Is it possible to write a song without a key?

Question

"This song is in F Major", "That song is in A Minor", "This song is in D Minor, but modulates to F Major in the middle", etc.

Can we say "This song has no key"? Are there songs that have/follow no key? Is it possible to create song without adhering a key?

Answer 1

First, a key is only really a basis. You can have an F# in a piece written in C Major without having the piece "switch" keys.

Second, keys are defined arbitrarily. Sure there is theory about what sounds good and that sort of thing, but at the end of the day it's just a group of notes that's just as valid as any other group of notes. This is made clear by modes where you have 7 different scales starting on F, 7 starting on G, etc.

There's also plenty of non-Western music that doesn't even use the same notes and intervals as us, so applying our concept of keys to that music doesn't make sense, although they may have their own analog to keys.

And it's entirely possible to compose music outside a currently-named key. I'll compose a song right now based on arbitrary frequencies:

0.001 Hz    2342.234582999 Hz    11 Hz    201.42 Hz    600 Hz    9876.123 Hz

In sum, your question amounts to "Is it possible to type a letter sequence that isn't an English sentence?"

Answer 2

Possible, yes. Recommended, probably not.

As other answers have stated, it is certainly possible to write a song that does not conform to defined tonal "scales" like the Ionian mode (major scale) and related modes, pentatonic scales, and variations like harmonic and melodic minor (which differ from "natural minor", the Aeolian mode, in a couple subtle ways such as a major 6th or 7th).

If a melodic line does not generally conform to one of the above, it is generally termed "atonal". However, it can still conform to a system; music written in the whole tone or tritone scales, for instance, or in Middle Eastern and Indian systems which utilize quarter-tone differences. Whole tone and tritone music can still be written in Western notation, but many Eastern styles cannot.

Then, there are music styles that defy printed form; many traditional African call-and-answer styles were passed down for thousands of years solely through word of mouth, and completely lack a tonal center, focusing instead on rhythm and flow of the song. With the sweeping popularity of Western culture and musical instruments, particularly keyboards and synthesizers, a lot of African music has become more systematic, but you still hear very odd intervals reminiscent of the traditional songs.

In all cases, the Western music notation system evolved to handle Western music styles, which use the 12-tone system, key and time signatures. Even then, some contemporary music styles, especially a capella choral music and jazz, can make a pianist cringe when told to decipher it in condensed staff form.

Answer 3

To add to the other answers, there is also dodecaphony, or twelve-tone technique, a method to compose music explicitly without a key by trying to give equal weight to all 12 notes of the western scale.

(Look ma, no key)

Another example: YouTube: Arnold Schönberg: Suite op. 25 / Musette

Surely sounds interesting, but this kind of music is definitely more for the mind than for the heart. ;-)

Answer 4

A drum solo is a song without a key.

Answer 5

"Key" implies "tonality." The name of a key corresponds to a pitch class that is considered the "focus" of a key or section.

Is it possible to compose a melody without a key? Of course. That was the whole point of the Second Viennese School. Of course, it is possible not to be tonal (which implies a specific framework of relationships surrounding one central pitch) and still to be centric (which implies that a pitch is central, but the "Western" tonal framework around it is still not there). It is also possible to have multiple pitches serve as centric (an example is polytonality, though it is possible to eschew tonality and still have polycentrism).

All of what I have just stated falls within the Western equal-tempered twelve-tone system. As @Matthew Read points out, you can go outside that system as well.

Answer 6

There are songs that might as well not have a key, with so many accidentals that it basically becomes tonal soup. However, even those have a key to start with.

A key signature simply tells you eight of the twelve normal tones the song is written to use. You wouldn't be able to write down a song in normal notation without establishing what tone the spaces and lines on the staff meant.