[Smt-talk] F SHARP MAJOR

[Ildar Khannanov]

Dear Conor and the List,

I have published an article on music of Dmitri Tiomkin for the High Noon in the Film Music Journal. His Oscar-winning ballade Do not forsake me, o my darling is written in D flat major. It is difficult to visualize this key while horse-riding and singing on the prairie, and the guitar is not the best friend of this key! However, considering Dmitri's lessons with Glazunov it does not seem far fetched at all.


Best wishes,

Ildar Khannanov
Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University
solfeggio7 at yahoo.com
On Monday, May 19, 2014 3:44 PM, Conor Cook <conor.p.cook at gmail.com> wrote:
  


Have any scholars examined keys in film scores or broadway?  The number and nature of keys changes often require extremely full key signatures and key area juxtapositions.

Best,
Conor Cook, MMus, M.A.
LaSalle Catholic Parishes

On May 19, 2014, at 10:54 AM, Michael Luxner <mluxner at mail.millikin.edu> wrote:


Dear all, 

I wonder if anyone has an idea why the composers of 19th-century Italian opera, from Bel Canto to late Verdi, are so partial to keys with more than four flats, and why they chose these keys on the flat side as opposed to the so-called "enharmonic" equivalents on the sharp side?  I've long suspected that it has something to do the primary role of the piano in the gestation and rehearsal of these works, but no evidence.   

Michael Luxner 
Millikin University

>>> Donna Doyle <donnadoyle at att.net> 5/19/2014 7:11 AM >>>
 
Dear Steve, 
 
Notice that most of your list's pieces are for keyboard. Take a look at your hand, place it outstretched on a keyboard and observe where your fingers rest. F#M/GbM are the most comfortable keys for pianists--long fingers on the black keys, short finger(s) on the white. 19th c pianist-composers experienced this. A story goes that when Schubert submitted his GbM Moment Musical for publication, the publisher took away the flats to sell more copies and ended up with left-over inventory. Also, who was the American songwriter who played everything in C#M on a transposing keyboard? Why not CM? Lastly, one need only observe a good church organist to know that just about anything can be managed on the keyboard by skillful hands (hence the WTC).   
 
Best regards,
Donna Doyle 

 
Adjunct Assistant Professor 
Aaron Copland School of Music 
Queens College 
Flushing, New York 11367 
 
On May 18, 2014, at 10:38 PM, Stephen Jablonsky <jablonsky at optimum.net> wrote:

 
I know that many of our members in academe are preparing for the end of the school year and have little time for a dalliance with a particular key and the rest of you have busy lives as well. I, on the other hand, being a lifteime composer, have a mild case of OCD and could not let go of this inquiry into the frequency of usage of F sharp major. A cursory search of the Internet, and some help from friends, has produced what may be the first definitive list of works in this very rare key. Obviously, the list does not include works that attempt to do things in every key. G flat major is another story for another day. 
>
> 
>Beethoven                   Sonata No. 24, op.78 
>Chopin                        Nocturne op. 15, No. 2; Barcarole, op. 60; Impromptu, op. 36 
>Dvorak                        Humoresque, B. 138 (op. 32) 
>Huré                           Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 3 
>Korngold                     Symphony, op. 40 
>Liszt                            “Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude” from Harmonies poetique et religieuses, III 
>Mahler                        Symphony No. 10 
>Scarlatti                      Sonatas, K. 318 and 319 
>Schumann                  Romance, op. 28, No. 2 
>Scriabin                      Sonata No. 4, op. 30; Poeme, op. 32. No. 1 
>Soler                           Sonata, Rubio 90 
>
> 
>
>
>Dr. Stephen Jablonsky, Ph.D. 
>Music Department Chair 
>The City College of New York 
>Shepard Hall Room 72 
>New York NY 10031 
>(212) 650-7663 
>music at ccny.cuny.edu 
>
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