A whiff of E major
- January 2nd, 2017
- Posted in Pitch imperfect
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FMR’s Midday Concert contained Rachmaninov’s E minor 2nd Symphony. Â I turned it on just as the ravishing clarinet solo starts after the strings have set the stage in the slow movement. This should be in A major but is wasn’t. I could trace the line of notes in B flat major, without any surprise. A major was never a strong key in my world. After all its newly-gained B flat beauties the movement faded to contrabass plucked low B flats.
I anticipated the vigorous Scherzo to follow. E major it should have been but judging from recent experience F major was to be expected. Was E major possible? Yes! For 4 seconds the orchestra was playing in the written key. 4 seconds, then everything was in F major, 2017’s E major.
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