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twelve minor keys

Ramsay
In the same way, but inversely, and still under the Law of Duality, the middle of the subdominant minor is lowered a flat. F#67 1/2 in the key of E minor is F64 in the key of A; B45 in the key of A is B♭42 2/3 in the key of D; E60 in the key of D is E♭56 8/9 in the key of G. This lowering by flats of the subdominant middle in the minors, responsive to the raising by sharps of the dominant middle in the majors, goes on through all the twelve minor keys.1 [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 62]


Hughes
General remarks on the method of harmonies developing on all kinds of instruments, including the human voice
—Much paradox, but yet the scheme will admit of clear demonstration
—A musical note compared to a machine, the motive power not of our creation
—The imperfection of keyed instruments, from some notes acting two parts, attuned to the ideal of harmony within us
Macfarren quoted on the echoing power of a cathedral attuning the Amen
—Why music as an art precedes painting
—Philosophers and mathematicians have only studied music to a certain point
—Every key-note a nucleus, including the past, the present, and the future; no finality in any ultimate
—The late Sir John Herschel's views on the musical gamut alluded to
—The imperfection of keyed instruments adapts them to our present powers
—The laws will be seen to develope the twelve major and the twelve minor keys in unbroken sequence and in harmonious ratio; to gain them in geometric order [as] keyed instrument should be circular, the seven octaves interlacing in tones a lower and a higher series, . 15 [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Table of Contents1 - Harmonies]

The twelve major and the twelve minor keys written in musical clef
—First, the twelve major keys rising mingled as they develope seven times through seven octaves
—Second, one series of the twelve meeting by fifths, keys not mingled
—Third, the twelve minor keys mingled
—Fourth, the twelve minor key-notes and their trinities, the keys meeting by fifths in the line above the keys of the ascending scales, and in the line below the keys of the descending scales, 42 [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Table of Contents3 - Harmonies]

CHAPTER XV.
DIAGRAM XII.—THE CHORDS OF THE TWELVE MINOR KEYS.

"No development can help anything which does not have corrective causes working with it; some power must shape the growth, and work correctively by laws impressed and authority maintained. The law of progress must be operated upon and moulded by guiding forces. That which acts, lives; and the universe lives as much by its soul as we do by ours."

"And what if all of animated nature
Be but organic harps diversely formed,
That tremble into thought as o'er them sweeps,
Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,
At once the soul of each and God of all?"—Coleridge.

"In all things, in all natures, in the stars
Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds,
In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone
That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks,
The moving waters, and the invisible air,
. . . . From link to link
It circulates, the soul of all the worlds."—Coleridge.
[Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram XII - The Chords of the Twelve Minor Keys, page 37a]

CHAPTER XVII.

DIAGRAM XIV.—THE MODULATING GAMUT OF THE TWELVE MINOR KEYS BY FIFTHS IN MUSICAL CLEF, AND THE SAME VEERING ROUND THROUGH TWELVE OCTAVES: THE THREE HARMONIES SOUNDED BY EACH KEY FOLLOWING IN SUCCESSION THROUGH THE TWELVE KEYS THAT ARE MINGLED AND EVER DEVELOPING.

"There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim."—Shakespeare.
[Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram XIV - The Modulating Gamut of the Twelve Minor Keys by Fifths1, page 39]

CHAPTER XVIII.

DIAGRAM XV.—THE TWELVE MAJOR AND THE TWELVE MINOR KEYS ARE HERE RETRACED.

"Others shall right the wrong, Finish what I begin,
And all I fail of, win."—Whittier.
[Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram XV - The Twelve Major and the Twelve Minor Keys, page 42a]


Thirdly, the twelve minor keys as they develope in succession seven times through seven octaves, always sounding their major harmony in trinities, and, as with the majors, each thirteenth note being the octave of the first note of the twelve, and first of the following series, the keys all mingled. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram XV - The Twelve Major and the Twelve Minor Keys, page 42a]

Fourthly, we have one series of the seven of each of the twelve minor keys meeting by fifths through seven octaves. The keys of the twelve ascending scales are written in musical clef above the former, and the keys of the descending scales below. The ascending scales sound the fifth higher harmonies than the key-notes and their trinities, and the lower scales the fifth harmony lower than the key-notes and their trinities. The three series follow out their keys in three successive series, and all meet by fifths. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram XV - The Twelve Major and the Twelve Minor Keys, page 42a]

The 7 of the 12 Minor Keys as they rise mingled, and the 13th octave. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, The 12 Major Keys as They Rise, page 42c]

DIAGRAM XVII.—The roots of the minor chords—The difference between a major and a minor chord—The chords of the 12 minor keys follow. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Additional Diagrams, page 57]

See Also


Minor Key
twelve major scales
twelve minor scales

Created by Dale Pond. Last Modification: Tuesday April 13, 2021 04:52:57 MDT by Dale Pond.