Mozart composed two piano concertos in a minor key — one in D minor and one in C minor.

What’s a key? (Do the majority of your audience know or understand what a key is, and how it functions?)

I have a performance degree in music, and I sure didn’t know anything about keys, except some are harder to play than others. I’m looking at you, C Sharp Major.)

Poet Christian Schubart's theorized about the characteristics and mood of musical keys in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

He also theorized that composers would choose specific keys to convey certain feelings and emotions. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but there are some intriguing coincidences.

For example, Schubart said that music in E flat major was “heroic” and “triumphant” -- Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E flat Major "Eroica" (Heroic).

D major is “triumphant” and “victorious,” like war marches or holiday songs -- Mozart Symphony No. 35 "Prague" (After the introduction)

See Schubart’s complete listings below.

The characteristics for D minor, Schubart proposes, are “serious” and “melancholic, evoking concern and contemplation.”

“Serious” and “concern” appear from the very beginning of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor. “Contemplation,” “serious,” and even something close to frenetic, take over with the piano’s first entrance.

It turns out that musical keys tell a story.

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There’s something “demonic” about Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor. Here’s an interesting story about how the concerto came to be. This may or may not be true.

Mozart was staying in a residence overlooking a public square, where he would write his next few compositions. On one particular day, the square was the sight of three public hangings of vicious criminals.

The hangings were especially barbaric and grotesque, and the crowd that was there to witness was vocally rabid throughout. When the hangings were over, they pushed forward and dragged each criminal by the head and paraded them around the square.

Mozart, with his residence on the edge of that square, likely heard and saw the entire event take place.

The next music he wrote after viewing the trio of hangings was this Piano Concerto in D minor — one of only two of his piano concerti composed in a minor key.

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Some of Mozart’s other works in D minor include the last piece he wrote, his Requiem, plus his Fantasy in D minor, and the darker moments of his opera Don Giovanni.

Each of these works shows Mozart’s understanding of the human soul, its frailty, sadness, and how we face tragedy. He also understood the other aspects of the human soul — joy, brightness, happiness. and an omnipresent spirit of optimism. Mozart juxtaposes each emotion (the minor and the major), seamlessly, and each of these works above ends in a major key.

Just for fun, let’s spend a moment in B minor: Schubart describes B minor as the key evoking solitude, melancholy, patience, calm, submission, and acceptance.

One of the last works that Brahms wrote was his “Clarinet Quintet in B minor.” How does Schubart do with this key?

https://bit.ly/3WvQWpV

Between Mozart’s D minor and and Brahms B minor, I think Schubart might be on to something.

Schubart’s complete listing of the motions triggered by each keys in classical music.

C: evokes innocence, happiness, and a spiritual feeling.

Cm: evokes innocence, sadness, heartbreak, and yearning.

C#m: passionate and deep, evoking sorrow, grief, despair, wailing, and self-punishment.

Db: evokes depression masked by an air of happiness, as well as grief and despair.

D: triumphant and victorious, like war marches or holiday songs.

Dm: serious and melancholic, evoking concern and contemplation.

D#m: deep and anxious, evoking distress, terror, darkness, and hesitation.

Eb: evokes cruelty, but also devoted love, openness, and intimacy.

E: evokes dissatisfaction, a ready-to-fight feeling, but also joy and delight.

Em: feels like restless love, grief, and mournfulness.

F: can evoke optimism and the will to explode.

Fm: dark and funereal, evoking the deepest depression, death, loss, and misery.

F#: perfect for portraying a conquest story, evoking relief, triumph, victory, and clarity.

F#m: full of resentment, discontentment, and lamentation, but with a little hope.

G: happy but serious, idyllic, and poetic, evoking calm, satisfaction, tenderness, gratitude, and peace.

Gm: feels like discontent, uneasiness, failure, concern, and struggling.

Ab: evokes death, eternity, judgment, and darkness.

Abm: related to wailing, suffocation, lamentation, struggle, and negativity.

A: induces joy, reciprocated love, satisfaction, optimism, trust, and spirituality.

Am: sad but tender.

Bb: joyful and cheerful, evoking love, consciousness, hope, optimism, and peace.

Bbm: evokes the night, darkness, blasphemy, death, and destiny.

B: evokes strength, wildness, passion, jealousy, fury, negativity, and the will to fight.

Bm: evokes solitude, melancholy, patience, calm, submission, and acceptance.

"One of only two concertos Mozart wrote in a minor key."