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Welcome readers to the key of A minor, the CBC Signature Series continues and as always, you will have to go over to the CBC Radio 2 site to listen to the music and voice-over by Paolo Pietropaolo.
A minor: The Faded Beauty
Also known as:
The Wilted Rose.
The Cougar.
A minors you might know:
Miss Havisham from Great Expectations.
Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire.
Blanche Devereaux from The Golden Girls.
The notes: A – B – C – D – E – F – G♯ – A.
Number of sharps/flats: none.
Relative major: C major.
What they said about A minor in the 18th century:
“The worst key of all, so sleepy, phlegmatic, that it should be perhaps the least used.” – J.J.H. Ribock, 1783
“Extremely lugubrious and gloomy. It is little practised; if so it expresses slaughters, massacres, and funeral dirges.” – Francesco Galeazzi, 1796
More A minor listening:
Piano Sonata No. 8 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Cello Concerto by Robert Schumann.
Amazingly enough, not posted by Paolo Pietropaolo. But hell, lets link there anyways.
Welcome readers to the key of E major, the Signature Series continues and as always you will have to go over to the CBC Radio 2 site to listen to the music and voice-over by Paolo Pietropaolo.
E major: Prince Charming – (by Paolo Pietropalo)
Also known as: – (Also written by Paolo Pietropalo)
The Gentleman. – (Also written by Paolo Pietropalo)
The Wide-eyed Optimist. – (Also written by Paolo Pietropalo)
E majors you might know: – (Also written by Paolo Pietropalo)
The Lone Ranger. –(Also written by Paolo Pietropalo)
Clark Kent. – (Also written by Paolo Pietropalo)
Westley from The Princess Bride. – (Also written by Paolo Pietropalo)
The notes: E – F♯- G♯ – A – B – C♯ – D♯ – E.
Number of sharps: four.
Relative minor: C-sharp minor.
What they said about E major in the 19th century: ( Also written by Paolo Pietropalo but most likely transcribed from “Historical quotes and translations from A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries, by Rita Steblin, UMI Research Press (1983).” – but most definitely written by Paolo Pietropalo)
“Bright and pellucid; adapted to brilliant subjects.” – William Gardiner, 1817
“Clear as a bell and joyful. Screaming, bright, burning-yellow.” – F.L. Bührlen, 1825
More E major listening: (probably Googled by Paolo Pietropalo, but such hard work should be properly attributed.)
Salut d’Amour by Edward Elgar.
“The Dance of the Hours” by Amilcare Ponchielli.
The Canadian connection:
“Out of the Game” by Rufus Wainwright.
If you missed earlier mention – the stuff in brown is written by Paolo Pietropalo.
Pictures, just to be on the safe side. Below is Paolo Pietropalo photoshopped onto a picture of with the title of the Signature Series just to make extra sure we all know that Paolo Pietropalo (and the production crew supporting him) is/are responsible for the Signature Series, definitely not ME (aka the Arbourist), host of this particular low-traffic blog.
Welcome to the Signature series on DWR – you will need to go to CBC radio to hear the A major voice-over/musical interpretations.
A major: The Will-o’-the-wisp
Also known as:
The Flibbertigibbet.
The Problem Child.
A majors you might know:
Jane Eyre.
Maria from The Sound of Music.
Veronica from the Archie comics.
The notes: A – B – C♯ – D – E – F♯ – G♯ – A.
Number of sharps: three.
Relative minor: F-sharp minor.
What they said about A major in the 18th century:
“Expression of joy, cheerfulness, dancing. Beautiful Saxon-green, refreshing aroma of lemons.” – J.J.H. Ribock, 1783
“Women and their sweet passions.” – Johann Jakob Heinse, 1795
More A major listening:
The Celebrated Minuet by Luigi Boccherini.
The Kreutzer Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Welcome folks to the third instalment of the signature series and today’s key is B minor. Embedding sucks, so you have to go the CBC website and listen for yourself. :) The music and the play by play commentary make for an entertaining listening experience.
B minor: The Dark Romantic
Also known as:
The Gloomy Gus.
The Pessimist.
B minors you might know:
Werther from Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther.
Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby.
Cliff Barnes from Dallas.
The notes: B – C♯ – D – E – F♯ – G – A♯ – B.
Number of sharps: two.
Relative major: D major.
What they said about B minor in the 18th and 19th centuries:
“Banished from music of good taste.” – Francesco Galeazzi, 1796
“Bitter, gloomy lamentation, on account of hard suffering … in these tones the shocked soul looks around exhausted and almost without hope.” – J. A. Schrader, 1827
The signature series continues at CBC and here with D major. Follow the link and listen.
D major: Miss Congeniality
Also known as:
The Workaholic.
The Homecoming Queen.
D majors you might know:
The Goddess Athena from Greek mythology.
Oprah Winfrey.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The notes: D – E – F♯ – G – A – B – C♯ – D.
Number of sharps: two.
Relative minor: B minor.
What they said about D major in the 18th century:
“The key of triumph, of Hallelujahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing.” – Christian Schubart, 1784
“Enflames the heart. The spirit … is roused to impudent, joyful, even to somewhat boisterous songs of praise. Even the god of thunder has a claim to this key.” – Georg Joseph Vogler, 1779
More D major listening:
The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss, Jr.
Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky.
CBC radio 2 still has goodness left in it, witness the Signature Series. A string of programs that explore popular conceptions of music written in specific key signatures. Today’s interlude will feature the key of G minor and songs that are written in that specific key. The downside to this series is that the musical bits do not embed in wordpress properly, so you will have to go the CBC to listen to the music and enjoy the commentary. However, I can steal what is written about each key signature from the blog. Hence the copypasta below:
G minor: The Contrarian (follow link to play)
Also known as:
The Moody Teenager.
The Complicated Man.
G minors you might know:
Captain Ahab from Moby Dick.
Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye.
Pete Campbell from Mad Men.
The notes: G – A – B♭ – C – D – E♭ – F♯ – G.
Number of flats: two.
Relative major: B-flat major.
What they said about G minor in the 18th century:
“Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment and dislike.” – Christian Schubart, 1784
“It is suited to frenzy, despair, agitation.” – Francesco Galeazzi, 1796
More G minor listening:
Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell.
Der Erlkönig by Franz Schubert.
The Canadian connection:
“Your Rocky Spine” by Great Lake Swimmers.
Watch, gentle readers, what happens when elite interests are not given priority. The outcry, the wailing and gnashing of teeth, the injustice of it all. The MPAA CEO Chris Dodd called out the irresponsible websites – Wikipedia, Reddit etc on their egregious behaviour:
“A so-called “blackout” is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals.”
Ah, so the authors and money men who sponsored and rammed through the DMCA legislation are back for more, and of course it is all just to protect American Jobs, Apple Pie and All that is What is Right in the World (aka profit). The MPAA and friends screwed up this time because they over estimated their purchase of the American Congress and grossly underestimated the will of the American people. I’m not a huge fan of the American body politic, but this time, for once, the good guys won. The corporate lobby and its billions just got rolled by a ground swell of people calling/emailing/tweeting etc their elected representatives and telling them in no uncertain terms that if this passed, so too would their comfy digs in congress. Huzzah!
It would be me remiss of me not to point out that similar elite interests have been much more successful in herding the American populace in other areas. Perhaps the MPAA and related corporate lobby should have declared a “War on Piracy”, as that seems (going to war on common nouns to be specific) to have a much better track record in press-ganging convincing the people of America to support their government when it does horrible things in their name.
The smiling face of your corporate sponsored disenfranchisement.
One of the instruments of douche that has been doing his very best to whip American into a blind frenzy just happens to be a representative of the Global Intellectual Property Center affiliated with, of course, the US Chamber of Commerce. Enter Steve Tepp. Steve Tepp, along with the US Chamber of Commerce is only interested in saving US jobs and making the world a better, safer place for Business Americans.
Steve was recently interviewed on CBC’s The Current by Mike Finnerty. It is a 20 minute interview, but I highly recommend you listen to the whole thing as Steve gets his ass handed to him by Rob Beschizza the managing editor from Boing Boing.net. I’ve transcribed and will reproduce some of the highlights from the interview. Watch closely how our boy Steve attempts to frame this issue:
“This issue is fundamentally about American Jobs and protecting consumers.”
Wow, the MPAA CEO and Steve are all about JOBS. Like holy-frack they are right there beside the rest of the 99% fighting just to make ends meet. They just want to protect the little guy! They certainly would not want to scaremonger or obfuscate what SOPA is really about.
“Criminals are abusing the internet to steal the most creative and innovative products that are out in the marketplace.”
I’m wondering if Steve said this with a straight face considering the creative output from Hollywood that enhances and enriches our cultural life.
” […] New twists, children’s toys, automobile parts, medicine its all fake, its all made in unsupervised facilities, it can be shoddy, people have died. This stuff can be extremely dangerous.”
This from the same people who regularly decry the EPA, food safety and consumer protection and worker health/safety legislation in general as ‘dirty socialism’ suddenly finds is voice and moral outrage at the very notion of Americans buying shoddy unsafe products. Profits Lives are on the line!
Steve tries very hard to be the good corporate PR flack but ultimately fails when confronted with the facts of the situation. SOPA like the DMCA act before it, exists only for business entities to consolidate and defend their ‘intellectual property’ in perpetuity. In essence they want a bigger stick to punish people who dare to mess with their profits.
Not this time Steve. The democratic spirit of America awoke for a little while and slapped you down. Hard. A small victory for internet freedom and expression, but the repressive forces of the corporatocracy have already fired back, taking down MegaUploads and charging people with copyright infringement and piracy. Anonymous fired back, taking down several government web sites as well as the MPAA’s own website.
This issue is not going away. The siren call of avarice is much to strong to let little things like freedom of speech and freedom from censorship to get in the way. Stay tuned for round 2.
*update* – Need Background on the issue? Check out the TED Talk.
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