[Dixielandjazz] Rachmaninov prelude

[Bill Gunter]

Hi all,

Interesting questions from Patrick Cooke . . .

>C sharp minor!!

>       The relative major to C# Minor is A# Major.  I count that out to 10
>sharps, meaning half of the notes are double sharped, or did I do something
>wrong?

I don't really know about the reasoning involved.  But it seems to me that 
the relative major of C# Minor would be E Major (since the relative minor to 
E would be C#).

That would put it in four sharps.

And your question:

>       Every time I ask the question "Why?" some one usually says "Sharps 
>are
>brighter".

I really don't know about the "brighter" part. Seems to me such a judgment 
must be at least partially subjective. But I do know that violins (the heart 
of the symphony) are tuned to (from the bottom up) G D A E (the key of G has 
1 sharp, D has 2 sharps, A has 3 sharp and E has 4 sharps).  I believe it is 
for this reason that orchestras with lots of strings love the sharp keys for 
the same reason that jazz bands with lots of cornets and clarinets love the 
flat keys.

Reminds me of a gig I played once. The leader of the Cell Block 7 (Bob 
Romans) threw a surprise birthday party for his wife, Carol, who plays flute 
in the Stockton Symphony) and he gathered a bunch of musician friends to 
sneak up on her and play the "Happy Birthday Song" -- The musicians included 
a bunch of us from jazz bands and a bunch from the symphony.

The funny thing was that the symphony players couldn't improvise in F (the 
traditional key in which this song is performed because that pitches it 
comfortably for singing) which has one flat. Instead, the symphony dudes 
wanted to play it in A (three sharps) because that's how fiddles are tuned.

Since the jazz players are more adept at improvising in different keys it 
was decided to do the song in A because the symphony players knew beans 
about improvising in a flat key.  As a result all the singers had to strain 
to hit the high note in "happy BIRTHday dear carol . . ." because A is a 
full major third higher than F.  But the entire affair was amusing and much 
fun for all of us.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "washboardist" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com




as a matter of fact, it's an A (rendered on the oboe) to which symphony 
orchestras generally tune up.  (A h