I don't know when the strong association of major/happy and minor/sad really took hold, or even whether it's international. The question came up recently when discussing Dvorak's New World Symphony, with three movements in E minor. I certainly don't think of that as a sad work. I'm familiar with Telemann's concerto for flute and recorder, which has a wonderfully jolly folk-dance finale in that very same key of E minor.

This is very frustrating! I know that I heard that the association between major/ happy and minor/sad wasn't there originally and developed later on but I can't remember when it started to develop. Someone on these forums did say it's a bad idea to teach pupils this connection in order to teach them the sound of major as opposed to minor for this very reason, that not all major music is happy and not all minor music is sad.

Hasn't really answered your question at all, sorry!

I think the happy/sad aspect came into play once major and minor tonalities began to develop and predominate, in the baroque era, so it will be well established by Bach or Vivaldi's time, but more tenuous in, say, Monteverdi or even Purcell. I feel strongly that it's to do with the major third being more of a "lift" from the tonic. I like to show blues harmonies by giving a major triad (not to low) in the left hand, and an undulation over a tonic to minor third in the right. "This music is basically not unhappy, but, man, I'm feelin' too lazy, too tired, it's too hot, to go all the way to a major third" Try it the other way around, it just doesn't work at all.

I like to do the whole major-minor thing like this:
Play Alouette (or something else, but I find Alouette does this very well) in C major
Play, or get pupil to play, with a minor 3rd instead. Often they'll say it's "less cheerful" and you point out it's in the minor.

Then go down to the bottom of the piano and play it in octaves a lot slower and fortissimo. Does that sound sad? Nope, it sounds threatening. Try it like that but in the major. Now that just sounds wrong. It's slightly missed the point.

Now play Alouette fairly low on the keyboard but pianissimo - not sad, but spooky, scary. Does that work in the major? No, it just sounds a bit silly.

So minors aren't always sad, but they are usually more "moody" in some way or other. More interesting.

If a piece in the minor sounds really cheerful, as you have mentioned some dances, it possibly sounds more modal than minor, and gives an ancient, historic, possibly even "innocence of times past" feel.

As a teacher, I introduce it by playing the minor and major scale and asking the child what difference they hear.

If they say that the minor sounds 'sad' I go along with that.

However, nine out of ten say that the minor scale sounds 'egyptian' or 'oriental' and so I accept that.

The minor is not, of course, the same scale as the 'egyptian' songs they'll be playing (infinite varieties of 'camel dance') but if that's how they hear it then fine - and I do think it makes as much sense if not more than the happy/sad thing.

No grade 1 child playing 'tarantella' will accept that it's a 'sad' song.

(As Linda.ff says, there's a traditional, folk thing going on too - I'm always amazed that the vast number of french children's folk songs are in minor keys, and a lot in 6/8 time too).

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But they're being very heavily influenced by the gap between 6 and 7 in the harmonic minor scale.

Melodic minor scales don't have that gap. "Natural" minor scales don't have that gap. And not very much music that's in a minor key has that gap.

The gap of one and a half tones is what's "left over" after you have the sixth "attracted" to the dominant by only being a semitone, and the leading note attracted to the tonic in the same way. If you play, say, EFEDCBAG#A you have the notes of the harmonic minor but no "Arabian interval". And very often if the melody is going up or down through both the 6th and the 7th, one or other of those notes will be altered by a semitone so as to avoid that interval.

So by allowing this to happen, I'm sorry to say that you may risk giving some of your pupils a false idea of what to listen for if they have to identify major/minor, unless it is a "camel" piece.

I NEVER introduce the minor in the first instance through scales (though from reading this forum avidly for the past few months I seem to be the only one!). I do it very early on, often while we're still in 5 finger position. The most important aspect is the major/minor 3rd, because what happens on the
6th and 7th is a bit of a movable feast.

Minor is a mode, not a scale. C major and C minor are the same key in a Jekyll-Hyde character. The best way to introduce the minor mode is to get children to play their early pieces and early exercises and change the mode and make a joke miserable title for the piece like Murkily We Roll Along

I don't think the association is international. My parents listen to South Asian music of various degrees of "purity" - much of it doesn't seem to relate to Western concepts of tonality at all, but some of it does evoke minor/major associations, albeit without fitting the framework exactly. I remember often getting confused when I was younger because the music sounded minor/sad to me, but the words were happy, and my comprehension of the language was poor enough that this caused me to question my understanding of the words.

I know what you mean Linda and I use the Dozen a Day books which have a lit of 'sunny day' and 'raniny day' five-finger exercises which introduces the major/minor first 5 notes.

And all my kids enjoy playing tonic triads from quite early on and I introduce the major/minor idea there.

But, in terms of pieces, they seem to latch on quicker when they hear a full scale and proper pieces.

I actually start the major/minor aural test for all the kids as soon as they're Prep level - it's very easy I think if you've heard a lot of examples and got the ear atuned - it's tricky if it just comes in at G3 as a test.