Why is C minor the most emotionally variable key?

I know I'm probably going to get a lot of responses saying that the minor keys are equally variable, but I don't see them that way. In fact, I see some minor keys as not being all that variable and some as being quite variable. Here are some of the less variable minor keys:

• A minor -> The void of the circle of fifths, as though the happiness of C major and the melancholy of D minor have completely cancelled out, leaving behind the neutral key of A minor
• F minor -> Unreleivable melancholy, The Key of Death
• C# minor -> Nocturnal vibe

In contrast, C minor is extremely variable. These are just some of the possible emotions from C minor:

• Anger -> Fast, Loud, and Insistent, kind of like the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth
• Funerial -> Slow, Quiet, and in low octaves,
• Upbeat -> Fast, not too loud, rhythmic syncopation between melody and bass helps here
• Nocturnal -> Slow, Quiet, and in high octaves

But yeah, just about any emotion that you can think of is possible and relatively easy to do in C minor. Why is that though? Why is it C minor out of all the possible minor keys that is the most emotionally variable?

That can be true, but just for you. The feeling each key has for everyone is VERY RELATIVE. For example for me, I have more or less experience with different keys, and whenever I want to improvise or get any feeling or composing with any style, i tend to compose in very different keys.

For example for me A minor is a melancholic key, and I'm mostly used for A minor and D minor to a more baroque air, thanks to Scarlatti and Bach most influence works on me. Even if Bach composed in C#, When i have C# major and minor I tend to idealise more Rachmaninoff or Skrjiabin. For me C minor is decepted mood and I heard Beethoven and C major is Mozart, and that goes on. Again this is very relative. Each work in each key, and each own composer style marks your understanding of the music, and often it happens because the most important works or the favorite key for a composer is the one you identify and heard the most too. If we think about Beethoven's favorite keys would be G major, Eb major and last but not least C minor, and the one he composed the most pieces and the most important pieces in.
 

If you have a kind of mental condition where you develop an ability to associate X sound to X feeling (a kind of Synesthesia), then it will be even more probable that you will have these issues. The objetive of this is just to answer that all of your perceptions, are but personal, so there's no point on arguing which key does what. Anyway I still think it's a pretty valuable input for people to comprehend other emotions and perceptions, especially for composers or any kind of art "adepths".

i don't believe in that at all.

What makes a music (subjective) sad or not is not. the key but a whole bunch of things.

When I write tonal music, the key is chosen depending on the instrumentation and the range of the instruments.

But, of course, you may think the opposite,

3 minutes ago, Luis Hernández said:

i don't belive in that at all.

What makes a music (subjective) sad or not is not. the key but a whole bunch of things.

When I write tonal music, the key is chosen depending on the instrumentation and the range of the instruments.

But, of course, you may think the opposite,

 

I'm not saying that dynamics, instrumentation, articulations, etc. don't affect the emotion of the piece. I know that they do. But I also hear key characters, even in equal temperament. Like, the same piece with the same dynamics, articulations, etc. is going to sound emotionally different if transposed. For major keys, this isn't a big difference. For minor keys though, that difference is much bigger.

4 hours ago, caters said:

I'm not saying that dynamics, instrumentation, articulations, etc. don't affect the emotion of the piece. I know that they do. But I also hear key characters, even in equal temperament. Like, the same piece with the same dynamics, articulations, etc. is going to sound emotionally different if transposed. For major keys, this isn't a big difference. For minor keys though, that difference is much bigger.

 

The reason that those keys "sound different" is simply because you are making a comparison.

If this comparison is removed, one will find that the listener is not affected "emotionally" by the key but rather what you are playing. 

The other aspect is that with major and minor keys, I'd suspect that what you are perceiving has to do with the overtone series.

All the keys are the same, since we use the equal temperament.

Different emotions in different keys were actually a thing, some years ago in the 1600 to 1800 when a lot of temperaments were used, like the mesotonic, pythagorean, barroque well tempered, werckmeister III, Neidhardt III etc.

For example, in the mesotonic temperament C# minor was considered the "voice of the ghosts" due to his slightly smaller minor third, that made it pretty dissonant.

Another thing that can make keys brighter than others are their positions on the piano (pitch), keys like B, C, Db, D major or minor are very high or very low in the register, but other keys like F, G, A major and minor are in a most "balanced" position in the register.

Another thing that may influence is the cultural factor, the history has made us believe that A major is a very romantic key, in the other hand C minor is heroic, emotive, and nostalgic, so, the pieces that are composed in "that" tonality, can affect our perception of the key overall.

Just to comment a fact: In the barroque times D minor was considered the saddest of all tonalities, but if you make some investigation, you'll realize that, in those times the A4 was in 395 Hz, which is a modern G, so... what modern key would be the barroque D minor?, you're right, C minor.

I think this is a helpful video for this discussion(assuming you haven't seen it already, its pretty popular)

9 hours ago, Tortualex said:

Another thing that can make keys brighter than others are their positions on the piano (pitch), keys like B, C, Db, D major or minor are very high or very low in the register, but other keys like F, G, A major and minor are in a most "balanced" position in the register.

This effect plays out with other instruments as well.  The choice of key is going to put a given part of the scale in a more ringing part of the range for some instruments, and a more strained, or quiet, or rich, or whatever... part of the range for others.  That's going to effect which voices you choose to give certain lines to, or what octave they make an entrance on, and affect the emotional timber of the piece.  And the inverse is true as well.  When you have a line that is clearly a trumpet entrance in character, so you assign it to the trumpets, the effect will be a more strident clarion call in some keys than others.  All those little decisions can add up to an overall character to a key that is common from piece to piece and composer to composer.  If you want "mysterioso," there may be a sweet spot to put that in.  If you want bold, tense, screaming rage, there's a sweet spot for that too.