The Down Side of Up

It's always seemed easier to compose in minor keys than major keys. The minor flavor imparts an air of seriousness that makes a work seem more weighty. I remember, in my youth, playing on relentlessly in minor keys after my father had had a stroke, and my grandmother came in and told me I had to change the music I was playing. She said it sounded like a funeral dirge. Well, I stopped playing rather than change my style. It just seemed right. Even in Rock music, minor keys make for more serious tunes, and there's nothing a musician wants more than to be taken seriously.

I keep a notebook of my classical music ideas. I have a copious list of minor chord progressions that I might go to when I start writing. I have compiled the list from hours and hours of trying as many sequences as possible. My notebook includes main themes, turn-arounds, endings, nexts (what comes after a theme), modulations and some chord alternates.

When I started this 2 years ago, I had dozens of minor progressions before I even started major progressions.

Enlightenment

I knew I would need some major key progressions. At least, I thought it would be a good exercise. I think the first one that sounded good to my ear was C G G7 C. Simple and classical. I thought there might not be very many more. I have spent 18 months working on the list and it is now longer than the minor progression list. I listened to Mozart and heard how much he wrote in major keys. Now, if it's good enough for Mozart, it's certainly good enough for me. He is, after all, my dead mentor.

What really set the major keys working for me was the introduction of diminished chords. I discussed these a few logs ago. They make a major key piece of music sound rich and serious. They provide a coloration to music that opens things up. They are like coffee or beer. The first time you try them they taste bad. Eventually you cultivate a taste for them.

But it wasn't just diminished sounds that made that major keys work. Here's the crux of today's log: it is the power of the minor chords that come into a piece in a major key. When I've developed a theme in a major key and then move to minor keys either as a new pattern or as a modulation, the depth and seriousness is profound. It's like a person goofing around and getting hurt. It's like a slap in the face. It's a contrast effect that can't appear if you start off in a minor key. It's the down side of up, and it's got punch.

So this morning I took out my notebook of major key ideas and composed this work for a string quartet. I know very little about arranging, but I know how to listen. Indeed, the composition took a fraction of the time; breaking the parts into different instrument voices for notation was laborious. I've got to streamline this somehow.

www.dreamscience.net/QuartetFantasia1_13_2006.mp3

Anyway, you'll see it's a major-key piece with several contrast sections with minor tonality.
If you wonder what I compose and record with, I'm using older gear: Korg N1, Digital Orchestrator recording software, and DbPower Amp to encode the piece as an MP3. For notation I use Finale 2001. (I will probably re-record using my Garritan Personal Orchestra samples, but it is not a quick and easy process and I haven't really put it to the test yet.)

This piece is a dedication to my retiring executive director, Nancy Sherman. She is a former flutist. (Oh, yeah, as you can see I don't say blog and I don't say flautist).