68 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



and is supported by the keys through which the music is next 

 successively led. The effect is increased by first passing from 

 Abniinor to its relative major, viz. Cb, which differs from the 

 minor by omitting the submissive note. After this it passes into 

 the tonic minor of b, viz. B minor, a powerful key, and thence 

 into its relative major, the key of D, thus reaching by steps of 

 ever-increasing strength that which is perhaps the most powerful 

 of all the keys on the piano. When this effect has been thus 

 made to culminate, the prolonged repetition of one of the chords of 

 minor thirds, and the sudden drop upon the original key through 

 its fa — the most desolate of all notes — produces on the mind of 

 the hearer a mixed feeling of pain, settled gloom, and deter- 

 mination, befitting the subject of the piece. Then follow other 

 effects which we need not follow. These modulations would be 

 impossible except on an instrument tuned on the system of equal 

 temperament, or one closely approximating to it. 



Finally, and to this I would particularly request attention, a 

 complete corroboration of the foregoing method of treatment can 

 be had by transposing very simple slow movements into the key 

 of C major or A minor, as the case may be, taking care to finger 

 so as to soften the notes which in the original key fell upon black 

 notes. In this way an artificial imitation of that key may fairly 

 well be produced. The experiment succeeds best when the key 

 imitated is one with flats, probably because the effect of such keys 

 is easily brought out in very slow movements. For instance, 

 F minor can be thus imitated. This observation appears to supply 

 a satisfactory confirmation of the views which I have ventured to 

 submit to the Society. 



The effects of different keys which have been the subject of 

 investigation in this Paper are, of course, peculiar to the piano. 

 They are either not met with or are quite different on the organ, 

 and in an orchestra. Any effects of the kind observable on the 

 organ are probably to be attributed to the tempering, and have 

 no such connexion with black and white notes as on the piano ; 

 and in an orchestra any special effect of a particular key which the 

 ear observes must be the complicated resultant of the peculiarities 

 of many instruments, unless when (as it probably sometimes is) it 

 is simply due to an association established in the memory of the 

 hearer by the familiar experience of the effect of that key on 

 the piauo. 



