Free The complete idiot's guide to classical music by Robert Sherman, Philip Seldon, Naixin He Page A

white and five black notes within an octave) is called a chromatic scale; one using a specific selection of those notes, forming either a major or minor scale, is called diatonic. The major scales tend to have a bright, upbeat quality, most easily illustrated by starting on a C and playing only the white keys: i.e., C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. A Major scale is made up of three whole tones followed by a half tone going up the scale. The minor scales reflect more melancholy moods. There are many types of minor scales but for the sake of simplicity we will discuss only the “natural minor.” Again starting on C is C-D-E -F-G-A -B -C.
     
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      Music Words
A chromatic scale is a scale based on an octave of 12 semitones, as opposed to a seven-note diatonic scale. A major scale is one built on the following sequence of intervals: T-T-D-T-T-T-S where T=tone and S=semitone. A minor scale is built on the following sequence of intervals: T-S-T-T-S-T-T.
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    Other selections of notes, often called modes, were in use during the Middle Ages, and are still used today in other cultures. Nor is the division of an octave into 12 tones universally accepted: Arabic music has 17 tones, several Czech composers have used quarter-tone scorings, the Mexican composer Julian Carrillo constructed instruments capable of producing sixteenth-tones, and the American Harry Partch built a harpsichord-like keyboard contraption with 43 tones to the octave.
Keys to the Tonal Kingdom
    Except for pieces in the 12-tone system, where every note is equal to every other note, most works—certainly those
    written before the 20th century—have a tonal center. When a work is listed in C Major or F-sharp minor, it means that C (or F-sharp) is the basic tone on which the rest of the music is constructed. The piece may shift into other keys as the piece goes along, but even so, each section of the work maintains that sense of unity, gives us the feeling of starting from and returning to a home base. Usually, the sharps or flats that belong to each key are printed at the top of each score, at the left end of each line of music, and at any point within the score where the key changes; these listings are called key signatures. (In Mahler’s Symphony no. 6, there are episodes in all 24 major and minor keys, each of them marked by an appropriate shift in key signature.)
     
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      Important Things to Know
Composers choose different keys to evoke different moods. In very general terms, the major keys have a brighter, more optimistic sound, the minor ones are more melancholy, even somber. Then, even within those two primary divisions, each scale has a slightly different center of pitch, and therefore a somewhat different emotional cast. Most composers look on C Major as a bright, carefree key, for instance, while G minor often signifies music of more serious or dramatic nature. The layperson may not be able to distinguish between these keys; however, with experience you can tell the difference when a composer switches keys within a piece. The trained musician can tell the key on hearing it.
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    One way to indicate how a composer views these subtleties of sound and mood is to consider the keys of the Beethoven symphonies. The first two, shorter and lighter than most of the rest, are in the cheery majors of C and D Major, respectively.
    The groundbreaking, revolutionary Eroica bears the more heroic key of E-flat. The charming Fourth Symphony is in B-flat, while the far more powerful Fifth Symphony is in C minor. In the Pastoral Symphony, the beauties of nature are displayed in the sunny key of F; the exhilarating Seventh dances along in A Major and the lighthearted (comparatively) Eighth returns to F Major. For the mighty Ninth Symphony, though, Beethoven chooses the darker key of D minor, until the “Ode to Joy” modulates to a jubilant D Major conclusion. Different composers, of course, will read widely diverse meanings into any given key, but that, as the saying