Lately, this whole music key thing has been intriguing me. I decided to search Google for more information, even though it seemed unlikely that I would find something I didn’t already know. Classical musicians were having a harder time finding jobs, and the music that was played was flat and emotionless. It was as if everyone was slowly losing the ability to feel emotions in music.
I googled “music key personalities” and many of the results were pretty much the same thing: a list of key characters by Schubart. I glanced through, looking at the keys I had already met in person. Seriously, were the keys different back then? Their personalities as described by Schubart were quite different to what I had experienced myself.
Eventually I found this thing called the Signature Series CBC. The producer was based in Canada, and apparently he’d come up with this cool idea of personifying the keys. How it worked was like this: each episode, around 4-5 minutes long, started with an ascending scale of the key. If it was a minor key, the harmonic minor scale was used. And get this: each key had a nickname. I had chanced upon F-sharp major/G-flat major (I still had no idea which enharmonic spelling she/they/he preferred to go by), D minor and A major. Let me see. The Mystic, The Ice Queen and the Will’O-the-Wisp.
I decided to start with A major. Man, this Signature Series thing seemed to capture some, if not most, of her personality. A major had drawn me in, and now I found myself involved in this whole synesthetic business. Twirled me around her little finger. The girl next door. I suppose she was friendly in that way.
F-sharp major (she was written as F-sharp major in the series) supposedly had a green thumb. Where had I last seen her? At a place with a lot of plants. Okay, so that didn’t necessarily mean anything. But the vibe she gave off that day, it matched what I was hearing now. Just so you know, her relative minor is written as E-flat minor. From his nickname, I figured that E-flat minor was some slightly crazy dude whom nobody really understood. I guessed, in this series, parallel keys keep the same enharmonic spelling, seeing as F-sharp major could have been G-flat major but F-sharp minor, her parallel minor, would not have been G-flat minor. How many flats would that have been, anyway? Too many.
I was not prepared for the D minor episode. Alluring, sexy. Huh. I didn’t remember Re being sexy, at least not in that sense. I guess, she had been alluring in her own way. I remembered how I felt pulled towards her. Sultry dark eyes, accurate. The part about her being all sad and angry at the world? Quite accurate. The problem: she wasn’t quite as scary as she was made out to be. By the end of the episode, I felt for her more than I had upon meeting her for the first time in that library.
I listened to these 3 episodes during my lunch break, and after my last class, I looked for Rafaela, the only other person whom I knew was also caught up in this synesthetic mess. I sat her down and showed her what I had found.
“Interesting,” she murmured. “That could come in handy if we were to meet more keys in person, already knowing what their personalities are like. The problem is, this is based on one person’s perception, and while it’s mostly accurate, there might be some differences in the way we perceive them.”
“I know. A major seemed to fit the description pretty well, but she was more annoying than she was portrayed.” I thought back to the day she had hounded me in the train station.
“Huh,” Rafaela snorted. “You know what, if you have time now, let’s listen to the episodes of the keys we both have met, and compare.”
So that’s what we did for the next fifteen or so minutes. Rafaela had met F minor a couple of times, like I had with F-sharp major. We both met D minor and A major. What surprised me the most was the fact that D major was Raf’s math teacher.
“I didn’t know they could be part of our normal lives, much less be a math teacher,” I remarked.
“Well, many musicians were scientists and mathematicians in their own time. The composer Alexander Borodin had a chemical reaction named after him,” she replied.
“Wow. Guess it isn’t so surprising, huh? I swear, the more we get sucked into this, the stranger everything looks on the surface,” I grumbled.
“Also, there’s something I think you should know,” Rafaela said. “Now that we’ve listened to the D minor episode.”
“Wait, what’s this about? Apart from the fact that she’s a lot less scary in real life than she’s portrayed, and a lot sweeter as a person?”
Raf rolled her eyes. “No, Dave. Okay, maybe. But this is what I’ve noticed myself, and what F major told me.” “Her relative major talked to you about her? Why wasn’t I part of that conversation?” I asked. Considering that I fell pretty hard for the key of D minor, or Re, as Raf and I called her, it made sense that I would’ve liked a chance to converse with her relative major, F major. Kinda like talking to your crush’s older sibling to learn what their favourite food is. Raf sighed. “Shut up and listen to me for a while, okay?” She glanced around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. “Re, as I know the key of D minor by, appears to have some of the symptoms of depression.”
“Hold on a moment. Before you slap a diagnostic label on what could very well be a temporary mood, let’s look up depression,” I said firmly. “Dave, I’m well aware that sadness is not depression, or at least, not all sadness is. She seems like she’d stay at home all day and not get anything done, but miraculously, she goes out. Obviously with this whole thing going on. Maybe her relative or parallel majors are helping her. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s serious. Plus, F major seemed worried. I don’t think you get worried over someone who feels sad for a day or two, and is back to normal after that.”
“Yes, Dr Rafaela,” I joked. I looked at her to see her reaction and realised she was serious. Without warning, Raf had slapped me on the arm. Ow. “This isn’t funny,” she hissed.
“I stopped laughing, but yeah,” I grumbled.
“Anyway, the next step is to find her and possibly F major too. I’ll update you,” she promised. “See you tomorrow.”
With that, I walked towards the exit, making my home, and worrying once again about the pile of assignments that I had.
