Key Characteristics

Author(s): Hans Keller

Source: Tempo, New Series, No. 40 (Summer, 1956), pp. 5-10+13-16
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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 IGOR STRAWINSKY
5
the disciples-they are similarin characterand are built similarly,grouped into
fivesections, the chorus alternatingwith interludesfor the organ. Strawinsky
has counterbalancedthe two movementsthat frame the work by making the
last a mirrorof the first,the music of the last proceedingin retrogrademotion.
It is a contrapuntaldevice thatwell suits the occasion and roundsoffthe entire
formof the Canticum. It closes as it began, except that the music broadens at
the end.
An astoundingdegree of both integrationof the material and balance of
form is achieved notwithstanding the music's diversity. The five movements
enclose, as it a
were, circle, whose verycentre, the middle section of the third
movement,consists,again, of five small divisionsby the alternationof soloists
and chorus. This centre is surroundedby the two other sections of the third
movement,which correspondwith each other in thata choral canon is included
in both of them, while the whole movementis connected by the ritornello.
Pieces for a solo voice are placed before and after the third movement,for
tenor and baritone respectively. And the whole is encircled by movements
thatare mirrorsof each other. The elaborateorganisationof its structuremakes
the formof the CanticumSacrumvery consistent. There is a distinctcontrast
between the textureof the firstand last movementson the one hand, and that
of the restof thework on the other: the one is harmonic,the othercontrapuntal.
I feel thatthe less pliable structureof the outermovements-those on the circle's
circumference-contributesto the consolidationof the whole.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS
by Hans Keller
The subject indicated by my title is probably the obscurest in the whole of
musicography. I say " musicography,"not " music," because musicallyit is
not, in my submission,obscure at all; it is merelycomplex. But musiciansdo
not tend to write, and musicographersdo not tend to hear.
As I havepointedout exactlytwo yearsago, in No. 32 of thisjournal,even
so eminentan authority as Prof.G. Reveszblunders hopelessly in thechapteron
' Key Characteristics' which he has includedin hisIntroduction
tothePsychology
of Music(London,1953). His have
fallacies met withgeneralapprovalin journals
bothlearnedandnaive. In myreviewofhisbook,I expressedthehopethatthe
Editorwould " allow me to givea detailedcriticism of Prof.Revesz'sapproach
to thisproblemon some futureoccasion." This hope has now been fulfilled,
and I shalltrymybestto go beyondrepairing theharmdoneby Prof.Revesz's
chapter: I shall not merelyprove him wrong,but shall attemptto describe
and definethe basisof whatis aurallyright. The ear, Schoenberg has said, is
themusician'ssole brain. I am callingall ears.
If it is once realisedthatthe normalor standardpitchhas changedverygreatlyin the
past hundredyears,thenwe need not excite ourselvesundulyover the transposition of
musicalworksand layanyspecialweighton the presumable intentionsof the composersin
thisrespect. Andthistherefore thequestion: how can we reconcilethe traditional
justifies
theoryof theFthosor characteristic traitsof themodeswiththefactthatMozart'sC major
Symphony, whichat presentis playedaboutthree-fourths of a tone higherthanin his day,
hasstillretainedits C majorcharacter?

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6 TEMPO

In this paragraph, Revesz exposes his basic error-one that has been
committedagain and again in the highestmusical circles. For, paradoxicalas it
mayseem, you can transposenot onlya key,but also its objective key character-
istics,and Rev'sz's entireapproachto the problemis doomed because he thinks,
as he says at the end of his chapter, that " one consequence of the theoryof
key characteristicswould be that the characterof the key would changewith a
changein standardpitch."
Let us keep to his above-cited example. The texturalbasis of the Jupiter
Symphony is the stringquartet. Owing to the interactionof the stringedinstru-
ments' fingerednotes with their characteristicpartialsand the vibrationof the
open strings,let alone the different sets of fingeringsand placingsof open strings
in different keys, there are objective colour differences between the keys when
on
played stringed instruments as distinctfrom, say, the piano. These differences
inevitably result in objective key characteristics, and these characteristicsare
necessarilytransposable. In other words, the strings have been tuned up three-
quarters of a tone since Mozart's day, and most of the sound of
characteristic
C major has been tuned up with them, because the relation of the stringsto
what happens with and upon them has largelyremainedthe same. To take an
elementaryexample, the opening motif of the Jupiterstill rolls up from the
open-stringdominantin all fourparts,and the qualityof the tonic is stillpower-
fullyreinforcedby the vibrationof, interalia, the C-stringin the cello and viola:
Ex.1

Via. 3 3

It would be a totallydifferentpropositionif we tuned down the stringsto a

quarter-toneabove Mozart'spitchand thenproceededto playEx. i in D flatmajor:
Ex. 2

The pitch would be preciselythe same as that at which we nowadaysplay the

symphony,but the differencein characterbetween thesetwo versionsplayedat
thesame pitchwould be extreme,whereasthedifference in characterbetweenEx.
i played at Mozart's pitchand at ours is minimal. For D flatmajorisa veiledand dark
key, again primarilyowing to itscolour on the strings, itsabsolutepitch level.
not
When we include the wind instruments in the texturalpicture,the situation
becomes more complicated,but at the same time the objective key character-
intensified.It is not, however,onlyforthe sake of simplifica-
isticsare, totaliter,
tion thatI am confiningmyselfto the sound of the stringquartet. The strings,
withthe violinat theirhead, are the " leaders " not onlyof theJupiter Symphony,
but of the whole of our music, inasmuchas the question of key characteristics
arises at all. From Bach over Wagner to Schoenberg,theyare the one body of
sound that representsa basic texturalconstant,in chamber music, orchestral
music, or the concerto, in oratorioor opera.

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 KEY CHARACTERISTICS 7

But what, forinstance,of the keyboardworks? Does it matterwhethera

piano sonatais in C major or D flatmajor? Are the objectionsmusicallyrelevant
whichpeople with absolutepitchhave to hearinga C major Sonataof Mozart's in
D flat? Mighttheynot indeed be remindedthatour D flatmajor is much nearer
the pitch at whichMozart composed C major, and thaton the piano thereare no
differences in timbrebetween the keysanyway? The answeris thatwhile Mozart
would be musicallyrightin preferringthe sonata in our D flatmajor, we are
musicallyrightin preferringit in our C major. For by way of association,the
C major of this sonata is investedwith the characteristicswhich the key has
and always will have in the stringquartet,and of which Mozart availed himself
for his own C major frame of mind-be it in the JupiterSymphony,the
'
Dissonance' Quartet, or the great stringQuintet. This associationis in fact
a means of communicationbetween Mozart and his players and listeners; it
happens to be particularlystrongbecause Mozart's greatestsonatas are not his
sonatas, but his string quintets, concertos, string quartets and symphonies.
Indeed, in a well-definablestructuraland evolutionalsense, the stringsare the
" leaders " of the piano sonatastoo.
So far, then, we have encounteredtwo kinds of what are, for all practical
purposes,objective key characteristics.We may call the firstclass acoustic,and
the second class, which is wholly dependent on the first,associative(and,
"
pedanticallyspeaking," objectified ratherthan " objective ").
Now Revesz is at least aware of the half-truth
that-
in the bowed instruments,the open strings,which are thereforericher in overtones, sound
brighterthan the other strings[sic] and give a brightercharacterto the keys in which they
are much used. The naturalnotes of the wind instrumentsalso sound brighterand different
fromthe stopped ones. All this is supposed to have an effecton the absolute characterof the
key.

Revesz lets his knowledge ratherthan his ear speak. The open stringsdo, of
course, sound differentfrom the stopped notes (" the other strings" doesn't
mean anythingand I can only hope thatit is a wrong translation),but the word
" bright," which is ultimatelya visual metaphor,is misleadingin this context.
The open E-string,forone thing,soundsshrillerthanthe same E on the A-string.
There is, moreover,a justifiedassociationin our mindsbetween " bright" and
" brilliant," and the open stringsare by no means more brilliant than the
correspondingfingerednotes. On the contrary,they are dead in comparison,
for the simple reason that the stopped notes are played with vibratowhile the
open stringscan't be, except thatyou can produce slightvibrationby employing
a silentvibratoon the note of the firstovertoneor second partial, e.g. on gi on
the D-stringwhen you actuallyplay the open G. This, however, is onlyfeasible
on longer notes which, with the necessaryexception of the open G on the
violin and the open C on the viola and cello, are practicallynever played un-
fingered,forthe veryreasonthattheyare comparativelydead and tend to fallout
of their colouristic context, and also because in ensemble
playing,adjustmentof
intonationis impossible; I am hardly exaggeratingwhen I say that an open
stringis always out of tune, if only because of its isolated colour. In solo
violin literature,the note g is almost wholly avoided in any but the shortest
values; and in the best exception I know, i.e. the Bruch Concerto in G minor,
a virtue is made of necessity: the comparativelylifelessbut firmnote is used
introductorily,as the groundfromwhich life springsforth:

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8 TEMPO

Ex. 3: Bruch,Violin Concerto,Op. 26, Prelude (Allegro moderato).

Berg's Concerto, whose tone-rowstartswith the G minor triad, is also halfin

G minor and uses not only the G-string,but in factall fouropen stringsin the
same introductorymanner,on the same colouristic principle: as Erwin Stein
once remarkedto me " it startswith Adam," perhaps even beforeAdam:
Ex.4 (a) Berg, Violin Concerto, Introduction (Andante).
Solo Violin

And thoughthe solo part of the Bart6kConcerto opens with, or rises from,but
a short-valuedg, a colouristic 'crescendo' is neverthelessquite definitely

Solo
Violin

Even the prize-crownedPeragallo Concerto (publ. I954), which is shamtwelve-

tonal and in G minor,avails itselfof thisprinciple,ifnot perhapswith complete
aural sensitivity:
Ex. 5
Solo Violin Inlenso

mg ielfl
PV=
ZI,,,

On the other hand, where there is a full-fledgedorchestralexposition, the

possibilityof an open, preparatorysolo beginningdoes not so readilyarise. In
the whole of his G major Concerto, Mozart touches this tonic g only briefly
in two passages. In the longer instance (Ex. 6 (b)) he goes to the trouble of
functionalisingits colour by preparingit, in the exposition(Ex. 6 (a) ), by way
of a D that combines the sound of the open D-stringwith that of the fingered
G-string!
Ex. 6: Mozart, K. 216, first movement.

Exposition

Recapitulation

Indeed, even in what mightbe considered the pure passage work of the last
movement (Ex. 7), he lets the separate colour play a constructivepart in the
form,embeddingit at the same time,as in the case of Ex. 6, in the texture:

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 KEY CHARACTERISTICS 9

Ex.7
Solo Violin

?r ?| - - I -1-----------
Strings etc.
And Vivaldi, in the G minor Concerto from his Op. 6, avoids the tonic g
throughout.
I have gone into this question in some detail because I want to point to the
incredible dangers of any pseudo-scientificapproach to problems of musical
sound and composition-for key characteristics are, in the last resort,a problem
of composition. Revesz picks out a correct factor two, but since he does not
thinkaurally,he disregardsmanyrelevantfactswhichare not taughtby acoustics;
and mostof thesemake forthe oppositesound to the one he describesor implies.
" The open stringswhich are richerin overtones" are an acoustic ratherthan
an aural proposition,foraurallytheyare not rich: theirwealth of overtonesis
counteractedby their relative povertyof living tone and tone-modulation. In
German,theyare called " emptystrings,"whichmetaphordescribestheirsound
much more unambiguouslythan Revesz's " brightness." Nor are there any
keysin which " the open stringsare much used " so faras notes of melodic and
rhythmic weightare concerned,and the r8le of theactualnotesof theopen strings
in the determinationof key characteristicsis, therefore,relativelyunimportant.
Of course, in connection with its favourabletechnical consequences, such a
circumstanceas that, say, this imaginarypassage in the violin's pet key of D
major-
Ex. 8

-contains the open stringsat the crucial juncturesof the subdominant,tonic,

dominant,and dominant's dominant,does contributeto the brilliance of the
key, not because the open stringsare in themselvesbrilliant,but because (a)
decisive degrees are colouristicallyaccentuatedby the veryfact that theysound
" different "; (b) the changesof stringare easy; and (c) the changefromone
string-colourto the next makes harmonico-rhythmic sense. Brilliance always
ensues when there is a perfectmarriagebetween sound and sense, both taking
and giving. For the rest, the relativeimportanceor unimportanceof the actual
sound of the open stringwhen it is used is well illustratedby our own Ex. i.
The open G does not, as R'vesz would suggest, sound " bright "
at all, though it does mark even this short dominant by dint of its
isolated colour. For the rest, its significanceis negative: by contrast, the
dominantupbeat throws the livelier colour of the tonic main beat into relief
and, indeed serves as an "open " starting-pointfor this ascending climax
enminiature.It is the colour of the tonic C thatis C major's mostimportantsingle
" charactertrait" in the firsttwo bars of the symphony.
Upon consideration,R~vdsz mightwell agree with us as faras our criticism
of his descriptionof the open strings'functionis concerned, but he would still
challenge our positive assertionof key characteristics.For the reply, quoted
below, which he gives to his last-quotedsentence, " All thisis supposed to have

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10 TEMPO

an effecton key characteristics,"is either wrong, or it would demolish our

own submissiontoo:
It is not difficultto prove the untenabilityof this hypothesis. We will only point to one
circumstance. If timbre had a decisive influenceon the phenomena or absolute character
of the keys, then one and thesamekey,played on differentinstruments,mightbe expected to
manifesta conspicuous difference; which, however, is inconsistentwith experience.

Revesz's apparent disproofis, in actual fact, a strongerproof of the decisive

influenceof colour on key characteristics thanall the proofshe seeks to explode.
What, precisely," is inconsistentwith experience "? That the C major scale
played on the violin sounds conspicuously differentfrom the C major scale
playedon the piano? Hardly,forin thatcase we shouldnot be able to distinguish
between the two. What, then, his intended empirical proof would make us
believe is that the differences we hear between the two have nothingto do with
key characteristics. But that is a petitioprincipii,a wholesale beggingof the
question. What Revesz wishes to remindus of is that the identityof the key
is retained. So it is-either because we have absolute pitch or because we
rememberit. That pitch defineskey is no particularnews. The question is
what, musically,definespitch. In Ex. 2, we have seen how our C major can
become most D-flat-majorishwithout changingits absolute pitch, owing to
what we have felt entitled to call acoustic key characteristics. We have also
submittedthe fact of associativekey characteristicwhich investa key with its
stringcharactereven when the stringsaren't anywherenear it. It is on the
basis of these associative characteristics,of which Revesz is unconscious, that
he commits the obvious fallacyof concluding that there is no " conspicuous
difference" between the violin's and the piano's C major scale: withoutbeing
aware of it, he or his adviserhears the piano in the acoustic lightof the violin.
(I do not, of course, know which instrumentshe was concretelythinkingof
when he wrote this passage, but the principle remains the same in any case.)
Thus, his would-be disproofactuallyprovesthe existenceof associativecharacter-
istics and, hence, of acoustic characteristics.
At the end of his disproof, immediatelyafter the last sentence of our
quotation, Revesz deals what he thinksis the death-blowat every colouristic
theoryof key characteristics: " The consequences for the orchestra of such
a concept should be clear to anyone." In the abstract,this sounds plausible
enough: ifkeyssound different on differentinstruments,thenan orchestrawould
always seem to playpolytonally. But what happens when we makeour ears think?
Inasmuchas theydon't supporteach other's keycolour anyway,the different
instrumentsare ruled by the colour scheme of the stringquartet, not only or
always directly,but also by means of our associative characteristics. Within
the stringbody, the violin playsthe same predominantr1le. Thus, thoughthere
are threeinstruments in Mozart's G minorQuintetwhose keycolour corresponds
to whatwould be the colour of D minoron the two violins,it is still the violin's
own G minor that rules-however democratically-the colour scheme of the
work: the lower instruments'contradictionsare changed into complements.
It goes without sayingthat a creator's or listener's perfect pitch will easily
reinforcethe associative characteristicsfor him without his being necessarily
aware of the process. At the same time, colouristiccontradictionscan be made
to serve that very ' polytonality' of colour schemes whose mere possibility
Rivisz excludes by ironic implication. There will, of course, still be a ruling
key colour, just as there alwaysis a rulingkey in complete polytonality.

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 KEY CHARACTERISTICS 13

My last suggestionmay sound highlytheoretical,but it is in factbased, like

everythingelse in this article, on aural experience. It may be remembered-
thoughmodern books* have, on the whole, ceased to referto the fact-that
Mozart's SinfoniaConcertante for violin, viola, and orchestraemploysa so-called
scordatura, which means thatwhile the work is in E flat,the solo viola part is (or
was originally)writtenin D, so thatthe instrument had to be tunedup a semitone
in order to play at the pitch-levelof E flat. Modern editionsand modernplayers
have altogetherdispensedwith this " mistuning": the part is now writtenin
E flat and played on the normally-tunedinstrument. Why? Because, it is
generallyheld, Mozart's device was purelypracticaland the need forit no longer
exists: while the viola partis easier to playin D, you can, withmodernimprove-
mentsin instrumental technique,be just as virtuosicin E flatas in D.
In my considered opinion, this " practical" explanation and expulsion
of Mozart's scordatura is a musical absurdity,inspiredby our technique-conscious
age which is so proud of its standardsof execution. E flatis, in all conscience, a
difficult" virtuosokey " on the violin; the only other fiddleconcerto at home
in it is the one which Mozart left, significantly enough, unfinished(K. 268;
K6chel-Einstein365b), and which sounds awful even in what are thoughtto be
the most authenticpassages. Indeed, if you want to tune one of the Sinfonia's
two concertante instrumentsup for practicalreasons, you will find the violin
ratherthan the viola a suitable object for your attentions. E flaton the viola
correspondsto B flaton the violin, which is not a particularlyoutrageouskey
and was in fact used by Mozart for his very firstviolin concerto. To be sure,
E flaton the viola is slightlymore difficult ifyou have small hands,and markedly
more if
difficult you have one of those outsized moderninstruments which sound
like a violin with a tropical disease-but Mozart hadn't.
The reason why he chose a relativelydifficultkey for the violin in the
double concerto is that strainedpassages are throughoutpart of the structure
(the viola being a technicallyheavierinstrument anyway)-
Ex.9
Solo Violin__Nf-

-a circumstancetotallydisregardedby modernvirtuososwho make it all sound

as easy as possible; and the reason why, at the same time, he toned down the
colour of the instrumentwas thathe-who foundshrillcolours painfulanyway,
as witnesshis dislike for the violin and fluteand his love for the viola-wanted
to " meet " the characteristiccolour of the viola half-way: the Concertante
is altogethera " dark " work.
Conversely,he brightenedup the viola by way of the scordatura, lettingit
play, overtonallyspeaking,in D major, which correspondsto A major on the
violin, the key of his last authenticfiddle concerto. Now, on the basis of this
relativeblendof instrumental colours,this aural tertium
comparationis,he developed
his contrastofkeycolours. For E flatsounds verycharacteristicon the violin, and
D major sounds very characteristicon the viola. Paradoxicallyenough, the
D major characterof the viola part is intensifiedratherthan weakened by the
fact that the instrumentactuallyplays in E flat. Readers with acute ears and
absolutepitch (the two do not by anymeansalwaysgo together)will immediately
sense what I mean: the tension between the D major colour and the E flat
* e.g. Eric Blom's Mozart or Abraham Veinus's Concerto.

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14 TEMPO

pitch throws the formerinto relief. The contrast will, of course, become
particularlystrikingin thiskind of undisturbedcadenza passage:
Ex. 10
Solo Violin

etc.

Yet the orchestraplays its part in the contrasttoo, above all the violinsand, of
course, the violas themselves:a perusalof the score fromthispointof view shows
thatMozart was constantlyaware of the different colour schemes,which modern
has to
performance brought nought.
I considerthatit is in this kind of latentkey contrastwithinthe unityof a
manifestmonotonalitythatthe true musical root of polytonalitylies. Revesz's,
and practically everybody else's, investigationsare hampered by the pre-
supposed distinctionbetween pitch and colour. The furthest-reaching ear in
musicalhistory,however,has challengedthisdistinction. On the last page of his
Theory ofHarmony, Schoenbergremarks:
I cannot unreservedlyagree with the distinctionbetween colour and pitch. I findthat
a note is perceived by its colour, one of whose dimensionsis pitch. Colour, then, is the
great realm, pitch one of its provinces. [My translation.]
I suggest that every acute ear must agree with this seeminglyrevolutionary
suggestion,and thatthe onlypossibleway of approachingthe questionof objective
key characteristicsleads over instrumental
colour.
Not that all essential key characteristicsare objective or objectified.
Revesz observesveryrelevantlythat " it can be thatthe composerspreferthose
keys thathave been especiallyfamiliarto them ever since theiryouth," though
I should more cautiouslysay that they may preferthem for certain purposes.
Our much-discussedC major, for instance,is a " simple " key for,as well as a
characteristicpet key of, both Mozart and Britten. Its potential simplicityI
propose to class undermy thirdheading,thatof psychologicalkey characteristics.
These become intrinsicinasmuch as they are generalised into psychological
terms of reference and so develop into means of communication. Mozart's
" simple " C major, forinstance,
Allegro
Ex. 11

J
is both an effectand a cause of the " intrinsic" simplicityof the key-an effect
because Mozart was not the only child who approachedmusic by way of the key-
board and itswhitekeys,and a cause because his use of the keymade its simplicity
more suggestivethanever and reinforcedinfantilememoriesin others.
Psychologicalkey characteristics can, however,be intrinsicwithoutexisting
outside the work of a single composer, as long as theydevelop general validity
within. Take Mozart's G minor. Can anyone fullyunderstandhis G minor
works or movementsor arias who does not feel what the key meant to the
composer? It was doubtlessof elementalsignificance.How so?
My complex answer must needs be hypothetical,but at least it springs
direct frommy experience of Mozart's music. Both D and G are " simple "
tonalitieson the stringedinstruments. D tends to be primarilymajor, G-
because of the dark sonorityof the G-string-more easily minor. D is the

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 KEY CHARACTERISTICS 15

violin's own tonality; whereason Mozart's own stringedinstrument,the viola,

the correspondingtonalityis G. So much forthe infantilebasis. What about the
specific creative cause? For Mozart, a certain relativekey characteristic,i.e.
thatof the dominantminor, alwayshad an overpoweringsignificance. Now his
G minor pieces tend to starton a high level suppressedtension. Harmonically,
theysound as if theydeveloped in the dominantminor of an unstatedkey. My
suggestionis that theydo so: Mozart's unconscious avails itselfof three deep,
infantileexperiences,of the violin, the viola, and the piano, and uses the simple
tonalitiesof the formertwo for the purpose of establishingthe dominantminor
of thepiano's simplekey, C major, as a meansof intenseand nostalgicexpression.
The fact that D minor is, for him, a sister-in-tragedy would seem to support
my interpretation: it is not only the violin's correspondingkey to the viola's
"
G minor, but also the dominant minor of simple " G!
F minor, on the other hand, is a key which, in Mozart's work, again and
again assumesthe characterof mock tragedy. Here are two exampleswhich will
easilybe remembered:
Ex. 12: "Figaro"' No. 23. Andante.
BARBARINA

L'ho per - du - ta, me-me - schi - na!

EiF. 13:"Cosi fan tutte'" No. 5. Allegro agitato.

ALFONSO

Vor- rel dir, e cor non ho, e cor non ho

Why is this? Again, I wish to offera depth-psychological interpretation

which is hardlymore than a rationalisationof purely musical reactions. For
Haydn,F minorhad a similarsignificance to thatwhichG minorhadforMozart(and
C minorforBeethoven). Mozart'sadmirationforHaydnwas boundless,reinforced
by personal friendshipand Haydn's own admirationfor him, and untinged-as
far as reliable informationgoes-by hostility. Psychoanalysishas taught us,
however, that where there is a father(figure),there is hostilitytowardshim,
overt,suppressed,or repressedby greatlove. Is it too fancifulto assumethatthe
ionisationof F minorwas a subtlemeanswherebyMozart's unconscious allowed
itselfto dischargeits ambivalence,which would have been absolutelyintolerable
on the conscious level?
If my interpretationis correct, the delicate question arises whether this
kind of psychologicalkey characteristicis intrinsic,whetherwe may regardit as
a means of communication. From the standpointof Mozart's consciousmind-
certainlynot; forhis unconscious-certainlyyes.
Within the space at my disposal, I have not been able to do more than
refuteProf. Riv~sz's negative theoryand replace it by a fundamentaloutline
of what are, in my opinion, the three classes of audible and demonstrablekey
characteristics--onthe objective level, the acoustic and associative character-
istics, and on the subjectivelevel (which, however, easilyassumesmore or less
generalvalidity),the psychologicalcharacteristics.I have given at least a hint
of thecomplexpossibilitiesoftheirinteraction,whichis oftenfurthercomplicated
by obvious relativekey characteristics,i.e. those produced by the function
of a keywithina givenharmonicstructure. But howevergreatthe complications

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16 TEMPO

and even contradictions betweenthe audible elementsof key-soundand key-sense,

the elements themselvesare simple enough aurally, and the time-honoured,
sceptical reminderthat standardpitch has drasticallychanged in the course of
the ages is an utterlyirrelevantpiece of one-upmanship. That it is this century
that doubts the existence of key characteristicswith ever renewed vigour is a
sad symptom: a large sectionof our musicalworld is movingaway fromits ears.

HOW WESTERN MUSIC

CAME TO JAPAN
by TakatoshiYoshida
To begin this article, I ought to give a picture of the condition of Japanese
Society a centuryago, when European culture was firstintroducedinto Japan.
Until a century ago Japan had been ruled by Shogun Tokugawa, an
administratorof the feudal age, under whose policy of isolation we had no
possibilityof assimilatingeither European or Oriental civilisation. In the year
1867 a civil war against the Shogun brought to an end the feudal systemin
Japan. The revolutionaryarmy,which was supportingthe Emperor,established
a new governmentand opened up the countryto foreigncommerce. To make
up for the backwardnesscaused by three centuriesof isolation, they took an
extreme course and europeanisedthe countryin a very short time. Not only
did theysend a great numberof youngscholarsto Europe to be trainedthere,
but they also invited European advisors into governmentand many other
importantposts. Eagerly the upper classes set about changingthe ancient
customsof their country: theytook a special pride in wearingEuropean dress
and discardingall signsof traditionalJapaneselife. In fact, verysoon Japanese
aristocratsvied with each other to appear at the soirees of the European
Diplomatic Corps in the most fashionableEuropean dress, dancingto European
music minuets and waltzes instead of traditionalJapanesedances and Japanese
music, and speakingFrench. Soon the progressivemiddle classes triedto imitate
this zest for europeanisation. They wore kimonos with European shoes and
bowler hats, smoked big cigars, and sang ' Home Sweet Home' in English in
the street.
In the year I90o2 the National Academy of Music was founded and the
Governmentinvited European teachers,togetherwith a few Japaneseteachers
who had been trainedin Europe to give courses in piano, harmonium,violin,
and singing,beginningwith the most elementaryteachingof Solfeggioand simple
technique. At its concertspopular music was played, thoughsince only parents
of the studentscame to hear thisEuropeanmusic the latterused to collect their
audiences fromthe street. Before theybegan the teacherwould give a lecture
about each piece to be played, and the audience would listen to the music with
awe, as if to a sermon in church. The performanceswere generallybad, but
the audiences (trained in the Japanese traditionof politeness) listened with
patience, though without understanding. Not so the children-who would
throwpaper fansand paper birdson to the platform,and generallymisbehave!
The next stagewas the introductionof the gramophone. His Master'sVoice
and Columbia broughtto Japanrecordingsof the world's mostfamousorchestras

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