question: Why is it that we hear the minor key as sadder and darker, but the major key as happier
comment: It's not universal. You are the product of the Western tonal tradition, so you have absorbed a lot of associations. But it's not necessarily associated that way in other musical cultures, or even throughout the history of Western music. & #x200B; But interestingly, Hindemith wrote that the minor triad is inherently stressful, because it is not found in the harmonic series, whereas the major triad is in partials 4-5-6.
passages: The distinctive sound of the harmonic minor scale comes from the augmented second between its sixth and seventh scale degrees. While some composers have used this interval to advantage in melodic composition, others felt it to be an awkward leap, particularly in vocal music, and preferred a whole step between these scale degrees for smooth melody writing. To eliminate the augmented second, these composers either raised the sixth degree by a semitone or lowered the seventh by a semitone. 
   Vocal music, with its explicit and verbally defined narrative and programmatic allegiances, perhaps featured the initial exploration of 'progressive tonality.' While J.S. Bach in his instrumental and orchestral suites would often place every movement in the same key (see, for example, the solo cello Suites, BWV 1007-1012 or the equally homotonal A minor solo flute partita BWV 1013), in a work like his "St Matthew Passion" he felt able to 'progress' from an E minor start to an ending in C minor, and his Mass in B minor actually ends in D major. Nor, after the establishment of opera, did composers feel compelled to end even individual operatic acts and scenes in the starting key. Single operatic 'numbers' which (usually for some discernible dramatic and expressive purpose) fail to return to their original tonics can also be found—while in the quartets, symphonies and sonatas of the time such a practise was exceedingly uncommon.
   Composers have not been consistent in using the two forms of the melodic minor scale. Just as often, composers choose one form or the other based on whether one of the two notes is part of the most recent chord (the prevailing harmony). Composers frequently require the lowered 7th degree found in the natural minor in order to avoid the augmented triad (III) that arises in the ascending form of the scale.
  
  In jazz, only the ascending form of the scale is usually used.
   With regard to intervals, the words "major" and "minor" mean large and small. Thus, a major third is a slightly wider interval than a minor third. The second, third, sixth, and seventh intervals (and compound intervals based on them) may be either major or minor. In Western music, a minor chord "sounds darker than a major chord".
   The major second was historically considered one of the most dissonant intervals of the diatonic scale, although much 20th-century music saw it reimagined as a consonance. It is common in many different musical systems, including Arabic music, Turkish music and music of the Balkans, among others. It occurs in both diatonic and pentatonic scales.
  
  . Here, middle C is followed by D, which is a tone 200 cents sharper than C, and then by both tones together.
  
  Section::::Major and minor tones.
   While it evolved primarily as a basis for chords, the harmonic minor with its augmented second is sometimes used melodically. Instances can be found in Mozart, Beethoven (for example, the finale of his String Quartet No. 14), and Schubert (for example, in the first movement of the "Death and the Maiden Quartet"). In this role, it is used while descending far more often than while ascending. 
   Examples of the use of melodic minor in rock and popular music include Elton John's "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word", which makes, "a nod to the common practice... by the use of F [the leading tone in G minor] as the penultimate note of the final cadence."
  
  Section::::Key signature.
   A helpful way to recognize a major third is to hum the first two notes of "Kumbaya" or of "When the Saints Go Marching In". A descending major third is heard at the starts of "Goodnight, Ladies" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".
   Section::::Keys.
  
  The hallmark that distinguishes major keys from minor is whether the third scale degree is major or minor. "The crucial difference is that in the minor scale there is only a half step between "2nd and 3rd note" and between "5th and 6th note" as compared to the major scales where the difference between "3rd and 4th note" and between "7th and 8th note" is half." This alteration in the third degree "greatly changes" the mood of the music, and "music based on minor scales tends to" be considered to "sound serious or melancholic".
  
  Section::::Keys.:Minor keys.
   In the natural minor scale, all scale degrees are the same as the relative major. For example, in the "A minor natural scale", the notes are A-B-C-D-E-F-G. In a harmonic minor scale, the 7th note is raised a semitone, both ascending and descending (A-B-C-D-E-F-G). In a melodic minor scale, the 6th and 7th notes ascending are raised a semitone (A-B-C-D-E-F-G), and descending, the 6th and 7th notes are natural (A-B-C-D-E-F-G).
  
  Section::::Intonation and tuning.
   Attempting the same exercise in more recent tonal classical music would mean relating a mood to the major and minor modes. In that case there is some consensus that the minor scale is "sadder" and the major scale is "happier".
  
  Section::::Modulation.
   The A natural minor scale has some historical connections. Before major and minor scales became prevalent in Western art music, music, especially the early liturgical music that has been so influential on Pärt, used a system of modes. The idea of musical modes was known to the ancient Greeks, and each was said to have a specific character which could strongly affect the mind. The church modes are formed by using the notes of the C major scale (i.e., the white keys on a piano) but starting at different notes in each mode. A scale of A with no black keys is in the Aeolian mode. Since all natural minor scales derive from the white keys on the piano played from A to A, in choosing the A minor scale Pärt is acknowledging his debt to early church music, or at least affirming his affinity with it.
   In J.S.Bach's "Clavier-Übung III", there is a two-part passage where, according to : "It will be seen that this is a canon at the fourth below; as it is a strict canon, all the intervals of the leading 'voice' are exactly imitated by the following 'voice', and since the key of the leading part is D minor modulating to G minor, that of the following part is necessarily A minor modulating to D minor. Here, then, we have a case of polytonality, but Bach has so adjusted his progressions (by the choice at the critical moment of notes common to two keys) that while the right hand is doubtless quite under the impression that the piece is in D minor, etc., and the left hand that it is in A minor, etc., the listener feels that the whole thing is homogeneous in key, though rather ﬂuctuating from moment to moment. In other words, Bach is trying to make the best of both worlds—the homotonal one of his own day and (prophetically) the polytonal one of a couple of centuries later."
   Major and minor keys that share the same key signature are "relative" to each other. For instance, F major is the relative major of D minor since both have key signatures with one flat. Since the natural minor scale is built on the 6th degree of the major scale, the tonic of the relative minor is a major sixth above the tonic of the major scale. For instance, B minor is the relative minor of D major because the note B is a major sixth above D. As a result, the key signatures of B minor and D major both have two sharps (F and C).
   The minor scale can be described in two different ways. One way is to consider it as the sixth mode of a major scale, while the other is to call it a variation of the major scale, with the third scale degrees always lowered (or altered) and the sixth and seventh degrees often lowered.
  
  Minor keys are sometimes said to have a more interesting, possibly darker sound than plain major scales. The minor mode, with its variable sixth and seventh degrees, offers nine notes, in C: C-D-E-F-G-A-A-B-B, over the major mode's seven, in C: C-D-E-F-G-A-B.
   Section::::Critical reception.:Accolades.
   Because of this construction, the 7th degree of the harmonic minor scale functions as a leading tone to the tonic because it is a "semitone" lower than the tonic, rather than a "whole tone" lower than the tonic as it is in natural minor scales. The intervals between the notes of a harmonic minor scale follow the sequence below:
  
  Section::::Harmonic minor scale.:Harmony.
   Because they are generated by just one interval, the inversions of augmented triads and diminished seventh chords introduce no new intervals (allowing for enharmonic equivalents) that are absent from its root position. That is, any inversion of an augmented triad (or diminished seventh chord) is enharmonically equivalent to a new augmented triad (or diminished seventh chord) in root position. For example, the triad E–G–B in first inversion is G–B–E, which is enharmonically equivalent to the augmented triad G–B–D. One chord, with various spellings, may therefore have various harmonic functions in various keys.
  
  Section::::Harmonic minor scale.:Uses.
   while at the same time urging the pious to the divine will of resignation:
  
  The pull of these two worlds presented in the text, the death of the body and the acceptance of this fact in the wait for eternal life beyond, is reflected in the music with the sudden shifts between a minor and C major, resulting in the clash between the G sharp and G natural, even at one point with a cadence of an E major/minor chord.
  
  The group of tunebooks that Stephen Jenks helped release are as follows:
  
  BULLET::::- "The New-England Harmonist". Danbury, Connecticut, 1799.
   "I met Chris Braide in London when he was only 24 years old, yet he was so mature as a songwriter and a consummate musician. Chris could sing and play any of his songs effortlessly on piano or guitar and he and I spent many days and weeks at Church Studios experimenting amongst the vortex of creative chaos that tends to surround me and I could see that Chris was soaking up everything and enjoying being amongst lots of other crazy artists. Chris could sing like a bird and he also could attract a lot of birds too! He had the whole package………..amazing musician, great songwriter, fantastic voice and if that wasn’t enough he looked like a young Marc Bolan! So after a while I marched him off to Greenwich village in NYC where I bought him a silver glitter guitar and we spent time in the Jimi Hendrix Studio Electric Lady where in the early hours of the morning we staggered out with a great album. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it!" Dave Stewart, Los Angeles, 2012
   In modern notation, the key signature for music in a minor key is typically based on the accidentals of the "natural" minor scale, not on those of the harmonic or melodic minor scales. For example, a piece in E minor will have one sharp in its key signature because the E natural minor scale has one sharp (F).
   Kuepper has been asked to provide a song to "Love Goes On: A Tribute To Grant McLennan" and then also included the song on his album "Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog". Kuepper said, "It was important to me to do something relatively recent of his. But it also reminded me that back in the early 80's when the Gobs first moved to Sydney, Grant crashed at my house for a while. We had a bit of a chat about music and Grant [told] me quite earnestly 'Ed, you'll never have a hit record if you keep writing songs in minor keys'. I laughed and let it pass because he was a young country boy in the big smoke for the first time and I could vaguely remember what that was like. I mention this because even though I like the lyric the main thing that attracted me to "Finding You" was the fact it had been written in A minor."
   Though modulation from the minor to relative major is common in the Classical and Romantic periods, Donald Tovey criticizes the idea that the keys have much in common, stating that, "the so-called 'relative major' is one of five equally direct relations to a minor tonic and the 'relative minor' is one of five to a major tonic. The [most closely related] minor mode of C [major] is not...A minor, but C minor." (Note that C minor is not a "minor mode of C major" in the strict sense that C minor can be found by starting C major on a different note; obviously, they start on the same note. Instead, Tovey simply means that C minor is the most closely related minor mode out of all the modes of all keys.)
   Because of this, the key of A minor is called the "relative minor" of C major. Every major key has a relative minor, which starts on the 6th scale degree or step. For instance, since the 6th degree of F major is D, the relative minor of F major is D minor.
  
  Section::::Natural minor scale.:Relationship to parallel major.
  
  A natural minor scale can also be constructed by altering a major scale with accidentals. In this way, a natural minor scale is represented by the following notation:
   The scale is called the "harmonic" minor scale because it is a common foundation for harmonies (chords) in minor keys. For example, in the key of A minor, the dominant (V) chord (the triad built on the 5th scale degree, E) is a minor triad in the natural minor scale. But when the seventh degree is raised from G to G, the triad becomes a major triad.
  
presuppositions: Everyone hears the minor key as sadder and darker and the major key as happier.  Minor key music sounds sadder than major key music.
corrections: Not everyone shares the same opinion about major and minor keys in music.  It is not universal to hear minor key music as sad.
raw_presuppositions: Everyone hears the minor key as sadder and darker and the major key as happier.  Minor key music sounds sadder than major key music.
raw_corrections: Not everyone shares the same opinion about major and minor keys in music.  It is not universal to hear minor key music as sad.