Steve Schwartz wrote:

>counter to what you might think they mean.  To take one, minor key does not
>always mean "sad" or "serious." Probably the most well-known example right
>now would be "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." One could point out many
>other folk tunes in minor modes that are quite jaunty, at least according
>to their texts.

Yes, right, you do need the other clues.  The example I gave in one note
was a series of long held notes in equal time, with the line descending
in a minor fashion - something not easily emulating elation.

There's something about the up-down thing...  when you're "up"beat, you
may, if so inclined, stand tall but if down, as actors know, you could
have a sort of slump based on how you're feeling.  In handwriting, serious
depressives will tend to write in descending lines that are striking.
Manic- modes will see a marked slant upward.  "I am really UP today." "Are
you down?" I think there are underlying universal reactions having to do
with energy, the energy we feel and put out, the rise and fall of it.

Your Johnny comes home tends to ascend, and one could say the minor is
the recognition he's not home yet.  As you say, the jaunt will add another
flavor.

>One could also point to very sad major-mode pieces in "bright" colors:
>Puccini's "Un bel di," for one.  We take our cues as much from story and
>text as we do from notes.

And from the rise and fall of the line and the harmonic changes that
get emphasis.  That one starts high, seems to try to stay high, but keeps
falling.  It's such a mixture.  If it were played in the key of G, say, the
first G-- |E G E | F#--- goes down to accent on the first beat of the next
measure an e minor chord which makes the piece seem to be temporarily in e
minor the way it's written.  I think it mirrors in its underlying shifts
what the composer wants the character to be expressing, hope in spite of
disappointment, with both showing throughout the song, reflected in the
mode of harmonic changes

Andrys Basten
http://www.andrys.com