I've been partial to EbM/Cm most of my life. It's creamy and soothing.

Since singing is not taught nor encouraged in schools as was once the case, many today have a limited range. I have noticed the older hymns are now in lower keys in newer hymnals. Part of the reason for "F?" Hard to say, but could be.

In some music books, I think keys are selected for the convenience of parish musicians performing them with guitar music.

I guess I've assumed that there's several factors with preferences in music these days...

* Since 4th grade band I noticed that music would avoid lots of flats and sharps, just because it's easier to learn and play for people without high levels of skill. Throughout my band and orchestra years, it seemed like there was a preference for flats rather than sharps. But since I played French Horn, perhaps that already meant I was getting one more flat than the C instruments.

* In recent centuries, our bodies have gotten larger. It seems to make sense that a slight decline in comfortable pitch might result.

* People rarely sing these days, so our vocal range hasn't developed as much as people who sang constantly. In my schola, I ended up with a combined vocal range of just about an octave that everyone could sing together. Fortunately, most Gregorian Chant sticks to an octave, and you can pitch it to be comfortable. Win!

But for myself, it seems that I've always sung harmony because the melody line is either too high, or sometimes ridiculously broad. I have a halfway decent baritone range, but still find it more comfortable to make up harmonies as I go along.

I once had a lady complain to me that the new Gloria we were singing was too high. It's "high" note was a D. The old Gloria we had been singing for years went up to an E-flat.

Not much difference, I know, but the congregation sang that E-flat with gusto!

Did I miss something? It looks to me that the article says that up-tempo songs in a major key with 'happy' lyrics make people feel good.

Well I listened to all those songs and I wasn't very happy by the end of it all.
I can't get no.... Satisfaction!

it seems that the key of F major is one constant in "feel good."

Does this mean that because we are a half step higher now than 18th century pitch, F# must have been the "feel good" key at the time - but those fools just didn't know it?

This is why all conscientious organists play the Bach "F Major" T and F in E major on instruments tuned to A440. Otherwise, if Bach were alive and heard it, he would be spinning in his grave.

This is also why good choirs singing unaccompanied, when the pitch for a Renaissance motet is given by a sadly uninformed director, immediately lower the pitch by a half step. This is just plain common sense on their part (and on their part).

Salieri is right - to say that we are now a 1/2 step higher than 18th c. pitch is a gross generalization. The truth is that pitch was all over the place. A=415Hz is something that modern early instrument players have adopted to approximate the pitch that would have been used in chamber music (and they need a standard - otherwise they would have to own multiple instruments or be breaking strings constantly). Some Italian music, however, would have been at higher pitch. And then there's Chorton. Frankly, I think that the ability to transpose at sight should be a requirement for every full-time music director out there. Forget what's in the hymnal - use what works with your situation, in your space, in your temperament, etc.

Salieri is right - to say that we are now a 1/2 step higher than 18th c. pitch is a gross generalization. The truth is that pitch was all over the place.

Amen to that. Without any instruments to measure pitch retroactively, how could you really know?

Frankly, I think that the ability to transpose at sight should be a requirement for every full-time music director out there

It isn't, and is something not generally taught in the ancient days when I studied. When my Schantz console was rebuilt in August, they installed a transposer. Now my wailing divas no longer have key signatures to complain about. LOL.

Good grief everyone! The three things I wrote about pitch were jokes. However, this is not the first time that my sense of humor appeared senseless to others. What is the color for half-witty comments? Lilac, perhaps?

I know what it is, but having that after your name would surely set you up as the butt of some very crude jokes.

Its no worse than being a Doctor of Sacred Theology - STD

With a Rodgers simulacrum, of course we have a transposer. Do we ever use it. Can't, organist has perfect pitch, and I like it like that. Makes me work harder.
Putting on "Dos Equis" persona....
"I don't often use the transposition feature....but when I do, I use the large array organ capo. No digital for you!" (Bonus Soup Nazi reference, you can thank me later.)

Wonder why that is?

Perhaps professional context may be both an inducement and an indicator. In most non-sacred musical circles (I stand to be corrected) I don't think there is really a need to be able to transpose - unless one plays an instrument that is built in other than the key of C and works quite a bit with organists. Why, for instance, would an oboist need to know how to transpose his part in a Mahler symphony into a key different from that in which it was written? So it is, I think, with most instrumentalists. A church organist, on the other hand, is the standard bearer for a centuries-old tradition of improvisation and transposition (the latter, in the form of modulation, being an indispensable requirement for the former). The organist often has need of transposing pieces for soloists, for musicological reasons, for moving an anthem or motet onto a different key, for improvising voluntaries, for congregational singing reasons, and for (as is done in some quarters) transposing certain stanzas of a hymn as an artful and engaging experience for congregations. A degreed person in church music who can't transpose is missing an achievement that makes him fully a church musician (and probably was asleep during music theory and analysis classes). Transposing isn't easy for many - it is not unlike translating into another language at sight, on the spot. This is a talent that does, for most, require studious and determined application. (Leave it to Talon and Codgers, Ltd., makers of fine organ simulacra, to come up with a dial-a-key device which eliminates the need for thought... or knowledge.)

Yah, well, one could make the case that transposition skills are about 5th on the list of "necessaries"--after 1) knowing what Catholic church music IS; 2) having a facility with Chant; understanding acoustics enough to NOT use microphones, (etc.).

In a local parish, the Ph.D. (organ) guy can transpose, so he does his R&B stuff in 3 keys, while shoving the 35-rank output through electronic amplification.

Whooppeeee!

I can name this tune in two notes: Miles Davis. If a musician cannot intuit intervallic relationship between and half-step/whole step, then s/he's out of the Musician Pool. (As I'm typing I'm listening to Byzantine (Orthodox) Chant, with quartal tones and choral perfection down to micro-cents.

I studied jazz in college and part of our performance exams included being able to play the semester's repertoire in any key. They'd call a tune and a random key, often impractical keys that would never be called on a gig unless there was an annoying jerk sitting in and you wanted to embarrass him.

I learned to transpose melodies by thinking of them in what I guess you'd call numerical solfege. (1 2 3 not do re mi) and chord progressions as they'd be analyzed in theory classes dealing with functional harmony.

NICAEA would be 1 1 3 3 5 5 6 6 6 5 5 etc. harmonized I-vi-V-I-IV-I

If I needed to play it in Gb for some strange reason, its no more difficult than D.

'wasting time on a skill rarely used'

I thought he was talking about figuring out the transposer ;-)

Many choirs I have sung with over the years have not merely had the ability to transpose on sight -- they do it without even being asked to change keys, and usually in the middle of the piece. [Please note the lack of purple, although I hope that the point I'm making is clear.]

You haven't lived until you've sung the Bruckner 3 Graduals with this skill. Starting Locus Iste in C major and finishing it in D-flat major or even D-major is quite the accomplishment.