Key Colour Author(s): Franz Grœnings Source: The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 27, No. 525 (Nov. 1, 1886), pp. 651-653 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3363186 Accessed: 04-11-2015 14:37 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Musical Times Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 14:37:19 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL TIMES.-NOVEMBER I, 1886. 651 figurationwhich, in commonwith other things,was on keycolour generally go in a circleand leave things due to easternexample and influences. But theyare as they were before, because opponents argue from the moreremarkable when we considerhow scanty and differentinstruments or combinations (voices included) limitedwere the means at thedisposal of the trouvbres, without sometimes even mentioning their respective and thatthey were composedat a timewhen music, basis or ignoring their difference,and then they both no less than poetry,had just emerged from six generalise the observations or impressions received centuriesof utterdarkness; nay,it maybe doubted froma certainsound producer. whetherthose simplestrains, combined with the soft Key or scale colour in the abstract does not and accompanimentof harp and lyre, did not perhaps cannot exist, as there is no key or scale fixed or accord,much more than the clang and clash of our attainable in nature, and anythingthat has been said moderncompositions, with Jean Jacques Rousseau's in favour of it was in the vmindat least of the speaker most admirableand adequate definitionof music as or writer deduced fromcertain sound producers with- 4' the art of combiningsounds in a manneragreeable out application to, and verificationfrom, other sources to the ear." At all as the of of a differentcharacter. " events," compositions the Minnesiinger"and Meistersinger,"whose With natural phenomenathe pitch of sound varies festivalsWagner has broughtso vividlybefore us in with the volume and force (or velocity) of the sound "' Tannhaiuser" and the " Meistersingerof Nurem- producer,and we find that a gradual increase of berg"; so also the poetry of the trouv6reswho volume and decrease of velocity or force deepens the graced the merryCourt of Thibaut of Champagne sound, and a gradual decrease of the former and was in the truesense of the termlyric poetry-viz., increase of the latter raises the sound just as gradu- it was intendedto be sung,and invariablywas sung. ally-i.e., the sound fromthe sea waves and a rippling The greatdefect of the printedreproductions-and, brook, from the cracking of a carrier's whip and a comparativelyspeaking, they are fewand farbetween boy's whip, from an eagle's flight and a swallow's -of that lyricpoetry is that,with the exceptionof flight, from the fall of a piece of rock and of a Michel's collection,they are incomplete,because they pebble, &c. reproduce the text witho t reproducingthe music, As regards vocal expressions,the case stands thus: .and therebyseparate thatwhich was intendedto be Human beings as well as animals contract in a inseparable; in short,they give the letterwithout state of excitement the muscles of the upper part the spirit. of the body, the natural consequence of which is CONTENTS OF THE SIENA MS. a slight rising of the larynx, a greater tension of the and Sixty-six Songs :-Fifteen, Thibaut IV., King of vocal ligaments, quicker pulsations, hence a Navarre; six, Blondelde Nesle (trouvbreof Richard higher pitched voice and quicker time for the -Cceur-de-Lion); one, Gautier de Dargies; four, expressions of joy, terror,&c., whereas in depression de Grieviler; nine, Perrin d'Angecourt; of spirits the same parts become relaxed, and the .Jehanthree, Cunelier d'Arras; six, Robert du Chastel; vocal expressions in grief, &c., lower in pitch and ten, Guillaume le Vinier; one, Guiot de Dijon; more measured in time. Here again, the same as one, Thibaut de Blason; nine,Colart le Bouteillier; with natural phenomena, a gradual rising and falling and one (No. 47), anonymous. of pitch takes place parallel with the gradations of excitement or This is second Twenty-one Jeux-partis:-Seven, between Jehan depression. tendency Bretel (Prince du Puy d'Arras) and Lambert Ferri; nature with us, and requires no tuition; hence no ,one,Cunelier and Grieviler; one, Robertde le Pierre one would entrust a piping male alto voice with the and Lambert Ferri; seven, Grieviler and Jehan representation of Hamlet's ghost, or a Russian basso -Bretel;one, Gaidifer and Jehan Bretel; one,Cunelier p rofondowith the r6le of a Romeo. Here we have a and Gamars de Villiers; and one, Guillaume and law of nature if ever there was one, and it will Gilles le Vinier. remain one so long as we are constructed as we On the other hand, the unique compositions,are; but if our nature changed, so that joy relaxed togetherwith the names of the trouveresto whom our muscles, and grief contracted them, we would theymust be attributed,are as follows:- naturally pitch our expressions in a reverse manner. TenSongs :-25. "Bien doitchanter liement," Jehan This natural law excludes key colour in the ,de Grieviler; 33. " Ongues a fairechanson," Perrin abstract as generally propounded, because keys d'Angecourt; 40. " tantmercis ne sara demourer,"assimilated in character are a good deal removed in JA to the and some 41. "Amours me tient envoisde,"42. "J'ai longe- pitch according exponents' showing, ment pour ma dame chantb," Cunelier d'Arras; widely differing in character are close together. 45. " Entre regarte amoure 49. "Trop Moreover,a marked differencelike grief and joy biaut6," sent cannot exist in the abstract at a semitone's difference ii mal cruel'a soustenir,"53. " Ben s'est en moncuer reprise," 51. " A bel servir convient eur avoir," in pitch, otherwise what has been said formerly 56. "Tant ai amb,tant aim, tant amcre," Robertdu about, e.g., A flat, would now apply to G, or the Chastel. present A scale would be endowed with the charac- Four Jeux-fartis:-80. " Jehan,trbs bien amer6s," teristics of the formerB flat. What a nice confusion Jehan Bretel (Prince du Puy) and Lambert Ferri; there would be among the keys " expressive of grief, "Sire Prieus de Prieus de majesty, joy, pompous or womanly feeling" for- gI. Bouloigne," Bouloigne " and Princedu Puy; 96. " LambertFerri, drois es ke merly and now! E major is characterised as the m'entremete,"Lambert Ferri and Prince de Puy; brightestand most powerful" key, and A major as 97. "Grievilerj'ai grant Jehande Grieviler " redolent of simple genuine cheerfulness." There mestier," be in this if to the and Prince du Puy. C. P. S. may something applied piano (the reasons forwhich I shall show later on), but it can- KEY COLOUR not be generalised,as according to our law of nature any music in A must impress us as brighterthan if BY FRANZ GR(ENINGS. performed under the same circumstances a fourth THE renewed attempt of the Society of Arts to fix lower (in E). I also find E major endowed with a " Standard Pitch " may bring this vexed question "joy and highest brilliancy," but the next higher F before the musical public again, and as many of the as expressive of "passing regret and mournful objections to it are based on a wrong conception of feeling." If this were true in the abstract, the con- so-called " Key colour," a ventilation of this subject sequences might be serious. How perplexingit in a practical manner may be justified. Discussions wouldbe fora midnightserenader, who had forgotten This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 14:37:19 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 652 THE MUSICAL TIMES.-NOVEMBER I, I886. his tuning-fork,to find afterwards that, whereas he which give all the stopped notes a slight vibrato. meant to touch the tender chords of "1womanly Had such a thorough master of instrumentation as feeling," or to express the " wailing of an oppressed Berlioz carried his characteristics through the whole and sorrowing heart," he must have roused feelings treatise, he would have varied them according to the of anger and contempt through serenading by mis- construction and manipulation of each instrument, take in a key expressive of" pomp, majesty, and and even the viola and cello would have received a pride!" If key colour in the abstract existed, slightly differenttreatment to the violin, as the Mendelssohn's " Barcarole," at the end of the first absence of the E string and the addition of a lower book of his " Songs without Words," would be heard string, C, shifts the effectof the open strings in in the Philharmonic pitch in a key which " adapts chords and scales in which E and C are important itself well to funeral marches ! " factors. In a relative sense key colour exists, but it is arti- The A flat movement in Beethoven's C minor ficially produced, and varies according to the Symphony is also often referred to by key colour characteristics and manipulation of the respective advocates. With regard to the construction and instrumentsand combinations.