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Key Matters

Series 3

Episode 3: E Major

Duration: 14 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

In "Key Matters" Ivan Hewett explores the way in which different musical keys appear to have unique characteristics of their own. In this third programme, Ivan is joined by violinist, Professor Paul Robertson, to explore the bright and energetic key of E major. This key has traditionally been employed by composers for ecstatic music, such as Spring in Vivaldi's Four Seasons. But as Paul points out, sometimes a really great composer will take the key of E major and combine it with such subtle ideas, that the results become sublime, such as the slow movement of Schubert's String Quintet. Show less

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