A combination literary/musical question, this time: in Verne’s original 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, a character witnessing Captain Nemo performing on his signature pipe organ, notes “I remarked that he touched only the black keys, which gave his melodies an essentially Scotch character.”
Now, I’m regrettably not well versed in organ pieces, aside from recalling—If I Remember Correctly—that the “black” and “white” keys on organ keyboards were reversed since Verne’s time.
So, my question is: what exactly is Nemo’s music supposed to sound like? Is it that distinctive from most organ pieces you’d see on the billboard charts?
And, more importantly, are there any specific examples of organ pieces that match up with Verne’s description to point me to, to hear for myself?
Can anyone enlighten me before I renounce humanity and go to live under the sea?
Wild guess: IIRC, the drones on a Scottish bagpipe play a constant G-D-G chord, and the chanter (on which you play the melody) sounds an octave above that. This probably has something to do with Nemo’s signature sound.
Assuming that the black keys are the same as they are today, wouldn’t this be pentatonic scales, which are characteristic of folk music from many countries?
The black keys then (even going back to Bach) were indeed the same as today.
If you “noodle around” only the black keys of any keyboard, to me it sounds like the western stereotype of Chinese music. You also can play Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.
You definitely get e.g. a Gb major or Eb minor pentatonic scale, but whether your melody sounds more Scotch or Chinese or something else depends on what mode you choose to play in, i.e., Phrygian, Aeolian, or whatever.
OK, so “pianoencyclopedia.com” seems to suggest that a “Scottish pentatonic” scale is Mixolydian, so to play it on the black keys start at Db, and that also this scale is used in many Japanese folk songs as well. Don’t know how much of that is accurate, embarrassingly, since I did listen to a lot of bagpipe music at one point last year…
I don’t remember the source of this quip. The word is “Scottish.” “Scotch” is what a Scotsman drinks
If Nemo was playing only what are today the white keys, that would be either C Major or A Minor, neither of which would sound exotic.
I did an image search and found some Baroque organ keyboards with the reverse color scheme, but most were the same as today. However, every harpsichord that I found - from any era - had the opposite of modern pianos and organs.
Well, no. It could also be D dorian, E phrygian, F lydian, G mixolydian, or perhaps even B locrian. Depends on your tastes or what you’re used to, but I think E phrygian would sound fairly “exotic,” probably F lydian would be regarded as so, and definitely B locrian (nothing is really written in locrian.)
