So they both contain the harmonic dissonance you refer to, albeit with a different relation to the fundamental. And similarly a major third within a minor triad. That makes sense as far as intervals are concerned, but what if you add a fifth too? If you play a major triad, there’s a minor third interval within it. yonahĪn extract from Bernstein’s lecture series If you have a piano or keyboard handy, and you play any semitone interval – such as a B and a C together – you can hear that dissonance, a kind of “rubbing” sound. Not quite as comfortable as the “happier” sounding match between a major third harmony and its natural overtone … But they are also hearing that minor third, which is a semitone below it, and that is a somewhat disturbing sound. So when a fundamental is played, and then a minor third is harmonised separately on top of it, the ear is still sensing the major third caused by the overtone series – because that overtone is still vibrating. Those other vibrations happening above the main note give the sound character and richness. The next interval is a major fifth, and the one after that is a major third. The main note you hear is called the fundamental, and it sets off the series, which starts with the same note one octave up. Resonating notes are made up of more sounds than just the main note you hear. What Bernstein was describing is the harmonic overtone series, which is a natural phenomenon. Lennie Bernstein (i was about eight, so forgive me) said we can hear the clash of harmonics caused by the flattened third in the minor chord, and that makes us uncomfortable. The minor second (A to Bb) is the workhorse of film composers when they wish to underscore danger, threat, fear, etc. As the span of the intervals become smaller, the vibrations become move complex, the brain interprets the complexity as almost a dangerous event. The most pleasing interval is the fifth (eg A to E, a fifth above), followed by a fourth (A to D), then a major third (A to C#), followed by a minor third (A to C). Intervals (two different notes played simultaneously) create vibrations that affect a neurological response in the listener. You could perhaps hear God Rest Ye Merry as quite serious about its merrymaking, and Silent Night more of a simple and direct lullaby. Minor ones I would think of as more complex, indirect and serious, rather than sad. I think it is fairer to say that major chordal centres and tunes tend to present more straightforward emotional worlds, which can be happy or sad, or other things, including bold and stirring or quiet and gentle, but always quite simple and direct. That unmodified minor is sometimes called Aeolian mode. Minor tonality is a modified mode, but that tune is in a purer, unmodified form of it, characteristic of the earlier, pre-1600 system, with more than just the two modes. While God Rest Ye Merry is certainly a lot closer to minor than major, the flattened seventh makes its modal rather than tonal. Furthermore, speaking from personal experience, I recall that in my youth my own memorably stately and emotionally fraught interpretation of an ostensibly simple C-sharp major scale (hands together, three octaves in thirds) once reduced a sensitive listener to uncontrollable sobbing. For example, the relentlessly cheerful Christmas carol God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is in a minor key. What could be more delightfully harmonious, symmetrical and uplifting? But I have a minor quibble, because the assumption behind the question can easily be overstated. This is quite likely the ultimate notes and queries question, featuring as it does a query about notes. The equivalent of a minor key was lively and uplifting. In medieval times in Europe, when music was composed in numerous modes rather than just simple major or minor keys, what we now call minor was not associated with sadness. It’s cultural, and you don’t have to travel to see that. He has a great ear for rhythm and a lovely tuneful singing voice it’s really interesting how he can instinctively hear differences musically when my other older son can’t. Granted he has only heard western music, but he has a clear preference for calm and uplifting music. My younger son (now four) could certainly identify different moods to music such as happy, sad, angry by the time he was three. In that case the uneducated in music wouldn’t hear any difference. That would get obvious, wouldn’t it? We would be neutral about minor or major keys until at age 10 in music class the teacher tells us we should hear these chords as bright and sunny, and these other chords as sad and melancholy (if also a bit sweet in their sorrow). I’m pretty sure that it isn’t learned behaviour.
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