More On The Character Of Keys

Composer and weblogger Martin Suckling of Musica Transatlantica Blog takes well-argued issue with certain of my comments on the extra-musical character of keys. Writes Mr. Suckling:

I think that the extra-musical character of keys has very little to do with perfect pitch [as I implied it did in my above linked post] and a lot to do with how instruments themselves work. For example, whether or not you can tell they start on different pitches, a B-flat major scale on the violin sounds very different from an E-major scale for a whole range reasons. They interact with the instrument's natural resonances in different ways, they require the violinist to shift at different points in the scale, one is higher in relation to the instrument's range than the other and so has a shriller, more intense quality, and so on and so on. These considerations apply to all instruments and contribute to making some keys more "natural" and "friendly" on specific instruments than others - there's a reason why lots of guitar music is in E minor. If you transpose a piece to a different key, assuming you don't retune the instruments, the physical requirements for playing that piece are altered a great deal, and an element of this will be transmitted to the audience, whether or not they perceive the change in pitch.

But perhaps you wouldn't notice these differences "in isolation" [the condition I specified in my above linked post]. Perhaps, but then music doesn't exist in a vacuum.

I think Mr. Suckling may have a point.

RTWT here.