Lyrics vs. Lack Thereof:
I want to focus on music. One of the most obvious ways music can be used to communicate is through lyrics. For example, look at this song from the pop opera Bare:
It's very clear the emotions that this young woman is feeling, and it's fairly clear what she's singing about. That being said, many of these things can be easily gleaned from the lyrics - why is there any need for the music at all? Let's look at this karoake version (sorry about the questionable quality):
While the content of the song is no longer apparent, the mood of the song is still very clear. The Aeolian mode (minor) makes it clear that this is sad. Based on the dynamic variation and the stresses in the music, it's clear when the subject is more or less agitated. Some even argue that we can tell the exact mood based on the key itself (C# minor). Apparently C# minor has a mood of "Penitential lamentation, intimate conversation with God, the friend and help-meet of life; sighs of disappointed friendship and love lie in its radius" (1). Oddly relevant considering the women in question attends a catholic school.
Arguably, this song sounds sad because of the dissonance present in the minor mode. Or, perhaps, it's because "the spectra in the major-key music are close to those in excited speech, while the spectra of minor-key music are more similar to subdued speech" (2). Both of these arguments seems plausible. For me, several questions follow from this: do all minor songs seem sad? And the answer to that is: not all minor songs.
My Favorite Things is written in the key of E minor. What would you call this song? Would you call it sad? Would you call it happy?
Cadences (aka the End of a Musical Sentence):
Major and minor mode mirroring emotion isn't the only way that music mirrors speech. There are other instances.In Western music, ends of musical phrases, called cadences, can create different moods in the listeners.
In a perfect cadence, ending in the tonic chord (a major/minor chord starting in the root of the key, the I/i chord), can often have a dominant seventh chord (V7) leading up to this final chord. Here is an example progression:
I IV V7 I
If this progression instead looked like:
I IV V7
the listener (one accustomed to western music) would feel this phrase was unfinished. The I chord is the answer to the V7's question, its unresolved chord tones. This is similar to when we ask questions in speech - if the raised tone at the end of a question wasn't answered then we would feel like the question-answer string was left unfinished.
Another cadence called a deceptive cadence might look like this:
I IV V7 iv
You'll notice that this progression ends on a minor chord starting on the sixth of the scale rather than a major chord on the first of the chord. This cadence is deceptive because the listener is left hanging, they are not met with the I chord like their inner ear expects. This is similar to the difference between, "I like going fishing because I like catching fish" and "I like going fishing because I like catching cheerios." Not quite what you expected/wanted to hear. It's not quite as satisfying.
Phrases like "inner ear" seem to imply that this intuition, similar to the intuition for minor chords seeming sad and major chords seeming happy, is something that comes naturally to everyone. That being said, some cultures use different scales/modes/etc that aren't as commonly used in Western music. Ancient Greeks used the Lydian mode rather than Aeolian for sad songs. A lot of Chinese music uses the pentatonic scale as well as quarter scale tones (Western music uses half scale tones).
How much does our musical intuition come from the culture we grew up in? It's clear that music has a language of its own, and can relay messages and feelings to the user - which musical traits persist across different cultures and which ones are unique? How do messages portrayed in one type of music persist to others? Do they?
1. http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html
2. http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100108/full/news.2010.3.html
First of all, let me say how much I love the musical Bare: A Pop Opera and the song you chose to feature. I saw an excellent production of it at the Fringe festival in Edinburgh this past August while I was playing Sweeney Todd in my high school’s production. I very much understand where you’re coming from when you say that music communicates a significant amount of information through lyrics and instrumentation. I grew up very attached to music because it helped me cope with my emotions and gave me hope during difficult times. I agree that minor keys do change the mood of songs to a greater emotional severity, but “My Favorite Things” indeed has a more upbeat tune of a “feel-good” song although it is in a minor key. I think that musical intuition has a lot to do with the culture in which we grow up; however, there still is a universal understanding of the power of music and that certain cadences and themes can make people feel a certain emotion regardless of their cultural background.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fascinating post! I've studied music all my life (well, at least before college), so reading this was really fun. I think major/minor modes have a lot to do with music, but music isn't only about major/minor modes and cadences. It's also about what instruments you use, the rhythm, the volume, and the emotions you are trying to convey.
ReplyDeleteFor example, at the beginning of each piano music, the composer usually tells you how you should play the song - dolce? andante? con fuoco (with fire)? con amore (with love)? sotto (subdued), cantabile (singable), espressivo (expressive), pesante (heavy)? This is only a short list, too. As a musician, there are a lot of expressions you can convey with music that transcends beyond the major/minor mode and cadences used. I think it's not as likely, but possible, to play minor music "con brio," brightly. It's also possible to play major music "lacrimoso," teary. Perhaps, this is parallel to how we are able to convey emotions through speech without explicitly saying what we feel!