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