Does it really make difference to play a song in a different key?

Question

I hear sometimes players and composers say that this song won't sound good in F Major for example, and you should play it or write it in G Major (this was just an example). In other words, it seems that they assign aesthetic attributes to keys. My question is that, imagine a baby growing up in an isolated island, and hear all the songs of his entire life in F Major (all re-written for F Major), while another baby grow up in another isolated island and hear all the songs of his entire life in G Major. Now, is there an objective, real difference in the amount of pleasure they can get from same songs written for different keys?This has really obsessed my mind, as I'm not sure if great composers really feel difference in songs being played in different keys. Did Beethoven for example felt Moonlight more sad in key X rather than being played in key Y?

Answer 1

Great Question! Historically, songs have been composed based on a few factors:

Instruments' Fundamental Pitches

The fundamental pitches of instruments, such as open strings on violins or all open valves on trumpet, are the pitches which are the most resonant on the instrument. This means the instrument will produce the largest, fullest sounds on those pitches.This is why you'll see a lot of pieces written in A Major or D Minor for orchestra, or B-Flat Major for concert band, as those are fundamental pitches on the majority of the instruments in those ensembles.

Ease of Playing the Key on the Instrument

Some scales are harder on some instruments than others. For example, one of the pieces I performed to get into college was a Handel violin sonata in E Major. The key on violin is in first position on the E string (which is also a fundamental pitch of the instrument!), so the scale is not much harder than D Major or A Major, the two most commonly first learned scales on the instrument. On marimba for me, this key was no problem,as it's a relatively easy scale on the instrument, and the percussion book I read from was nearly identical to the violin book. My girlfriend ended up playing the same piece in college on oboe, same intervals, same melodies, yet her oboe book had the piece transposed to F Major, as it was a much easier scale based on fingerings.

Temperament

This is hard to explain in a short answer, so I'm glossing over a good amount of complexity here. A less commonly known fact is that our intervals today are much different than they used to be when switching between keys. Historically, keys were tuned using mathematical ratios developed in ancient Greece and Middle Age Europe, using systems referred to as "Just" Temperament and Meantone Temperament. Using these ratios led to each pitch not being equally spaced in terms of frequency. The best example of this can be seen on the piano, where these ratios led to certain keys being more in-tune than others, which is why so many piano pieces were composed in a limited number of keys or relative modes of those keys. For example, a piece played in C Major on a Meantone-tuned Baroque pianoforte may sound much more in tune than the same piece in F# Major. Today, we use a system known as 12-tone Equal Temperament, meaning each pitch is exactly the same distance apart. This leads to some notes being out of tune, but makes it easier to modulate (switch between) different keys in the middle of a song without going horribly out of tune.

In terms of your baby question, I agree with Daniel V., and would ask a psychologist or music therapist.

Answer 2

If a composer says something will sound better in a different key, it usually has to do with the range of the given instruments and voices. For example, a soprano singing in an alto's range would be awkward for the singer and instruments have ranges that they sound better in (usually midrange). In theory when a piece is transposed it will sound the same to the listener but this is shown to not be completely true in practice. For example, we can usually hear when our favorite songs have been transposed even if it's by a microtone. This shows that even those without musical training have some sense of pitch memory.

As for the isolated baby question, that's perhaps something to ask a psychologist. I would assume the baby would not be hearing anything in minor, world music, atonal music, etc and thus I would say the person would be fascinated by hearing any of these for the first time. And they would likely recognize a song that is transposed. I don't think the 2 babies would have a difference in pleasure from listening to the same song in different keys. But then again that question is outside the scope of music theory.

As for the moonlight sonata, it is in C# minor and it is likely that was just the key Beethoven was playing that day. If he were playing in D minor that day we would hear it like that to this day and it would not sound any less emotive. The only problems start to occur when we transpose down around full octave, when the low notes of the piano start sound blatty and muddy.

So at the end of the day key is just a matter of whim and range aesthetics.