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Date:
Wed, 10 Feb 1999 10:01:51 -0800
Subject:
From:
Ulvi Yurtsever <[log in to unmask]>
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John Smyth:

>While I *wasn't* sleeping while working on my degree, I was fascinated
>by the musings of my psychology teacher who wondered why there is more
>music written in the minor mode than in the major.

This sounds wrong to me.  Are you aware of any actual statistic? If I were
to bet, I would bet on the opposite, that there is more major-mode tonal
music than minor-mode.

Off the top of my head, JS Bach's works are probably equally divided
between major-minor (may be a slight difference in favor of minor),
Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven (also Schubert?) are overwhelmingly major, of
the romantics, Brahms is major-heavy, Schumann and Chopin may be not as
much, but again I'd be surprised if they are minor-heavy.

The balance is probably different for late romanticism, with a small
advantage for minor-mode, but there tonality is no longer so easy to
identify anyway.

Ulvi
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