Still think the song's emotional valence is largely reducible to its minor tonality? Try a thought experiment. The dank pall enshrouding the Beatles' original recording of the song depends on a musical context broader than simply its chord progression and melody: Bleakly atmospheric story-song lyrics, obviously, and more subtly, George Martin's production, especially the chilly, staccato strings, implacably clocking the flight of time with their tick-tocking rhythms. And "Eleanor Rigby," remember, was considered a breakthrough for the Beatles precisely because it was one of their first songs of this kind, one that combined song elements in mutually reinforcing ways to create a unified artistic whole. The worst kind of song to adduce in support of minor key determinism is one in which any sadness intrinsic to the melody gets a lot of "help" from the other parts of the song. The best evidence for that view would be minor key songs that are stubbornly, ineffably sad despite other song elements-lyrics, arrangements, tempo, etc.-that are emotionally neutral or positive.
Take "Eleanor Rigby." It's actually a very bad example of the idea that minor key tonality is inherently sad. But there's much more than tonality that goes into evoking those moods. And because that's what their composers obviously intended, that's the way the songs are typically performed. Indeed, those recalcitrant minor key songs that defy generalization about the link between tonality and mood may tell us something more important about music than the ones that conform.ĭon't forget: The main reason "Happy Birthday" sounds "upbeat" and "Eleanor Rigby" sounds "doleful" is that their composers intended that they should. While there might be a loose correlation-reinforced by our particular musical tradition-between minor scales and "sadness," it's a mistake to think that the moods evoked by music can be confidently reduced to tonality in and of itself. MORE ON SONGS THAT MAKE YOU CRY: Eleanor Barkhorn: 10 Songs That Make Men Cry: Tracks by R.E.M., Eric Clapton, Leonard Cohen, and More Dominic Tierney: 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic': America's Song of Itself The Atlantic Glee Panel: 'Glee': The Saddest Thing on Television?
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