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Key Matters

Music: Classical

Ivan Hewett explores how different musical keys seem to have distinct characteristics

Ivan Hewett explores how different musical keys seem to have distinct characteristics and create specific moods

Key Matters: Series 2

Key Matters: Series 2: Episode 3: E Minor

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Episode 3: E Minor

Series 2

E Minor

BBC Radio 4 - Key Matters, Series 2, E Minor

Ivan Hewett talks with cellist and composer Philip Sheppard about the key of E minor.

Ivan Hewett talks with cellist and composer Philip Sheppard about the key of E minor in an attempt to discover why this key is so often associated with menace and doom.

In this second series of Key Matters, presenter Ivan Hewett explores the question of why certain musical keys have become associated with particular moods. For example, why is A major almost always employed by composers to write optimistic, even ecstatic music? And how has E minor become the key of choice for portraying menace and tragedy? 

Cellist and composer Philip Sheppard defines the qualities of E minor on Wednesday with music ranging from Brahms, Elgar and Shotakovich to The Clash. 

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