Why different keys have different emotions

People seem to think that different keys have different emotions. Others think it's all pseudoscience. Why do you think certain keys have certain emotions?

Those who don't believe different keys have different emotions say that emotion comes from intervals, which is true. In 12TET, intervals stay the same in any key, so what is it about the pitch that changes the emotion?

I know that moving a song to a different key will give it a different feeling (though I wouldn't say "emotion") based on how high or low it is, but do certain keys truly consistently have certain feelings, or is it just how high the melody notes are?

Is there a system, like it feeling darker if there's more flats and brighter if there's more sharps or is it simply based on observations made by composers?

If you don't have a full answer, go ahead and post your favorite keys and what emotions you think they give.

I think that the feeling that a specific evoques is completely personal and depends on the “tonality” of your speech and inner voice, and how that tonic chord relates harmonically to the tonic of what you are listening to. Though I think that is a really weak theory

My favourite key is possibly Eb minor, I don’t know why, but it is the “tonality” of my thinking (most of the time when I think of an stable chord and I get the notes in my head, I go and play them on the piano and they are Eb, Gb and Bb.

Technically, this key should be the saddest (six flats), and its relative major should then be the saddest major key according to that theory. However, you will find very little Gb major, to be substituted by F# major (Chopin barcarolle, Scriabin’s fourth and fifth) this is following the logic that the relative major of the saddest should be happiest. I agree with this, so if I at some point write works in the 24 major and minor keys, I would write in Eb minor and F sharp major. This would have interesting consequences, such as considering C major a flat key (0 flats) and A minor a sharp key (0 sharps).This because there have to be twelve flat tonalities and twelve sharp ones.

As a development in the F# vs Gb, I would recommend comparing the melancholic Rachmaninoff prelude in Gb to the ecstatic barcarolle in F sharp major by Chopin. That comparison makes me think that perhaps composers are influenced by the name and “qualities” of a key while composing

Another interesting example is Db, which almost sounds sad (I don’t know why)

This gives room to debate and study, but after all, everything is personal in the world of tonality, and it is pseudoscience.

I hope this answers your question

Hello
Yes, I think that everything can be subjective, but my opinion is as follows.
I don't think there is any difference in the shades in terms of emotions or moods that they can provoke per se.
I do think that the "height", the range in which a piece moves can have some influence (and this you change with the key).
I think that the choice of one key or another depends on the composer's preference and, many times, on the instrument he uses.
Let's assume a piece in D flat major. Take the score and transpose it to C sharp major. Do you think the listener is going to tell the difference if a performer uses one or the other score? It's going to sound exactly the same, in the tempered system.
What does change the mood of the system is the mode (Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian, etc. ....).
I think that a nostalgic music can be in any major or minor key, just as in a music with energy.

17 hours ago, Jqh73o said:

I think that the feeling that a specific evoques is completely personal and depends on the “tonality” of your speech and inner voice, and how that tonic chord relates harmonically to the tonic of what you are listening to. Though I think that is a really weak theory

My favourite key is possibly Eb minor, I don’t know why, but it is the “tonality” of my thinking (most of the time when I think of an stable chord and I get the notes in my head, I go and play them on the piano and they are Eb, Gb and Bb.

Technically, this key should be the saddest (six flats), and its relative major should then be the saddest major key according to that theory. However, you will find very little Gb major, to be substituted by F# major (Chopin barcarolle, Scriabin’s fourth and fifth) this is following the logic that the relative major of the saddest should be happiest. I agree with this, so if I at some point write works in the 24 major and minor keys, I would write in Eb minor and F sharp major. This would have interesting consequences, such as considering C major a flat key (0 flats) and A minor a sharp key (0 sharps).This because there have to be twelve flat tonalities and twelve sharp ones.

As a development in the F# vs Gb, I would recommend comparing the melancholic Rachmaninoff prelude in Gb to the ecstatic barcarolle in F sharp major by Chopin. That comparison makes me think that perhaps composers are influenced by the name and “qualities” of a key while composing

Another interesting example is Db, which almost sounds sad (I don’t know why)

This gives room to debate and study, but after all, everything is personal in the world of tonality, and it is pseudoscience.

I hope this answers your question

 

Yes, I do feel like the "height" creates a lot of the feeling. If I try to come up with a melody by singing, it will feel different if it is in my comfortable singing range than if it is a little higher and it will feel different based on how much higher it is. Maybe the best strategy is to just compose the piece in whatever key it is when the melody first comes to your head. Although some pieces start in another way, such as improvisation. But it can still be worth singing it throughout the day until you find the range that makes sense.

I think range affects emotion more than the key, because two pieces can be in two different keys and have the same range. However, cadences are still somewhat tied down. This actually leads me to another conclusion: the average range, cadences, and "peaks" of the melody can all be in different places, vertically speaking, each contributing something to the melody's feeling.

Anyway, thanks to @Jqh73o and @Luis Hernández for responding.

There is no real reason that keys, in and of themselves, would have any different sense of emotion. It is all the same intervals, just shifted around the frequency spectrum.

What does happen is that many instruments (like winds) have timbral and strength differences in different ranges, and because of that, a certain piece, which is attempting to achieve a specific mood, may benefit from being transposed to that key.

For example, heavy metal songs written in D, E, or C minor are not using that low open string as the tonal center so frequently because there is anything inherently "heavier" about those keys, but because on a distorted electric guitar, that low strings is where you will get the chuggiest palm mutes and crunchiest power chords because of physics.

Guys like Hans Zimmer have tried applying this approach to the orchestra with double bass C extensions and such, but a lot of musicians hate playing his stuff and those flabby low brass "bwaaams" — because the orchestra isn't a rock band, and what is good rock band arranging, is generally abysmal orchestral arranging.