When an 18th century work is said to be in a particular key, that really means something. The entire work is built around that key. Not necessarily all of it will be in that key, but the other keys used will be in a recognizable traditional relationship with it. The music will move temporarily into the subdominant or the relative minor or whatever, and the nature of that key's relationship with the original tonic will be palpable.
As the 19th century wore on, composers began moving beyond these traditional shifts. In Mahler, for instance, the key that a work is named as being in is the first strongly established key (not necessarily the first key to be heard), and it then may move off to, and indeed be largely focused on achieving, some other key or keys altogether. Debussy named a central note and a principal mode, but the work isn't actually "in" G Minor in any sense that the 18th century would recognize.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-03-09 04:47 pm (UTC)As the 19th century wore on, composers began moving beyond these traditional shifts. In Mahler, for instance, the key that a work is named as being in is the first strongly established key (not necessarily the first key to be heard), and it then may move off to, and indeed be largely focused on achieving, some other key or keys altogether. Debussy named a central note and a principal mode, but the work isn't actually "in" G Minor in any sense that the 18th century would recognize.