I recently found this website (https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html) about the emotions carried by each key. In it, the following sentence surprised me:
Although these characteristics were, of course, subjective, it was possible to conceive of each key as unique because each key actually sounded distinct within unequal temperaments. When equal temperament became the dominant tuning after 1917, the aural quality of every key became the same, and therefore these affective characteristics are mostly lost to us.
I still «feel» a difference between some of the keys (although I cannot say without knowing which is which) but then I wonder how Beethoven`s music would sound if played with unequal temperament. Is that what performances with period instruments achieve?
That then led me to imagine Beethoven as a musical note (or a musical key). Which one would he be? I think he would be one of the darkest keys (at least in its third period). As for a note? Probably a flat, on the lowest part of the scale.
Although these characteristics were, of course, subjective, it was possible to conceive of each key as unique because each key actually sounded distinct within unequal temperaments. When equal temperament became the dominant tuning after 1917, the aural quality of every key became the same, and therefore these affective characteristics are mostly lost to us.
I still «feel» a difference between some of the keys (although I cannot say without knowing which is which) but then I wonder how Beethoven`s music would sound if played with unequal temperament. Is that what performances with period instruments achieve?
That then led me to imagine Beethoven as a musical note (or a musical key). Which one would he be? I think he would be one of the darkest keys (at least in its third period). As for a note? Probably a flat, on the lowest part of the scale.
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