st movement (His first Symphony) and
last movement (Beethoven plays with C major scale)

Large statements

Schubert                                  Symphony No 9 (The Great)

Schubert                                  The Wanderer Fantasy

Tchaikovsky                           Serenade for Strings 1^st movt