If B minor were a person, who would he be?

Here's how the Signature Series works:

1. Select a musical key.
2. Gather together the most famous melodies composed in that key over the centuries.
3. Mash up.
4. Meet the person behind the key.

To get to know B minor, click on the orange play button.

Follow along with the pop-up comments to find out what composition is playing.

B minor: The Dark Romantic

Also known as:
The Gloomy Gus.
The Pessimist.

B minors you might know:
Werther from Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther.
Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby.
Cliff Barnes from Dallas.

The notes: B - C♯ - D - E - F♯ - G - A♯ - B.

Number of sharps: two.

Relative major: D major.

What they said about B minor in the 18th and 19th centuries:
"Banished from music of good taste." – Francesco Galeazzi, 1796

"Bitter, gloomy lamentation, on account of hard suffering ... in these tones the shocked soul looks around exhausted and almost without hope." – J. A. Schrader, 1827

More G minor listening:
The Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre by Richard Wagner.

Cello Concerto by Antonín Dvořák.

The Canadian connection:

PLAY

"Robots" by Dan Mangan.

 

 

Editor's note: Historical quotes and translations from A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries, by Rita Steblin, UMI Research Press (1983).

Related: 

The Signature Series

B minor

Tafelmusik performs Bach's B minor Mass [audio]

posted by Paolo Pietropaolo on Jul 05, 2012