What makes a sad song sad?

What’s the deal with Major and Minor chords?
Just what is it, I’m wondering, about D-minor that can make anyone “instantly weep”?
I posed this to the lounge-room sages. Their slurred guesses were:
"Pavlovian conditioning "
"Low-Level Synesthesia "
"something to do with recognizing similarities in tones used to express emotion in…wait…what was the question again? "

The straight dope, anyone?

deuteronomy

I like this question!

I do wonder if a simple D-minor chord by itself could cause anyone to weep, though. It might cause a little shudder or chill if played just right by the right intrument in the right context, but just walking over to the piano and plunking down a D-minor chord would bring a tear (IMHO) only if the thing were badly out of tune.

To test this on yourself, try playing C-E-G (major) then C-Eb-G (minor) back and forth for a few tries and see if you well up and bawl. I would wager not. Of course, in your case, you’d have to swap back and forth from D-F#-A and D-F-A to get the full effect.

Can’t wait for a more definitive reply that does show why minor keys, chords, scales, etc., are associated with sadness or the like.

Since music is an art, I’m going to toss this over to our forum for discussing the arts.

Off to Cafe Society.

DrMatrix - GQ Moderator