Piano Guidance
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What does E minor feel like?

Pauer's key characteristics for E minor are that it: “…represents grief, mournfulness, and restlessness of spirit.” The relative scarcity of pieces E major is addressed by the relatively large number of pieces in E minor.

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Haydn: Symphony No. 44 in E Minor, Hob.I:44, “Trauersinfonie” (Mourning): I. Allegro con brio (RIAS Symphony Orchestra; Ferenc Fricsay, cond.) Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 27 in E Minor, Op. 90: I. Con vivacità e sempre con sentimento ed espressione (Jenő Jandó, piano) Paganini: 24 Caprices: No. 3. E minor. Sostenuto – Presto – Sostenuto (Midori, violin)

Paganini: 24 Caprices: No. 3. E minor. Posato (Midori, violin)

In our earlier series on C major and minor G major and minor , and D major and minor , and A major and minor , we listed Ernst Pauer’s suggestions from 1876 of pieces that fit the particular affect he assigned for a key. For the rest of the major and minor keys, he left us the attributes but not list of pieces.Pauer’s key characteristics for E minor are that it: “…represents grief, mournfulness, and restlessness of spirit.”The relative scarcity of pieces E major is addressed by the relatively large number of pieces in E minor. This, it turns out, is a favorite key for guitarists, as it follows a guitar’s standard tuning; and, as it turns out, it is also a favorite key for heavy metal music, not especially known for its joyful lyrics.To return to the world of Classical music, it’s only fitting that Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 is in E minor. It carries the nickname of ‘Trauer’ (mourning), given to it by Haydn himself. Haydn requested that the third movement, a slow Adagio, be played at his funeral, but this isn’t quite what it seems, as that movement is in E major. For the first movement, however, is as sad a E minor can be.Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 27 certainly captures all the feeling of restlessness one could want. The name of the movement, precisely given as a German phrase rather than a tempo marking,” Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck” (“With liveliness and with feeling and expression throughout”), tells us just how restless Beethoven wanted this to be.One of the masters of expression on the violin was the demonic virtuoso Nicolò Paganini. In his 24 Caprices, he set two pieces in E minor. No. 3 and No. 15, and they seem to both carry different aspects of Pauer’s key characteristics. If No. 3 is mournful moving into restlessness in its middle section, No. 15 also starts with a mournful sound before moving into its own restlessness.What pieces do you think should be added here? Keep in mind that the piece should date from before 1876, when Pauer’s book was published. Another guideline might be to note the relatively small list of composers he gave as examples: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert Rossini, Weber, and Spohr – all stalwarts of German classicism / romanticism.

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What is the oldest known song?

The Hurrian Hymn was discovered in the 1950s on a clay tablet inscribed with Cuneiform text. It's the oldest surviving melody and is over 3,400 years old.

Listen to the enchanting sound of the world’s oldest song, the Hurrian Hymn

By Lizzie Davis

The Hurrian Hymn was discovered in the 1950s on a clay tablet inscribed with Cuneiform text. It’s the oldest surviving melody and is over 3,400 years old. The hymn was discovered on a clay tablet in Ugarit, now part of modern-day Syria, and is dedicated the Hurrians’ goddess of the orchards Nikkal. The clay tablet text, which was discovered alongside around 30 other tablet fragments, specifies 9 lyre strings and the intervals between those strings – kind of like an ancient guitar tab. But this is the only hymn that could be reconstructed – although the name of the composer is now lost.

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Here it is:

Doesn’t look much like music, does it…?

The system of music notation we use now wasn’t invented until 1000 AD. This is something altogether different. The notation here is essentially a set of instructions for intervals and tuning based around a heptatonic diatonic scale. There’s much more detail about the precise language and instructions here. The lyrics are very difficult to translate, but one academic has come up with this rendering of them: ‘Once I have endeared the deity, she will love me in her heart,

the offer I bring may wholly cover my sin,

bringing sesame oil may work on my behalf in awe may I'

Here’s the whole haunting melody

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