Why do minor chords (in Western music) sound “sad” while major chords sound “happy”? Is it a purely learned interpretation, or is there something intrinsic to those intervals that makes them sound sad / happy?
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Middle school band director here. I teach my kiddos to think in terms of brighter and darker, rather than happy or sad. The first movement of Mozart’s 40th symphony is minor, but it’s drive and energy are not sad at all. Conversely, the second movement of his clarinet concerto is in major, but definitely has some melancholy aspects to it. Chicago’s Make Me Smile starts in C minor and transitions to Eb major, but is undeniably happy throughout (maybe not the whole Ballet, but just Make Me Smile). But the brighter/darker analogy does click for them, and once I describe it thusly, I can play various triads for them, and they get very accurate at calling qualities with little else to describe them.
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