C major, said Galeazzi, was “a grandiose, military key, fit to display grand events, serious, majestic.” As for C minor, it was “a tragic key . . . fit to express grand misadventures, deaths of heroes, and grand but mournful, ominous, and lugubrious actions.” D minor was “extremely melancholy and gloomy”; B-flat major, “tender, soft, sweet, effeminate, fit to express transports of love, charm, and grace”; E major, “very piercing, shrill, youthful, narrow and, somewhat harsh”;22 E-flat major, “a heroic key, extremely majestic, grave, and serious: in all these features it is superior to that of
...more
The keys
