kennethreitz
ce93f429a2
Publish the Obsidian vault's Knowledge folder as /knowledge (881 notes, 67 folders), with a Knowledge item in the nav and footer. - scripts/import_knowledge.py regenerates data/knowledge from the vault: slugged paths, folder notes as index pages, wikilinks resolved to site links (or plain text), callouts, highlights, and Dataview tables rendered statically. Personal notes are withheld via an exclusion list plus a privacy guard. - tuftecms/core/knowledge.py builds a concept index from note titles and aliases. First mentions on ordinary pages link to their Knowledge note (capped, never in headings, code, links, or sidenotes); Knowledge pages list related notes and where they're mentioned across the site; other pages get a Related Knowledge block. - Knowledge URLs join sitemap.xml (so the sweep test covers them), never displace existing legacy slugs, list alphabetically, and mermaid diagrams render client-side only on pages that have them.
3.3 KiB
description, source
| description | source |
|---|---|
| When Beethoven wrote in A♭ major he knew it was the key of the grave — and knew his audience knew it too. | obsidian-knowledge |
Musical Keys
When Beethoven wrote in A♭ major he knew it was the key of the grave — and knew his audience knew it too.
Affective Key Characteristics
The association of musical keys with specific emotional or qualitative characteristics was fairly common prior to the 20th century. It was part of the shared cultural experience of those who made, performed, and listened to music. When Mozart or Beethoven or Schubert wrote a piece in A♭ major, for example, they were well aware that this was the "key of the grave," and knew that many in their audiences were as well. We lose a part of the meaning of their music if we are ignorant of their affective choices.
Although these characteristics were, of course, subjective, it was possible to conceive of each key as unique because each key actually sounded distinct within unequal temperaments. When equal temperament became the dominant tuning after 1917, the aural quality of every key became the same, and so these affective characteristics are mostly lost to us.
One of the most influential descriptions shared in German-speaking cultures in the late 18th and early 19th centuries came from Christian Schubart's Ideen zu einer Ästhetik der Tonkunst (1806). Each key page below carries his characterization, in Rita Steblin's translation (A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries, UMI Research Press, 1983).
Major Keys
C Major · D♭ Major · D Major · E♭ Major · E Major · F Major · F♯ Major · G Major · A♭ Major · A Major · B♭ Major · B Major
Minor Keys
C Minor · C♯ Minor · D Minor · D♯ Minor · E Minor · F Minor · F♯ Minor · G Minor · A♭ Minor · A Minor · B♭ Minor · B Minor