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I was taught when I was young that minor key names should be written with the note in lowercase, as well as the word "minor". Nowadays on recordings, etc., I usually see both capitalized. What was the original reason for this rule, and why has it (apparently) fallen out of favor? |
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I still see it applied for modes in chord notations, and it echoes the use of the distinction of M/m for Maximum and minimum in mathematical shorthand. It might be a kind of political correctness: all modes are created equal, they should not be typographically discriminated. None of them should have an initial uppercase when others have only lowercases, c minor is as respectable as A Major, and there are other scales and modes. A related question is do you use a uppercase or a lowercase "d" with Bach's Toccata in Dorian mode BWV 538? Most recent recordings do not respect Dorian as a mode, they only present it as a surname, like a dedication: Perhaps one will someday ask : Who was Dorian? And who was she to J.-S. Bach? |
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As suggested in my comment on the question, it seems to be a German key naming convention. If you look at http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-Moll they call it "c-Moll" (note lowercase) or "c" (note lowercase) or "Cm". In contrast: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-Dur is called "C-Dur" (note uppercase) or "C" (note uppercase). In other words: c-Moll vs C-Dur or c vs C or Cm vs C. That would suggest the convention is still alive in Germany (and was possibly always considered the "German style") |
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If you actually write out "C major" and "C minor", then there's no need to further distinguish them via capitalization; your meaning is already clear. So I agree with Raskolnikov in the comments that "C/c" is useful when you drop "major/minor" altogether. However, to make it more clear, I usually use and see used "C" (or rarely "CM") for the major and "Cm" for the minor. |
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I think it comes from the German practice as well, since German musicians were quite the standard-setters up to the 19th century. That said, even though it's implied in the 'shorthand' notation that C represents a major and c a minor chord, I prefer to use C and Cm when writing, for absolute clarity. The 'shorthand' notation, however, still pops here and there, when space is limited (e.g., when picking patch/combo names to save to my keyboard). |
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