minor key
2
5.9
- noun
- /ˈmaɪnər ki/
:
tonalidad menor
- As a girl, confident of the light, I peered under rocks for shade, sang songs in a minor key, and gazed in sham melancholy.
- minor key signature
- major or minor key
Examples
-
Remember that music comes in major and minor keys, and slow movements as well as fast.
Blog text (16) -
The music was simple and spare, in a minor key.
Fiction book (1997) -
As students learn a particular major or minor key, ask them to write a melody for their instrument in that key.
Academic text (2001) -
Let's look at the minor key signature with seven flats.
Academic text (2001) -
For another example, look at the minor key signature with seven sharps.
Academic text (2001) -
Rush was a master of chilling slow blues in a minor key.
Academic text (2002) -
The opera fell away to a minor-key aria, and the diva started in on it with a low mournful note.
Fiction book (2001) -
The Manichee piece ended in a minor-key crescendo, and the echoes diminished and were gone.
Fiction book (1995) -
Conductors may need an adagio piece in a minor key, for example, or a unison chant from Zimbabwe.
Academic text (2000) -
The opera fell away to a minor key aria, and the diva started in on it with a low mournful note.
Synonyms
1
4.6
A musical scale that sounds sad because some notes are lower than in a major scale
A musical key that uses a pattern of notes and sounds sad or serious
Antonyms
How Bright
- Specialized
1
4.9
2
5.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from 'minor' modifying 'key' in the musical sense — it literally denotes a key based on the minor scale. However, the association of a 'minor key' with a sad or somber sound depends on specific musical knowledge (the minor vs. major distinction) that many B1 learners who only know basic senses of 'minor' and 'key' may not have, so the relation is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The musical term minor key comes from an old idea: minor meant 'smaller' and key meant the set of notes for a song. Because the smaller steps between its notes make a darker, more serious sound, a minor key is used to make music feel 'sad or somber'.