At 3:03 PM -0400 4/22/12, bill sinclair wrote: >I talked to a couple of composers I know: > >Thay don't make any distiction between Major and Minor keys, i.e. >G natural minor is the same as Bb major as far as they're concerned. > >[snip] >In other words, the composer/arranger does not >say "by the way this is G minor, not Bb major" >or vica versa.
I don't doubt your report, but I question whether any composer (who writes tonal music, to be fair) who doesn't KNOW whether he's in a major or a minor key is competent! For someone who writes non-tonal music, of course it doesn't matter, but why would such a composer use key signatures in the first place?!!! But I'd hazard a pure guess that about 99% of the music being written today, across the entire music industry and not just avant guard composers, is indeed tonal and is in a major or minor key with a clear tonal center. And still uses functional harmony and uses tonal centers to define form. And I can't imagine a composer or arranger either not knowing or no caring what key his or her music is in (assuming that it is tonal, of course), or whether it's major, minor, or ambiguous. And the spelling of chord changes (again assuming that functional harmony is used) DOES change according to the key. Or so my Mom, the theory teacher, drummed into me when I was a kid! Musical notation is not and never has been music, which exists only as sound. The notation is a pale reflection of the sound--a blueprint or map, if you like--but the map is not the territory and the blueprint is not the building. It is a means of communicating information to the professionals who must learn to interpret it. John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music School of Performing Arts & Cinema College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences 290 College Ave., Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:john.how...@vt.edu) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "Machen Sie es, wie Sie wollen, machen Sie es nur schön." (Do it as you like, just make it beautiful!) --Johannes Brahms _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
