MR. EDITOR,

Some of my friends, as well as myself, are by no means satisfied with the definition given in print by writers, and delivered verbally by teachers, as to the nature of the minor key in music. For their satisfaction, and my own, I have been led to enquire into the subject, by an examination of facts; and, as the result has proved highly convincing and decisive to my own mind, I here send you the particulars in hopes they may prove of equal benefit to your readers.

I shall here, to render the subject more clear and intelligible, insert the several passages to which I object, following them immediately with an enumeration of the particular objections, to which each seems liable; and assigning my reasons, founded on the facts, and evidence, which I shall at the same time produce.

The Rev. Mr. Jones, formerly of Nayland, in Suffolk, but since dead, in his anonymous treatise on the art of music, printed in folio, at Colchester, in 1784, speaks page 2 of the musical octave, as consisting "of two tetrachords or systems of the fourth;" or, in other words, as comprising two sets of four notes each. "In the major key," he notices, that in C to F inclusive, which is the first tetra66 chord, we have two tones and a semitone; and from G to C to complete the octaves are two tones and a semitone :" and he then uses the following words. "In the minor, or flat key, the degrees "of tone and semitone are differently situated; and their situation "produces a very different effect in the harmony and melodies, "which are composed of them. From A to B is a whole tone; "from B to C (as before) a semitone; from C to D a whole tone. "These are the intervals of the first tetrachord. Then, omitting "the interval of the whole tone between the fourth and fifth, we "begin the other tetrachord at E which is not similar to the "former, as in the major key; for from E to F is a semitone; from "F to G a whole tone; and from G to A another whole tone."

Nothing can create greater confusion in the study of any science, than the inaccurate and indefinite use of the terms intended to convey information. Nor can any thing be more in opposition to the acquisition of correct knowledge, than that the same term should be

applied in two different significations. This is, however, the case in music, as at present erroneously taught, where tone is sometimes used to signify, as it may correctly do, the sound of a note, and at others, to express the distance or space between two notes, which in reason and justice it never can. No one, adequately conversant with the correct signification of words, needs to be told, that tone means tune or sound. It is impossible, therefore, that it can imply space or distance. And it is negligence only, that has occasioned it ever to be thus used. For, instead of characterizing the spaces or distances, as lying between one whole tone and another, or between a whole tone and a semitone, which appellations are really the names or values of the notes themselves, when compared with each other, the distance itself has been said to be either a whole tone or a semitone, according to the notes themselves, which occurred. This is manifestly wrong; and cannot be defended. In the foregoing description, therefore, of the major key, Mr. Jones ought to have said, that it consists of two tetrachords, or systems of four notes each; and that each of those tetrachords comprehends three notes, which are whole tones; and one which is a semitone. The natural key of C major (the model of all the other major keys) consists of the following succession of notes, in which F and C are the semitones, and the rest whole tones:

C-DE-FG-AB-C.

In like manner the minor key also consists of two tetrachords, which do not, as in the major key, correspond with each other. For, although each of these comprises three whole tones and a semitone, yet the place of the semitone differs; as in the first tetrachord it is the third note, in the second it is the second,

This plainly appears from the succession of the notes in the natural key of A minor, in which, as in the natural major key of C, C and F are the semitones.

σε

A-B-C-DE-F-GA.

The same author, p. 3, says, "If we take any other notes of the scale, besides C and A, for key notes, then we are obliged to 66 change some of the degrees, and introduce sharps and flats, to "reduce those keys to the type of the natural keys of C and A."

Clementi, in his introduction to the art of playing the piano forte, p. 2, speaking of the natural or diatonic scale, says, it is called "natural from the facility with which it is sung; but this is not a

correct definition. A natural key is that in which the notes, contained in it, are naturally placed at that distance from each other, which is requisite to constitute the model of a major or minor key, without the necessity of employing sharp or flat notes, instead of the natural ones. And, for that reason, the natural keys of C major and A minor have neither flats nor sharps, as is plainly discoverable from the formulas or models of them already given. But it is manifest, that this cannot be the case in any other keys than those of C major and A minor, because, as the distances and relations of each note, when compared with each other, are immutable, it is evident, that, if any other note than C be made the key note in a major key, or any other than A in a minor, the other notes will not agree with the necessary situations of the notes for forming a major or minor key.

Again, in p. 3, he says, "When we take D, instead of C, as the "key note of a major key, we must rectify the degrees of the first "tetrachord, by taking F half a note higher, which we call F# "sharp and to rectify the degrees of the second tetrachord, we "must take C# sharp. Then will there be a semitone in the right "place, between F and G, and between C and D, as before be"tween E and F natural, and B and C."

This passage is also liable to the objection of describing the spaces, and not the notes, by the appellations of tone and semitone. Instead, therefore, of the manner in which he has expressed himself, Mr. Jones ought to have used some such as this: When we take D, instead of C, as the key note of a major key, we must, to make the rules correspond with the situations of the notes of the first tetrachord, employ F sharp, instead of F natural. And, for the same purpose, in the second, we must use C sharp, instead of C natural; and, by this method, the fourth and eighth notes of the key will be, as they ought, semitones to the whole tones, which precede them, as thus:

DEF-G-A-BCD. As F sharp is half a note higher than F natural, it is consequently half a note nearer to G. Fsharp is, therefore, compared with E, an whole tone; and G, as compared with F sharp, is only a semitone. The same may be said of C sharp and D; and thus the succession of three tones and a semitone, in each tetrachord, is preserved, in the same manner as it exists in the natural key of C major.

In the same page 3 this author also says, "When D is taken as a "minor key, and we would reduce it to the form of A, we must “take B half a note lower, called B molle or flat: then will the "interval, between A and B, be a semitone, as it is in the key of "A, between E and F; the fifth and sixth to the key note."

This passage is equally liable to the objection already mentioned, of applying to the distances, and not the notes, the appellation of semitones. But it is further remarkable, as giving the true model of a minor key, which, if D be the key, as above supposed, will be as follows:

D-E-FG-A-Bb-CD. In this, it is plain that the semitones, which are F and Bb, are the third and sixth notes; and that the sixth and seventh are not sharps, as some persons have erroneously taught. In further support of this, as the correct model of a minor key, and, in contradiction to the erroneous principle just mentioned, it is to be observed, that in Handel's Overture to Orestes, which is in A minor, and consequently has not at the cliff any marks for flats or sharps, are several instances of ascending bass, in which G is the natural, and not the sharp note. So it is also in the Overture to Floridant, which is also in the key of A minor; and therefore the key must necessarily be this : A—B-C—D—E-F—G— -G-A.

In Corelli's Sonatas, Op. 3, Sonata 10, and Op. 4, Sonata 5, and the first movement of Sonata 8, all of which are also in A minor, the case is exactly the same. In Handel's Overture to Alexander Severus, which is in the key of G minor, and is therefore marked at the cliff with two flats, B and F, several ascending passages occur, in which F is the natural, and not the sharp note. And, indeed, in the whole of this last overture, but even instances are to be found, in which the sharp F is taken, which, as will appear hereafter, is only done for the purpose of passing into the key of G major, in which F is the only sharp note. In Corelli's Sonatas, Op. 4, Sonata 8, the first movement, not one of the notes G is sharp. The movement is in the key of A minor.

The key, therefore, of G minor, as exhibited in the above overture, will consist of the following tones and semitones :

G-A-Bb-CD-E-FG,

which is exactly the same arrangement, as that in the natural key of A minor.

In the Overture of Orestes, and in Corelli's Sonatas, Op. 4, Sonata 10, it is also deserving of notice, that there are instances of descending passages, in which Fand G, either together or separately, are the sharp, and not the natural notes, although it is asserted by Mr. Jones, p. 37, that "when we descend in the minor key from A "to A the degrees are all natural," or in other words the scales require neither flats nor sharps, to place them at the necessary distance from each other.

In another part of the same page 3 this very author says, "Though all the keys in the scale, with accidental sharps and 66 flats, have the same order of degrees as the natural keys," &c.

Of this there can be no doubt: and, as C is the natural major key and A the natural minor, it follows of course, that, in all major keys the semitones must be the fourth and eighth notes, as they are in the key of C major; and that, in the minor keys, the semitones must be the third and sixth notes, as they are in the natural minor key of A. The above admission by Mr. Jones is of importance, because it completely contradicts what is afterwards said, in another passage, p. 37, which will presently be here inserted, as well as being in direct opposition to the erroneous principles which have sometimes been taught.

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And, lastly, Mr. Jones, p. 37, speaking of the chromatic system, says, "The degrees, on which the legitimate semitones are taken, are those, in which the minor key varies occasionally from itself. "When we descend, in the minor key, from A to A, the degrees "are all natural; but, when we ascend, the tetrachord from E to A "is the same as in the major key, to make the seventh sharp, and 66 thereby to decide the key." In p. 24, however, speaking of modulation in the minor key, he uses these words: "The funda"mental harmony has the same relation, as in the major key; and "the accompaniment of the degrees, in descending, is furnished "nearly in the same manner, except that the seventh must always "be sharpened before the close, without which the key would "remain undecided."

Now these passages are, in my opinion, perfectly at variance with each other; and the instances, already referred to, in Handel and Corelli, have decidedly proved, that the seventh in the minor key is not in ascending sharp, but natural. Neither is the seventh in the minor key in descending sharp; for, in the minuet in Handel's