A doctor once told a friend of mine that if she had to be smitten with an
emotional illness, depression was a fortunate choice. It is, he said, an
illness
highly responsive to sunny Spring weather and flowers, an hour with good
friends, a swell meal ... and, this thread reminds us, lovely music.
Was it on this list recently that I read that the association of the minor
key
with sadness is a very recent, 19th-century historical development? Our
emotions
are now so habituated to making this association. Which composer/s is/are
the
leading culprit/s? Is there, nonetheless, a built-in universal human
response of
sadness to the minor key? What are earlier counterexamples -- minor key
music
expressing joy, triumph? Can modern ears still recognize the original
emotional
intention?
Bob Merkin