Talk:minor key

RFV discussion: September 2022–February 2023

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minor key

Noun sense 2 and adjective:

• Noun: (idiomatic) A mood of melancholy or pathos.
• Adjective: (idiomatic) In a restrained manner; on a small or limited scale.

Not really seeing much evidence for this as a mood, or as a way of describing behaviour.

Looks like evidence for in a minor key may be found at Google Books DCDuring (talk) 00:55, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

RFV Failed Ioaxxere (talk) 22:41, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

major key

Noun sense 2 and adjective:

• Noun: (idiomatic) A mood of cheerfulness or happiness.
• Adjective: (idiomatic) In an unrestrained manner; on a large or expansive scale.

Likewise. These two were also added yesterday by a user that edited both pages, so I'm pretty sure these were just inferred from minor key. Theknightwho (talk) 17:14, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

There could be something in this as songs in a minor key are generally considered to sound more melancholy than those in a major key and vice versa but I can’t find any support for these senses regardless. Perhaps the user who added these meanings was getting confused with low-key and the rarer high-key? Overlordnat1 (talk) 23:15, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

Try looking for "in a minor key". It's a not-uncommon metaphor for having sad and melancholy overtones. That said, I'm not so sure that "minor key" by itself means the same thing, and I definitely don't think that it's an adjective. You might find "minor-key" as attributive use of the noun with the "in a" implied. As for "major key", I see a little metaphorical usage, but since the major keys are what Western music considers the default (what I like to refer to as the "unmarked category"), it's not as useful as a metaphor. Chuck Entz (talk) 23:39, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

Harder to filter out other uses in in a major key, but there seems to be some support at Google Books, but there are some possible cites. I'm not sure about cites of "speak/talk in a major key". Here's an often reused sentence from:

• 1910, Arthur Edward Phillips, The Tone System in Public Speaking and Reading:

  Smooth the brow, brighten the eye, contract the dorsal rather than the ventral aspect of the frame, and speak in a major key, pass the genial compliment, and your heart must be frigid indeed if it do not gradually thaw!

DCDuring (talk) 00:55, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

the high moments of social life on the farm … are in a decidedly minor key

— Don Murray

art in Australia … reflected English traditions in a minor key

— Bernard Smith Peppermintpatty111 (talk) 03:57, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Perhaps we should move these entries to in a minor key and in a major key then, as they don’t seem to exist on their own. We should probably move this conversation to RFM. --Overlordnat1 (talk) 12:03, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

RFV Failed Ioaxxere (talk) 22:41, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

I've now created entries for in a minor key and in a major key based on the deleted senses and our in a hurry entry. As it's been marked as failed for 10 days unchallenged, I'm archiving this chat. By all means challenge the new entries I've just created if they seem problematic. --Overlordnat1 (talk) 08:23, 15 February 2023 (UTC)