![]() Nirvana’s Nevermind and Radiohead’s In Rainbows are often considered two of the most depressing albums to listen to, but Radiohead crafted its gloomy tone across major keys, and only one song off of both albums (“Polly” from Nevermind) is in D minor.Īs a case study, consider the D minor song “Nutshell” by Alice in Chains. The Nirvanas of the world instead build depressive sounds through melody and song structure. Unlike its cheerful cousin, the D major chord - which Schubart characterized as “the key of triumph, of Halleluiahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing” - the D minor chord is not beginner-friendly.īut whether out of intentional history-informed avoidance or not, the “saddest” bands don’t trend toward Shubart’s “brooding” D minor. When played on a guitar, the open version of the D minor chord crosses three frets on the highest strings, and the guitarist must press down a pinky and ring finger on the three smallest strings in a move atypical to the shape underlining other open chords. The anguish of hearing a minor key may also be psychologically associative: Babies quickly learn to distinguish smiles from frowns, and they may similarly pick up “sad” versus “happy” sounds programmed in toys and TV shows. ![]() And by making the note go a half-step down rather than up, it creates a “feeling down” directional emotion. This so-called “flatted third” is closer to the root note, and the distance from the major third is thought to create peripheral dissonance and a jarring discomfort in the listener’s ear. In a minor key, the second note in the triad is lowered a half step from its major-key version. Some quick context for the uninitiated: A chord consists of three notes - first note (root note), major third, and perfect fifth. Music theorists debate the mechanism behind that despondent sound. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key.” “Melancholy womanliness” was Schubart’s preferred term in describing the D minor key, a key of particular fascination because it lent itself to music in which “the spleen and humors brood.” And its sibling key, D# minor, somehow evoked “ feelings of the anxiety of the soul’s deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depression, of the gloomiest condition of the soul,” Schubart observed: “Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of D# minor. Schubart was a forefather of musical category creation: In his 1784 essay “A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries,” he balanced a study of the harpsichord with insights from literature and psychology to match all 24 major and minor musical keys to different auditory personalities, which streaming’s predictive models would later automate. But well before predictive computer models were let loose on music, German composer Christian Schubart was already on the case - albeit with manual handiwork and antebellum verbal flair. To find a song that matches our mood, in the 21st century, we need only type in how we are feeling or walk into a new room, and a streaming service’s algorithm will grab that data and intuit our needs with unsettling ease.
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