Jasność i ciemność, czyli tonacje krzyżykowe i bemolowe
Brightness and Darkness, or Sharp and Flat Keys

Summary/Abstract: Due to the intrinsic and inherent oppositions within the major-minor system, it is naturally binary and dialectic. One of those oppositions is that of directions, or tonal melos up/down of the circle of fifths, that is towards sharp keys or toward flat keys. The idea of the sharp/flat keys opposition, present in its nascent form already in the works of Johann Mattheson and Jean-Philippe Rameau, with time – especially in the 19th century – became the main factor in the formation of tonal semantics. It can be understood very widely, as opposing every sharp (dominant) modulations to flat-leaning (subdominant) modulations. It can be also understood in a narrow way: as a deviation or sometimes a modulation, to the subdominant or dominant key. An intrinsic element of the opposition in question is still the conviction of the existence of a relationship between the sphere of sharp keys and brightness, as well as between the flat keys and darkness. This is what Rita Steblin calls the sharp/flat principle.Therefore flat/sharp seen as brightness/darkness is a topic used primarily in the context of attributing certain characteristics to particular keys. For the purpose of this article, the key concepts are those showing relation to the way of thinking about tonality in spacial categories and which emphasise the relationship between keys – and not the ethos of keys perceived as an absolute entity. This way of thinking can be seen in the works of Joseph Schalk, Ernst Kurth, and Heiner Ruland, as well as in an article by Mattew Bribitzer-Stull. The views of these scholars, enrichened and reinforced by Yeleazar Meletinsky’s findings on the axiology of space became the starting point for presenting a more detailed set of conclusions on the topic of expression and the semantics of the tonal melos. The sharp-flat antithesis, interpreted according to Meletinsky, is first of all one of the many concretizations of “elementary semantic oppositions” such as up/down, brightness/darkness or hot/cold. Secondly, on the level of “mythology proper”, it remains in a relationship of equivalence with the oppositions day/night, heaven/earth, life/death, etc. Moreover, on the level of axiology, it functions as the metaphor of the good and the evil, the truth and the false, the sacred and the profane.

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