Recognizing the key a song has just been played in

[barwonfan]

On a quiz on TV last night they played a few bars of Beethoven's Fur Elise and asked the panel guests to say what key it was played in. I have loved this tune since I was a kid. But I have no idea what key they played it in last night. I wonder how many of our members would have been able to guess correctly. Maybe it is necessary to have perfect pitch to do that; but not many people have perfect pitch.
From memory, I think the panel got it right when they identified it as A minor.
And another question has just occurred to me-- If Beethoven wrote it in A minor is A minor the key that most orchestras around the world play it in. And why did Beethoven choose A minor? J.T.

[Ron]

Yes, A minor is the original key. In the mid section it changes briefly into C major and F major. And NO, I do not have perfect pitch so I had to Google the answer .

Ron

[Hugh-AR]

JT,

It would be fairly easy to tell if something was being played in a Major or a Minor key .. but as for the actual key !!! As you say, you would have to have perfect pitch to know that. But equally, if they knew the piece being played (which you say was Beethoven's Fur Elise) they should also know the key it was being played in .. because as Ron says, a classical piece is always played in the original key in which it was written. So maybe more a case of a knowledge of the composer and the piece being played rather than having perfect pitch.

But as you have mentioned perfect pitch ...

One day in our Hotel I was sitting at my AR organ in the Lounge when one of our guests came in and sat in the sofa on the opposite side of the room. He said to me to play something for him on my organ. Now I knew that this particular guest was a concert pianist and was playing the piano that evening at our Playhouse Theatre, so I wasn't too happy with playing something while he was listening to me! But he insisted, so I did. I played At Last, a Glen Miller piece. When I got to the end, he told me I was playing it in the wrong key. He said I was playing it in A, and it should have been played in Bb. Now I knew which key I was playing it in .. G! And was playing chords of G, C and D7. So he had that wrong!

And then I realised that I had the Transpose button up two notches .. so yes, although I was playing it in G, he was hearing it in A. He said he couldn't listen to music played in the wrong key, so could I play it again in the right key?

I was happy to oblige, so played it again with my G chords and put my Transpose up another notch so he was listening to it in Bb. He was happy then!

But I'm glad that I don't have perfect pitch. Listening to music must be a nightmare for people who have perfect pitch.

Hugh