This has always bugged me.
In English interpretations of tonality, wouldn't it be logical for the key with no sharps or flats to be the first, instead of, for some impenetrable reason, the third? It would make more sense for what we call C to be A and the whole goddamn affair start from THERE. The french have got it slightly better, in that their tonality starts on C, but they call it fucking weird names, do re mi etc.

This struck me while listening to Jim Noir's "Key Of C", which I haven't listened to in ages. Which then, as a more general question, leads to this:

What was the last song you listened to that brought up genuine strong emotion? I listened to a couple of songs that I hadn't heard in ages (Sigur Rós' "Untitiled IV" from () and "Map of Your Head") that reminded me of another time and place. Are they songs that make you happy, sad, angry, horny?

Or if you don't want to answer either of those questions, would you rather be a peach or a strawberry?
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 18:56, 11 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

It's not a song as such
It's a piece of classical music. It's called Adagio for Strings, and I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard it in one form or another.

Without saying exactly why, it's a very, very emotional piece of music that I first heard in Homeworld, and have done my best to avoid since as it sends me to a dark, dark place that requires much whisky to get me out of.
(Potty Jag har smör i min rumpspringa, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 19:05, Reply)

Barber's Adagio for Strings?
I love that piece of music. Albinoni's Adagio In G Minor is a gorgeous piece of music as well.

While I was writing that, I was blasting out Infernal Dance from the Firebird. Now THAT is a choon.
/weird
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 19:08, Reply)

To go further down the classical route
Bach - Fugue. I use it to test out speakers as it's a pain for most to recreate the lower organ notes properly. Get the right speakers, and you can use it to make people's intestines do odd things.

Sadly not listening to naything right now as I cba to reach over and switch on my speakers.
(Potty Jag har smör i min rumpspringa, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 19:13, Reply)

I know nothing technical about music, so i'll answer the second one.
Last of the Wilds, by Nightwish. I don't know what it is about it, but it just sort of releases me from whatever mood I'm in, makes me feel free. I used to listen to it a lot more, but then I choreographed a dance to it with isis wings, and ended up listening to it so much I'm having to take a bit of a break from it.

Oh and also, I'd be a strawberry, then people would dip me in chocolate.
(Applebite Uh! A cow!, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 19:13, Reply)

Oh dear
There is only one thing to do then. Hold still while it's licked off like a particularly perky nipple, then be dunked in again.
(Potty Jag har smör i min rumpspringa, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 19:14, Reply)

*holds still*
OooOOoOOooo, that tickles.
(Applebite Uh! A cow!, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 19:19, Reply)

It's the feathers
I haven't gotten them all out after that pigeon I had for lunch.

*dunks*
(Potty Jag har smör i min rumpspringa, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 19:20, Reply)

There's an episode of Scrubs
where a lady comes in to the hospital who hears everything in song.

Towards the end of the episode, she's scared because she has to go for brain surgery on a tumor or some such, and she sings 'What's going to happen to me?'

The cast sing, as one 'You're going to be ok. That's what's going to happen' and it moves me to tears every time I see it. Just the thought of it has me crying while I write this, although I've had a tough day.

Edit: this might be mobilified:

m.youtube.com/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Di-1-eZt-ZY8&v=i-1-eZt-ZY8&gl=GB
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 20:08, Reply)

you make a good point
what with C being used as a reference and all. Unfortunately, despite being a musician (to some extent) my knowledge of theory has all been destroyed by too much drink and drugs.
I'd suggest that someone like Empress might be able to offer an explanation of some kind?

Songs that have moved me: probably Momma Sed by Pucifer most recently. Not sure why, but I love it.
Of all time? Forever Autumn from War of the Worlds. Got played at a good friends funeral. We used to listen to WOTW a lot and it had me bawling like a small child. Still gets me today.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 20:23, Reply)

Surely there is no key
which has no sharps and no flats? Granted, C doesn't have a flat (not counting B natural), but C# is alive and well. As for starting things from C rather than A...well, I don't really know. I do wonder if it's an artifact of wind or brass instruments (e.g., for an Eb sax / clarinet / trumpet, an A played on that is a C on other instruments) - I'm really clutching at straws.

As for songs...it depends if you mean the music itself or the sentimental attachments. Satie's 2eme Gymnopedie and Debussy's Premiere Arabesque bring a lump to my throat because we played them at my grandmother's funeral a few months ago, and again at my uncle's a month or so after that.

For the music itself, on the other hand, I find if I'm feeling angry, it's got to be Bargain by The Who (or a live version of Amazing Journey/Sparks). If I'm sad...'Til I Die by the Beach Boys or Time by Tom Waits.

Or if I'm in need of a laugh, nothing picks me up like the childish entertainment of I take a look at my enormous penis by Da Vinci's Notebook.

I would rather be a strawberry. This would at least allow for the possibility that I meant end up in a bowl in the front row of seats at a tennis match, in a perfect position to enjoy the arse of the ball girl. (Could backfire, of course, if I were not so advantageously positioned and just had to watch the fucking tennis instead.)
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 22:31, Reply)

This is probably not right, but...
I *think* it has something to do with Gregorian chant. Modern musical notation started to develop around the 10th century. Naming notes using letters of the alphabet had been around since the ancient Greeks, but I'd have thought this sort of thing would have been standardised along with the rest of the notation. Solfege (do re mi etc to Julie Andrews' heart's content) was invented a lot later.

Rather than a system of musical keys, Gregorian chant used modes, i.e. scales that all used the white notes but had different notes as the root (most important note in the scale, usually the finishing note). Different modes give a different flavour to the music.

Each mode had an associated reciting note, the note that the priest stuck to when chanting important bits of the liturgy. This was generally five notes above the root (the dominant). The first mode in Gregorian chant was the Dorian, which has D as a root note (i.e. a scale consisting of all the white notes starting on D). The reciting note for that mode would be A. It would make sense, therefore, to assign the first letter of the alphabet to the reciting note of the first mode.

The above is pieced together from half-forgotten music A level lessons and a book of Hildegarde von Bingen tunes. I might, therefore, be talking out of my arse. Sorry.
(Concrete Cow, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 22:46, Reply)