Composers' "Personal" Keys

In the excellent dvd set, “Haydn, The String Quartets”, the first violinist of the Lindsays (string quartet) comments that f-minor was Haydn’s “personal” key; this in reference to the Quartet op. 20, Nr. 5.  He goes on to suggest that c-minor and g-minor were Beethoven’s and Mozart’s “personal” keys, respectively. 

He’s right.  But a “personal” key is by no means the most ubiquitous key in a composer’s output; if it were, just about all classical composers would have personal keys of C or D major.  The key word is indeed “personal”…in Haydn’s case, consider the piano variations in f-minor and the symphony “La Passione” in addition to the quartet.  In Mozart’s case, the 40th symphony, g-minor quintet and Papageno’s suicide music.  In Beethoven, you can start with the 5th symphony and go from there. 

More interesting is the pschological mood these keys denote, not just their technical character.  For Haydn, you might say “passion”, for Mozart “despair”, and for Beethoven, “struggle”.  

I suggest other personal keys: for Chopin, B-major, (and, by the way, Chopin insisted that B major was the easiset and most natural scale on the piano); for Liszt, F#-major, for Tchaikovsky, b-minor, for Janacek, D flat-major.  For starters.  You will notice that all of these keys are relatively exceptional keys compared to the general ubiquity of keys in the repertory.  For those who need persuading about the above designations, consider the following:

Chopin:  3rd sonata, numerous nocturnes, waltzes, and mazurkas, as well as sthe still heart of such pieces as the Fantasy and Poloniase-Fantasy.

Lizst:  The “Lucifer” music in the “Dante Sonata”; the “Mephistopheles” music in the b-minor sonata, the Mephisto waltz, etc.

Tchaikovsky:  Swan Lake, “Manfred” symphony, and especially the 6th symphony.

Janacek: Sinfonietta and the great epiphany from The Cunning Little Vixen.

But one can make their own list.  Mahler doesn’t have a personal key, possibly because all of his music is so personal, so egregiously autobiographical. 

In assigning “personal” keys, one should keep in mind that it is a sort of parlor game, and different assignments and disputations are inevitable and welcome; neither is choice of key the most important element even in those works for which a strong identification is present.  But it can guide us to certain discoveries, and provide a shorthand for describing the aesthetic predispositions of certain composers.  Cross comparison is interesting as well.  I suspect most experienced musicians would regard b-minor as moody, even apart from Tchaikovsky…that F#-major is ecstatic, or Promethean…by the way let’s absolutely put Scriabin in the F#-major camp, he belongs with Liszt.  It seems like every other piece by Scriabin has the totemic 6 sharps.  

A final comment:  it is no coincidence that for the classical masters, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, their characteristic keys are minor keys. In the Classical era, minor keys were already exceptional, and therefore  potentially “personal”. 

Comments

[David Ellis]

I agree about Tchaikovsky and B Minor. I find it interesting that in Swan Lake (Op 20) and Manfred (Op 58) he ends in B Major, but the 6th Symphony (Op 74 and his last work) ends in B Minor, reflecting the "plot" and title of the symphony.

I think Tchaikovsky has a second key, D Major, which he uses for his "beautiful" melodies. These include the second theme of the first movement of the 6th, the main theme of the second movement of the 5th, and the love theme from Romeo and Juliet in its fullest version, in the recapitulation (the one always used for commercials). Also (John please opine) isn't the introductory "beautiful" theme of the 1st Piano Concerto also in D Major?

[John Gibbons]

Are you speaking of the Tchaikovsky 1st Piano Concerto? That's D-flat major...but on the other hand, tuning has gone up precipitously over the last century, and it probably really IS D major! Maybe you have perfect pitch. But it is written in 5 flats. By the way, the piano writing would be impossible to execute in D, because the interplay of white and black keys doesn't suit the hand. D-flat major is a wonderful piano key. Hence Prokofiev one, etc.

[Richard Shubart]

"Tuning has gone up precipitously" - don't you mean "tuning has gone up soaringly"? My question then is: does the key matter since Beethoven would today hear his 3rd Symphony in E-major unless it was played in our D-major so he'd hear it in the "old" E-flat major? Yes, some keys are easier to play on specific instruments but as long as the internal relationship of the notes stays the same isn't the chosen key a bit arbitrary? (Yes, I do realize that this question can be construed as heretical.)

[Ken D]

Question:
Is it true that Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier was written for a system of tuning that was different from equal temperament? I remember reading that "well-tempered" meant that the fifths were not equal on the keyboard--ie C and F major were the most harmonious keys, but G# minor, for instance, would have 5ths way out of tune. This meant that Bach composed the WTC based on the different sonorities of the different keys and would explain why F major is always the shepherd's pastoral key while C# minor and G#minor and Eflat minor are keys of psychological disturbance.

Anyway, if that was true and the well-tempered practice lingered into the late 1700's then perhaps Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven were affected by the real differences in the intervals that remain in the "well-tempered" system.(?)

Because tonality has gone up around a semi tone since 1750, I too thought that keys are arbitrary--did Beethoven really like the absolute pitches in Cminor or was he affected by the shapes of chords and melodies on the keyboard?

String players are very sensitive to pitch in the sense that the modern higher pitch creates more tension on their strings so they get a brighter sound. They generally don't like to tune down even a little because their instruments loses power.

[john G]

"Well-tempered" and equal are indeed different. Sinc I have a good friend who is the president of the Chicago chapter of the piano technician's guild, I'll refer your question to him for the actual specificities of the differences. I totally believe that Beethoven was influenced by the shape of the hand on the piano keyboard; that's an insightful speculation. You answered the question yourself about strings when talking about the greater tension. As for Richard's comment, I do indeed think a performance of the Beethoven Third in D, but with E-flat fingerings, etc. would be mind-opening. By the way, I once read speculation by a conductor that Leos Janacek's triumphal key, D-flat major, was a repackaging of the old D major, which was indisputedly the triumphant key in Baroque and Classical works.

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