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What gives a piece of music its personality?

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I would ask commenters and the questioner to consider the difference between the inherent qualities of a musical composition, as opposed to the qualities of a performance. Almost all classical music prescribes as many features as possible of performance - key, tempo, detailed expression marks. Less formal performances can vary wildly in the impression they give, even though the same musical piece is being performed. Yet, my intuition tells me there are inherent qualities in a musical piece, no matter how it is performed. But that is a question-different than this one-that could be explored. –  memphisslim Jan 15 at 16:37

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Very interesting question.






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The feelings that you want to transmit es very relevant with scale or chords that you use.

For example:

  • Minor scale and chords sound dark and sad (ballads).
  • Major scale and chords sound bright and happy (classic pop).
  • Power chords sound powerfull, with a lot of energy (rock, metal, punk).

At last, all this musical resources are very related, but they sound very different.

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The main factors in the personality of any music are how the notes progress, the key signature, the octaves you play it in, the tempo, and how loud it is.

Like take for example C minor. If the notes progressed in an odd way like including minor 6th chords than it would sound mysterious even in the 1st octave.

The baseline is a very sad feeling because of the 3 flats and the i iv and v chords.

Low octaves make a not so odd c minor piece, mysterious

High octaves do just the opposite, making it peaceful like a nocturne.

The faster you play C minor, the more it feels like C major at that same speed and C major when fast sounds happy

The slower you play C minor the more it feels like f minor at that same speed and f minor sounds extremely sad when slow.

The quieter C minor is the more sad, mysterious, or peaceful it is depending on the octaves

The louder C minor is the angrier and more dramatic it is. A famous example of this is Beethoven's 5th symphony.

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