

To pick up the ideas of peace and joy, we can turn to Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony.


Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro: Act I: Se vuol ballare, Signor Contin (Michele Pertusi, Figaro Fiorentino Maggio Musicale Orchestra Zubin Mehta, cond.) It’s a wonderful mix of the innocent dance melody at the beginning with the contrasting middle section where Figaro talks about turning all the Count’s schemes inside-out. Figaro has figured out the designs that Count Almaviva has on his wife-to-be, Susanna, and sings about how he will make all those plans come to naught. One of the most apt arias for this key of such varied characteristics is Figaro’s aria ‘Se vuol ballare, Signor Contino,’ from Le Nozze di Figaro. It is, moreover, available for the expression of religious sentiment.” Pauer’s key characteristics for F major is that it is “at once full of peace and joy, but also expresses effectively a light, passing regret-a mournful, but not a deeply sorrowful feeling. For the rest of the major and minor keys, he left us the attributes but not the list of pieces. Mozart Credit: our earlier series on C major and minor, G major and minor, and D major and minor, and A major and minor, E major and minor, B major and minor, F sharp major and minor, C sharp major and minor, A flat major and minor, E flat major and minor, and B flat major and minor, we listed Ernst Pauer’s suggestions from 1876 of pieces that fit the particular affect he assigned for a key.
