(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Music open thread: Music in D-sharp minor [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-24 Continuing my survey of music along the circle of fifths, looking for music by women composers, black composers, etc., but for D-sharp minor there’s very little to choose from by anyone. If you found G-sharp minor awkward, you will find D-sharp minor even more awkward. Double flats and double sharps come up every now and then in the standard orchestral repertoire, not very much in jazz and hardly ever in pop and rock. The beginning musician likely regards double flats and double sharps as unnecessary complexity. If the composer meant D-natural, why not just write that instead of C-double sharp, for example? But such a spelling in a key like D-sharp minor will obscure the harmonic function of the affected notes. In order to write the most basic chord progressions in D-sharp minor, you will need a lot of double sharps. Consider for example a simple minor one to five of five, then to V7 and back to minor one. Or let’s end it on a major one instead. Example of a chord progression in D-sharp minor. Musicians are going to be more bothered by the presence of double sharps in three consecutive measures than they are going to be bothered by the two instances of parallel motion into octaves (alto and bass going to A-sharp in the third measure, if they even notice that). I had already mentioned, in the open thread about E-flat minor, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E-flat minor from Book I of the Well Tempered Clavier. Quite unusually, the prelude is in E-flat minor but the fugue is in D-sharp minor. x YouTube Video I’m still puzzled by why Bach chose to write it this way. In D-sharp minor, the fugue requires several B-sharps and C-double sharps, which in E-flat minor would just be C-natural and D-natural. And I seriously doubt the ornament in measure 74 was the reason. I don’t think Bach meant a mordent here, but that’s the symbol I’m using for now in Finale as I try to untangle the lines in E-flat minor: Either way, there is some ambiguity here, as the ornament involves either B-sharp and C-sharp or C-natural and D-flat, right? The most plausible explanation for Bach’s choice of D-sharp minor is that the music has religious significance. In Vivaldi’s day, sharps were written as X’s that look like our modern double sharp symbol. Despite the orientation, they were thought of bearing a similarity to crosses, which as religious symbols are shown upright rather than slanted. For another example of D-sharp minor, here’s Johann Sebastian Bach yet again. In this one, both the prelude and the fugue are in D-sharp minor. It ends on a Picardy third, so you should not be surprised to find at least one double sharp in each of the last fifteen measures. x YouTube Video Researching this particular piece, I came across an article that draws parallels between Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D-sharp minor and Scriabin’s Etude in D-sharp minor, Opus 8, No. 12. I wanted to embed a video of Andrew Guo playing the etude, but it’s not letting me, so I link it instead. Is it going to let me embed Alvaro Metzger’s performance? I think so... x YouTube Video I know it’s very slim pickings, but… The open thread question: what is your favorite music in D-sharp minor? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/24/2037213/-Music-open-thread-Music-in-D-sharp-minor?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/