Songs in minor key that aren't sad?

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Dec 14 - 07:24 PM

Has anyone mentioned Bonny Ship The Diamond ?-fairly jolly and definitely Aeolian.

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST,J S Bach
Date: 01 Dec 14 - 08:46 PM

Just curious, can one of the major-key Misirlou people post a link to a recording showing what they're talking about?

The version that I sing, accompanied with E, Am, and Dm, is sung here by Sofia Vembo, and here by a modern group.

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 02 Dec 14 - 02:46 AM

"Misirlou" is in the hijazkar scale - E F ^G A B c ^d e going up, with a D natural sometimes going down. That's a major mode because the third (^G) is major.

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST,Brendan R.
Date: 23 Sep 15 - 07:45 PM

You Should Be Dancing (Bee Gees)
Boogie Wonderland (Earth, Wind and Fire)

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 24 Sep 15 - 05:09 AM

Love Potion No 9 (Clovers/Searchers)

LFF

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Sep 15 - 05:30 AM

Johnny Jump Up.

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Sep 15 - 04:39 PM

Rhapsody in Blue

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Sep 15 - 11:20 PM

Human beings constantly set up systems and then tinker with them. Sometime in 1200's, somebody finished up and major scale, the minor scales, and the modes. Two weeks later, somebody started tinkering with them.

If a song is accompanied mostly by chords with an 'm' in them, then for all practical purposes it's a minor song. It could be modal, but who cares, really?

There are hundreds of tunes that start out minor, go to major to create some interest, then go back to minor. The reverse is also true.

Speaking of tinkering, that song by Thomas Mudd looks to be in G/Em, but it includes several G#'s and D#'s.   It's a real original. Thanks for the link.

I have another song for the list: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill.

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST,Joe Rodgers
Date: 25 Sep 15 - 12:42 AM

Who stole the Keeshka ? ( on You Tube, I would think)

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Amos
Date: 25 Sep 15 - 11:46 AM

The Days of '49 and Blue Mountain Lake are both based in a minor key and are rollicking and funny tunes.

A

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST,seldiora
Date: 09 Oct 17 - 10:43 PM

Feeling Good - Michael Buble; Uptown Funk - Bruno Mars; Hello - OMFG

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 10 Oct 17 - 02:48 PM

Well, I always think of "Sultans of Swing" as being an "up song".

Young Sultans

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Oct 17 - 02:55 PM

Here are the non-sad tunes I play on my dulcimer in DAG tuning.


Are you sleepin', Maggie?                              

Black is the color of my true love's hair E 5th
Blow the candle out A 1st

Can't help but wonder where I'm bound E 5th
Cantigas de Santa Maria (to be researched)
Charade (movie theme) E 5th

Come you merry lads & lasses D 4th
Darlin' Corey G 0

the Dove she is a pretty bird E 5th (6.5)

Drunken sailor   E 5th (6.5)
Elm tree branches C 3rd
Froggie went a-courting A 1st
God rest ye merry, gentlemen A 1st

Gwcw fach   E 5th (6.5)

I got a mule and her name is Sal A 1st
If you miss the train I'm on C 3rd

Let all mortal flesh keep silence A 1st

Masters in this hall A 1st

My lord, what a morning F-6/5
Now the grn blade rises
   (Noel nouvelet)A 1st
Nyth a gog   E 4th
O come, o come, Emmanuel A 1st
Old Chisholm trail A 1st
Row yr boat to Jesus' side D 4th
Scarborough Fair   A 1st (6.5)
Scheherazade themes
Singers, sing E 5th
Star of the County Down C 3rd
Summertime Porgy & Bess A hi 8th
Sweet the evening air of May A 1st

Swing low, sweet chariot F# 6 1/2
Turn ye to me A 1st

Wayward wind D 4th
Wild Rover E 5th (House Band version)

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Oct 17 - 02:57 PM

You can't go back to Constantinople.

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 11 Oct 17 - 07:33 PM

Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho.
Puttin' on the Ritz

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Amos
Date: 13 Oct 17 - 09:27 AM

High Barbaree
Township 19
The Trail of the Buffalo
The Ox Driver's Song
Whiskey in the Jar

Dozens of "come all ye's"

I think it's a non-question, really.

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 13 Oct 17 - 10:07 AM

My friend Anja's "Slow Night For Crime" is definitely not sad, and in a minor key:

Anja graefe (Anju) Slow Night For Crime

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Merritt
Date: 13 Oct 17 - 01:04 PM

+1 the Erie Canal Song or Low Bridge, Everybody Down first published in 1905. When I was growing up, and then when my kids were growing up, this was a go-to family-sings-together-in-the-car and campfire song. I always thought of it as Not Sad. Now that I play/sing it regularly (verses in Am w/ bridge and chorus built around C major) for an unlicensed material-only gig, I did some research cause I wanted to be able to tell acoupla stories about it. Well, darned if it ain't a Sad Song; Although it's sometimes tagged as an early-20th century "comic song," the author, Thomas Allen, wrote it (and likely stole some of it) as a nostalgic lament for a lost era when barges on the canal were moved by mules and mule drivers; steam cars proved to be more efficient.

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 13 Oct 17 - 03:48 PM

Many of the songs mentioned in this thread are done in minor keys because they are comic takes upon themes which, when treated seriously, are often done in minor keys. Adopting the minor key is a very broad form of parody.

Any song about, say, the supernatural is apt to be in a minor key, whether it treats the subject seriously or not.

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: Acorn4
Date: 14 Oct 17 - 04:11 AM

Someone mentioned "Dance me to the end of Love" earlier.

Ironic that what is probably Laughing Len's happiest song is in a minor key.

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST,Kenny B Sans Kuku
Date: 15 Oct 17 - 12:25 PM

Red Rose Caf? a happy wee song although it does go from minor to major for the chorus
I find Aimee McPherson a happy weew song and Olga from the Volga has mixed emotions

Subject: RE: Songs in minor key that aren't sad?
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 07:14 AM

Surely, surely this has to qualify?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7vk5keNbRc

Enjoy!