Am 17.04.2018 um 01:24 schrieb Torsten Hämmerle:
Even if my opinion may differ from the general opinion here, I think that in
popular music, one would use standard D major key signature.
Reason: Two sharps clearly show D major tonic and the characteristic mixo
tone C (flat seventh) stands out in the sheet music by the accidental used.
I very much agree. In my impression, nowadays most musicians (save
medieval or Renaissance music specialists and maybe Jazz musicians) tend
to only differentiate between "major-like" and "minor-like" scales/keys,
which means that every modal scale is measured against the one of the
two "standard" scales/keys more similar to what is at hand. So, having
two sharps in the key signature will most probably be read as
"major-like tune with tonic D", which is exactly what should come
across, even in the music leans more toward, e.g., mixolydian mode. (In
fact, more ofthen than not there are elements characteristic of more
standard major/minor tonality in such a tune, for instance think of the
e-Dorian mittle eight in "Norwegian Wood" which concludes with a regular
cadenza in E major.)
If you write your D-mixolydian tune with just one sharp, I see two
equally unfortunate possibilites: Either musicians will correctly
recognize D as the tonic and play C sharp all the time (since this is
what they're used to in a major-like tune with tonic D), or they look at
the key signature, think "G major" and try to relate everything in the
tune to some elusive "tonic" G.
Nowadays, I think the key signatures are read not as combinations of
alterations but of fixed code sets designating one of the standard keys,
expressed as a combination of tonic plus "major/minor". So, go for D
major key signature.
Best
Lukas
"Norwegian Wood"
(in E Mixolydian) has E major key signature and the characteristic
Mixolydian seventh D is clearly marked by using a natural sign each time.
At least, that's the way professional ("official") publications handle it.
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