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Music is our great hope, the universal language, and the ultimate unifier. I can appreciate music from 1720 Venice just as easily as I can music from 1970 Toronto. Further, I’ve been doing so since before I could speak. Such is the power of music that distances of 7000 km and 250 years are rendered moot without the slightest effort. Yet, when one does apply effort, the tunnels of discovery are complex and endless. The study of music can reveal an immense amount about the people, the society, the generation, and the human experience involved in its creation. In nothing else is so much information so readily available to so many.
While these powers can be experienced and appreciated just by listening, their magnitude and influence grow exponentially when one partakes in the creation of music. Again, no special skills are required. Sure, instruments can take years to master, but anyone can take part in song. Indeed, in testament to its unifying power, any lack of singing ability is progressively rubbed out as more and more people join in a song. No one ever needed a voice lesson for a camp fire sing along.
As a wondrous demonstration of this limitless potential for connectivity and understanding to bridge the many powers of division in the world, I present Virtual Choir. Headed by visionary composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre, it is an online community dedicated to bringing the world together through singing.
I cannot do justice to this fantastic project, nor can I match the charisma of the main man himself. So here, along with links to the glorious end products, Virtual Choir, Virtual Choir 2.0, and Virtual Choir 3, I will turn the stage over to Mr. Whitacre and his TED Talk, the inspirational video that introduced me to Virtual Choir, and the Kickstarter video for Virtual Choir 4.
One of the accomplishments of which I am most proud is taking part in Virtual Choir 3. Please join me in participating in, supporting, and spreading the word of Virtual Choir 4.
Many thanks to the CBC and Paolo Pietropaolo for bringing the Signature Series to life. The mixing in this edition is particularly good, listen for the transition between Beethoven and Sibelius.
E-flat major: Master of the Universe
Also known as:
The Swashbuckling Hero
The Born Leader
E-flat majors you might know:
William Wallace, especially as portrayed in Braveheart.
Aragorn, from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Robin Hood.
The notes: E♭ – F – G – A♭ – B♭ – C – D – E♭
Number of flats: three.
Relative minor: C minor.
What they said about E-flat major in the 18th and 19th centuries:
“Heroic, extremely majestic, grave and serious; superior to C major.” — Francesco Galeazzi, 1796
“Most harmonious and full key on the horn. Superior to all other keys for the charm and plenitude of its harmony.” — Castil-Blaze, 1821
More E-flat major listening:
Prelude to Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner.
Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) by Richard Strauss.
The sonata was originally dedicated to the violinist George Bridgetower (1778–1860), who performed it with Beethoven at the premiere on 24 May 1803 at the Augarten Theatre at a concert that started at the unusually early hour of 8:00 am. Bridgetower sight-read the sonata; he had never seen the work before, and there had been no time for any rehearsal. However, research indicates that after the performance, while the two were drinking, Bridgetower insulted the morals of a woman whom Beethoven cherished. Enraged, Beethoven removed the dedication of the piece, dedicating it instead to Rodolphe Kreutzer, who was considered the finest violinist of the day.[1] However, Kreutzer never performed it, considering it “outrageously unintelligible”. He did not particularly care for any of Beethoven’s music, and they only ever met once, briefly.[2]
Sources suggest the work was originally titled “Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer [Bridgetower], gran pazzo e compositore mulattico” (Mulatto Sonata composed for the mulatto Brischdauer, big wild mulatto composer), and in the composer’s 1803 sketchbook, as a “Sonata per il Pianoforte ed uno violino obligato in uno stile molto concertante come d’un concerto”.[3]
Structure
The piece is in three movements, and takes approximately 43 minutes to perform:
Adagio sostenuto – Presto – Adagio (about 15 minutes in length)
Andante con variazioni (about 18 minutes)
Presto (about 10 minutes)
The sonata opens with a slow 18-bar introduction, of which only the first four bars of the solo violin are in the A-Major-key. The piano enters, and the harmony begins to turn darker towards the minor key, until the main body of the movement — an angry A-minor Presto— begins. Here, the piano part matches the violin’s in terms of difficulty. Near the end, Beethoven brings back part of the opening Adagio, before closing the movement in an anguished coda.
There could hardly be a greater contrast with the second movement, a placid tune in F major followed by five distinctive variations. The first variation transliterates the theme into a lively triple meter while embellishing it with trills, while in the second the violin steals the melody and enlivens it even further. The third variation, in the minor, returns to a darker and more meditative state. The fourth recalls the first and second variations with its light, ornamental, and airy feel. The fifth and final variation, the longest, caps the movement with a slower and more dramatic feel, nevertheless ending in carefree F major.
The calm is broken by a crashing A major chord in the piano, ushering in the virtuosic and exuberant third movement, a 6/8 tarantella in rondo form. After moving through a series of slightly contrasting episodes, the theme returns for the last time, and the work ends jubilantly in a rush of A major.
This finale was originally composed for another, earlier, sonata for violin and piano by Beethoven, the Op. 30, no. 1, in A major.[4]
We have not had a visualization in awhile so lets take a look at the first movement of Mozart’s Flute Quartet in C Major, K. 285b, performed by American Baroque, with a scrolling bar-graph score.
Many thanks to the CBC and Paolo Pietropaolo for bringing the Signature Series to life.
F-sharp minor: The Recluse
Also known as:
The Cat Lady
Miss Lonelyhearts
F-sharp minors you might know:
Miss Havisham from Great Expectations.
Annie Wilkes from Stephen King’s Misery.
Edith Bouvier Beale.
The notes: F♯- G♯ – A – B – C♯ – D – E♯ – F♯.
Number of sharps: three.
Relative major: A major.
What they said about F-sharp minor in the 18th century:
“F-sharp minor, although it leads to great distress, nevertheless is more languid than lethal. Moreover, it has something abandoned, singular and misanthropic about it.” – Johann Mattheson, 1713.
“A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language. It really does not seem to like its own position: therefore it languishes ever … for the triumphant happiness of D major.” – Christoph Schubart, 1784.
Thanks to the CBC and Paolo Pietropaolo for hosting the CBC Signature Series. The key de jour is D flat major.
Also known as:
The Flower Child.
The New Age Mystic.
D-flat majors you might know:
Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility.
Anne of Green Gables.
Phoebe from Friends.
The notes: D♭ – E♭ – F – G♭- A♭ – B♭ – C – D♭.
Number of flats: five.
Relative minor: B-flat minor.
Enharmonic equivalent: C-sharp major.
What they said about D-flat major in the 19th century:
“The pure chord of D-flat major has only to ring out, and the sensitive soul will see itself, as it were, surrounded by pure luminous spiritual creatures, which perceive it in a shape or apprehend it in a form to which the soul, by virtue of its momentary mood, is attracted most of all.” – Gustav Schilling, 1835
More D-flat major listening:
Die Forelle by Franz Schubert.
Hab’ mir’s gelobt from Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss.
Music in D-flat major’s alter-ego, C-sharp major:
Ondine from Gaspard de la nuit by Maurice Ravel.
the CBC and Paolo Pietropaolo for bringing the Signature Series to life and structuring the guided tour through the key of D minor.
“D minor: The Ice Queen
Also known as:
The Femme Fatale.
The Vengeful Vamp.
D minors you might know:
Carmen, from Bizet’s opera Carmen.
The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians.
The notes: D – E – F – G – A – B♭ – C♯- D.
Number of flats: one.
Relative major: F major.
What they said about D minor in the 19th century:
“This key sounds melancholy and horrible. It proclaims gloomy lament, deep suffering.” – J.A. Schrader, 1827
“A ghost must speak in D minor, though on this point Gluck, Mozart and Rossini differ.” – Anonymous, 1828, in The Spectator”
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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