The Signature Series

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The Signature Series by producer Paolo Pietropaolo (host of In Concert on CBC Radio 2) and co-producer Denise Ball is a music program that explores the personality behind key signatures of music by personifying each of the 24 keys as a person. In 2013, Pietropaolo won the Prix Italia in the category of best work for music for the program.

Contents

The Signature Series started when the first post on CBC Music was posted on 18 May 2012. It was a preview of what was coming up in the weeks ahead. The first episode, "G minor: The Contrarian", was posted online on 21 June 2012.[ citation needed ]

Episodes

Each episode is specific to a music key and a vocal narration by Pietropaolo discusses the personality traits of that key, with accompanying music written in that key, taken from music written over the centuries. Occasionally, pop songs may be featured, though this does not occur in every episode. Each episode begins with an ascending scale, and if the key is a minor key, the harmonic minor is played. At the end of each episode, a musical excerpt is played, while the names of the composers who wrote the music featured in the episode are mentioned. On SoundCloud, the pieces in each episode are timed such that when the piece changes, the pop-up comment identifies the piece being played, together with the composer who wrote the music.

Each key has an image, with its name, its nickname, and a person (or bird, in the case of C minor) whose personality is representative of that key on it, except for C major, whose picture is that of the sky and the sea, with no people featured. Ben Didier of CBC music is the designer for the images.

The Signature Series is divided into two seasons. In season 1, when each episode was published online at CBC Music, the information about each key consisted of the notes in that key (the harmonic minor scale is always mentioned, not the natural minor), its relative major or minor, the number of sharps or flats in its key signature, the key's other nicknames, a list of fictional and real life characters representative of the key, and a couple of quotes about the key. In season 2, the information about each key is replaced by the key's main traits, biggest strength, potential weakness, likes, dislikes, preferred clothing, animal symbol and its most similar zodiac signs (the list of people whose personalities match that of that particular key is included), as each key is personified and portrayed as a living person. Four keys from season 1 were reposted in season 2, so they had the new format that the other 12 keys in season 2 had. They are B minor, D major, G minor and F-sharp minor.

The last episode, called "C major: The Final Key", was released online on 22 October 2013.[ clarification needed ] Instead of the normal information and personality traits, the online post on C major confirmed that each key had its own personality. It is also the only key whose gender is not made clear, with both male and female pronouns being used, while all the other keys are either male or female.

On SoundCloud, there are sets to categorise the keys according to number of sharps or flats and their tonality (major and minor). They are The Sharp Majors, The Sharp Minors, The Flat Majors, The Flat Minors and No sharps, No flats.

Season 3, named Orchestral Tales, continued the same approach of personification for ten orchestral instruments. The first episode, "The Flute's Tale", was broadcast on 6 January 2016. [1]

Personification

Age
Some keys are given "ages", such as A major being referred to as a "teenager" and "the girl next door", while F major "cradles her baby" and C major is portrayed as a young child skipping down the street. Other keys whose "ages" are not specified are assumed to be adults, while some of them, such as D-flat major, C-sharp minor, E major, and G-sharp minor had their younger selves mentioned, implying that they are now adults. F major had a difficult childhood and one of G minor's other nicknames is "The Moody Teenager".
Physical appearances
Some keys have their physical appearances described as though they were real people. For example, D minor is said to be "sexy and mysterious, with a glint in her dark, sultry eyes". F major is described as having "a beauty that makes you gasp." As for A major, "there's no denying that she's pretty. Gorgeous, even."
E major is handsome, "having a square jaw and a firm handshake", and E minor is mentioned to attract female attention with "those long, wavy locks". (Both keys are portrayed as male.)
C major is shown to be innocent. "When you look into C major's eyes, the innocence there instantly captures your heart."
C-sharp minor is mentioned to wear mascara.
Intelligence
B-flat major, C minor and G minor are given a mention here. G minor's key characteristics are "Smart. Argumentative. Stubborn", while C minor "knows he's a genius". B-flat major is a "straight A student", showing him to be good at studies and portraying him as intelligent. He is also a "know-it-all" person.
Clothing
F minor "is never afraid to show a little cleavage. She's been known to wear black leather." D minor is "wrapped in thick velvet robes, trying to keep out the cold".

Pop songs

Pop music appears in a few episodes:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Key signature</span> Set of musical alterations

In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp, flat, or rarely, natural symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the clef at the beginning of the first line. If the piece contains a section in a different key, the new key signature is placed at the beginning of that section.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Major scale</span> Musical scale made of seven notes

The major scale is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at double its frequency so that it is called a higher octave of the same note.

In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale, the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale – mirroring the major scale, with its harmonic and melodic forms

In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in Western classical music, art music, and pop music.

Tonality or key: Music which uses the notes of a particular scale is said to be "in the key of" that scale or in the tonality of that scale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enharmonic</span>

In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note, interval, or key signature that is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature but "spelled", or named differently. The enharmonic spelling of a written note, interval, or chord is an alternative way to write that note, interval, or chord. The term is derived from Latin enharmonicus, from Late Latin enarmonius, from Ancient Greek ἐναρμόνιος (enarmónios), from ἐν (en) and ἁρμονία (harmonía).

In music, sharp, dièse, or diesis means, "higher in pitch". More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means "higher in pitch by one semitone ". Sharp is the opposite of flat, which is a lowering of pitch. The ♯ symbol itself is conjectured to be a condensed form of German ligature ſch or the symbol ƀ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circle of fifths</span> Relationship among tones of the chromatic scale

In music theory, the circle of fifths is a way of organizing the 12 chromatic pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths.. If C is chosen as a starting point, the sequence is: C, G, D, A, E, B, F, C, A, E, B, F. Continuing the pattern from F returns the sequence to its starting point of C. This order places the most closely related key signatures adjacent to one another. It is usually illustrated in the form of a circle.

C-flat major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has seven flats. Its relative minor is A-flat minor. Its parallel minor, C-flat minor, is usually replaced by B minor, since C-flat minor's three double-flats make it impractical to use. The direct enharmonic equivalent of C-flat major is B major, a key signature with five sharps.

A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The key of A major is the only key where the Neapolitan sixth chord on  (i.e. the flattened supertonic) requires both a flat and a natural accidental.

F-sharp major is a major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has six sharps.

A-flat major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has four flats.

D-flat major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B and C. Its key signature has five flats. It is enharmonically equivalent to C-sharp major.

G-flat major is a major scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has six flats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G-sharp minor</span> Key signature

G-sharp minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has five sharps.

D-sharp minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has six sharps.

F minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature consists of four flats. Its relative major is A-flat major and its parallel major is F major. Its enharmonic equivalent, E-sharp minor, has six sharps and the double sharp F, which makes it impractical to use.

A-flat minor is a minor scale based on A, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has seven flats. Its relative major is C-flat major, its parallel major is A-flat major, and its enharmonic equivalent is G-sharp minor.

In music theory, a theoretical key is a key whose key signature would have at least one double-flat or double-sharp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2</span> Composition by Hungarian Composer Franz Liszt

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, S.244/2, is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by composer Franz Liszt, and is by far the most famous of the set.

G-sharp major is a theoretical key based on the musical note G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has six sharps and one double sharp.

References

  1. "The Flute's Tale", Orchestral Tales, CBC Music