articles / Pop Culture

Bright and Powerful E Major

It’s been called “the brightest and most powerful key” that expresses “joy, magnificence, splendor, and the highest brilliancy.” E Major can sound shimmering, as violins can play their highest string without putting a finger on the fingerboard – but Beethoven never wrote a symphony in the key, and some of the pieces with great E major melodies were middle and last movements of pieces in other keys.

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Can you name these works? Click and drag over the white space below to highlight the answers:

Ponchielli: ‘Dance of the Hours’ from La Gioconda
Rossini: William Tell Overture
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto, mvt. 3
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto no. 2, mvt 2
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, finale
Wagner: Tannhauser Overture
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Grieg: ‘Morning Mood’ from Peer Gynt
Chopin: Etude, Op. 10, no. 3 ‘Tristesse’
Vivaldi: ‘Spring’ from the Four Seasons
Rossini: William Tell Overture

Pop Culture The State of the Arts

Written by:

Jeffrey Freymann

Published on 05.11.2018

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