Minor

What it means

Minor is, alongside major, the second mode of Western music since the seventeenth century. Its hallmark is the minor third above the tonic: the triad on the tonic is a minor triad. The word (German Moll) goes back to the Latin mollis, soft, and stems from the medieval designation of the “soft B” (B♭).

Musical use

Unlike major, minor occurs in three forms. The natural form corresponds to the Aeolian mode and contains exactly the notes of the key signature; it lacks the leading tone. The harmonic form raises the seventh degree to obtain this leading tone, thereby creating the augmented second between the sixth and seventh degrees. The melodic form additionally raises the sixth degree ascending and smooths out this step; descending, the natural form returns. In practice these forms mix within one piece, depending on the direction of the line and on the harmony.

Every minor key has a relative major with the same key signature, whose tonic lies a minor third higher. The change to the major key of the same name, by contrast, is called the parallel key (tonic major); the Picardy third, in which a minor piece closes on a major chord, is a special case of this.

Equating minor with sadness is a simplification that hits the mark on average but has countless counterexamples — in many folk musics the association is entirely different.

Alongside natural minor there is harmonic minor with a raised seventh degree, and melodic minor with a raised sixth and seventh degree ascending.

Other names

In English the mode is called minor (Italian minore). English usage capitalizes the tonic (“A minor”), German convention does not (“a-Moll”); moreover, English B corresponds to German H, so B minor corresponds to h-Moll.

Performance practice

Check in every minor piece which degrees are raised; this stands only within the bar, not in the key signature. Intonate the minor third rather high, so that the minor chord becomes calm. And do not automatically shape minor as heavy — check what the music demands.