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The Plaintive Sigh of a Sonic Doppelgänger: Why are Minor Chords Perceived as “Sad”? Part 2
Courtesy Sebastian Bieniek*
...While it is possible to access some of the minor key's emotional content with a major key, these are exceptions to the rule--the entire spectrum of darker emotional content belongs to the minor key.
IV. The Power of the Minor Chord and Minor Keys in Classical and Jazz
To begin our discussion on what it is that makes minor chords sad, we will first listen to some examples of the use of minor chords and minor keys that demonstrate breathtaking power to convey deep emotional content. Here is "Siegfried's Funeral March" from Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung, the fourth and final opera of the Ring Cycle.In this example, the minor chords and minor key are simply devastating. While the entire orchestra is responsible for the sound, it is, as is often the case, the brass section that delivers overwhelming and ferocious power, creating a mood of utter desolation and despair.
The following example is the first movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony #5, which is unique in that it begins with a trumpet solo.
Here, the brass excels at bringing the raw emotional power to the introduction before handing it over to the string section, which then carries on with a mournful, simple, almost folk-like melody that is brooding and intense.
Both of the previous examples feature slow tempos, which are found in the majority of pieces in a minor key. The slower tempos support the minor key aesthetic—slowness is emotionally and psychologically associated with frailty or weakness, and our empathetic and mimetic response, i.e., to "feel" sadness, is heightened by the languid tempos. However, there are many examples of minor key pieces that are at fast tempos, such as Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem: Dies Irae.
The faster tempo drastically alters the minor key aesthetic—sadness turns to near-violent rage and howling indignation as the choirs and the brass, in particular, assault the listener with wave after wave of incensed and dramatic outcries and raw emotional wailing.
This is not to say that only minor keys can convey feelings of sadness, melancholy, or grief. Here are two pieces in major keys that convey feelings of tenderness, bittersweet happiness, longing, maybe even loss, which is perhaps amplified because of the mismatch between the major key's "happiness" and the almost torturously languorous and lethargic tempos. The first is the Second Movement of Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, and the second is the Second Movement of Mahler's Symphony #5.
The emotional effect in both is peculiar; it is an ill-fated, tragedy-laden happiness that is trapped in a web of sadness. This is a conflicted human condition that we have all experienced, and one that could only be portrayed by the delicious irony of dressing the major key in the clothes (extremely slow tempos) of the dolorous and mournful minor key.
So, while it is possible to access some of the minor key's emotional content with a major key, these are exceptions to the rule—the entire spectrum of darker emotional content belongs to the minor key.
Of course, we find similar examples in jazz and other styles of music. Here are a few staff picks for the AAJ Readers' Poll on "Saddest Jazz Songs, 1940-1970." The first is "Jade Visions" by the Bill Evans trio from their landmark recording, Sunday at the Village Vanguard (Riverside, 1961), followed by "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday from Lady Sings the Blues (Clef Records, 1956) and Miles Davis' "Blue in Green" from his groundbreaking recording Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959).
The emotional content in these minor-key pieces is powerful, encompassing sadness, reflection, melancholy, despair, and even, in the case of Holiday's "Strange Fruit," rage and indignation.
As in the classical examples, there are also pieces in the major key that convey emotional content that is reflective and melancholic. In the case of Bill Evans' "Peace Piece" from Everybody Digs Bill Evans" (Riverside, 1959), as in the Ravel example above, an extremely slow tempo, along with a minimalist aesthetic that predates the style's emergence in the 1960s, drives the piece's fervent yearning and wistful pining. (Along with the minimalistic elements, Evans also takes it into a decidedly modernist direction with a glittering cascade of polytonal figures, shards of glass that dance with a delightful fervor in the upper register of the piano.)
"Lush Life," from the eponymously titled John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (Impulse!, 1963), is another major key song that conveys sadness and perhaps despair. As in "Peace Piece," a slower tempo helps, but in this case, it is also the poignant lyrics that tell the story of a "lush life" (pun intended?) played out in the boozy haze of dead-end bars.
In the first examples of classical music, we heard how the brass, in particular, are easily able to amplify the effectiveness of the minor chord and minor key. Of course, other instruments can do this as well—the string section, for example (in particular the lower strings), also can conjure up gut-wrenching emotional content, often doing so in conjunction with the brass. Still, the brass deliver more volume, rich harmonies, and overall firepower per capita than any other pitched instrument section.[5]
What is it about the brass section that makes it such a powerful purveyor of the extremes of the minor key's emotional content? To uncover why brass amplifies the minor chord's despair, we turn to modern technology, which will reveal the hidden conflicts that play out in the hidden realm of the harmonic series.
Footnotes
[5] The timpanis in the percussion section are pitched instruments that are also very powerful and regularly work in tandem with the brass.* "Doppelgänger No. 5," Sebastian Bieniek (B1EN1EK), 2018. Oil on canvas. 140 x 90 cm. From the "Doppelgänger" oeuvre and series. Used by kind permission of the artist.
Tags
Jazz in Long Form
Kurt Ellenberger
minor chords are sad
why are minor chords and keys sad
human perception of music as sad
sad jazz songs
sad classical music
Bill Evans Peace Piece
Lush Life
Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life
Kind of Blue
Blue In Green
Gustav Mahler
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