A-flat minor is a

minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which also ...

based on A, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its

key signature In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), or rarely, natural () symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the clef at ...

has seven flats. Its

relative major In music, relative keys are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps. A pair of major an ...

C-flat major C-flat major (or the key of C-flat) is a major scale based on C♭ (musical note), C, consisting of the pitches C, D♭ (musical note), D, E♭ (musical note), E, F♭ (musical note), F, G♭ (musical note), G, A♭ (musical note), A, and B♭ (mu ...

(or enharmonically

B major B major (or the key of B) is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and its ...

), its parallel major is

A-flat major A-flat major (or the key of A-flat) is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has four flats. The A-flat major scale is: : Its relative minor is F minor. Its parallel minor, A-flat minor, ...

, and its enharmonic equivalent is

G-sharp minor G-sharp minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative major is B major. Its parallel major, G-sharp major, is usually replaced by its enharmonic ...

. The A-flat

natural minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which also ...

is: : Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The A-flat

harmonic minor In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which also ...

and melodic minor scales are: : :

Music in A-flat minor

Although A-flat minor occurs in modulation in works in other keys, it is only rarely used as the principal key of a piece of music. Some well-known uses of the key in classical and romantic piano music include: * The Funeral March in

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

's Piano Sonata No. 12, Op. 26. * An early section of the last movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 31, Op. 110 (although the key signature of this section uses only 6 flats, not 7). * The second Trio in

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

's Klavierstücke in E-flat major for Piano, D946/2. * The first piece "Aime-moi" ("Love me") from

Charles-Valentin Alkan Charles-Valentin Alkan (; 30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888) was a French Jewish composer and virtuoso pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Frédéric Chopin and Franz Lisz ...

's '' Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique'' *

Max Bruch Max Bruch (6 January 1838 – 2 October 1920) was a German Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a prominent staple of the standard v ...

's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 88a, although the piece ends in A-flat Major. * The Evocación from Book I of

Isaac Albéniz Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his conte ...

's ''

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

''. *

's '' La Vega''. * Etude No.13 in

Moritz Moszkowski Moritz Moszkowski (23 August 18544 March 1925) was a German Confederation, German composer, pianist, and teacher of History of Jews in Poland, Polish-Jewish descent.

's ''Études de Virtuosité'', Op. 72, although it ends in A-flat major. *

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...

uses it for his

Violin Sonata A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, often accompanied by a keyboard instrument and in earlier periods with a bass instrument doubling the keyboard bass line. The violin sonata developed from a simple baroque form with no fixed form ...

and the organ solo of his ''

Glagolitic Mass The ''Glagolitic Mass'' (, '' cu, script=latn, Mša glagolskaja''; also called ''Missa Glagolitica'' or ''Slavonic Mass'') is a composition for soloists (soprano, contralto, tenor, bass), double chorus, organ and orchestra by Leoš Janáček. The ...

''. * The opening of

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

's ''

The Firebird ''The Firebird'' (french: L'Oiseau de feu, link=no; russian: Жар-птица, Zhar-ptitsa, link=no) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's ...

''. *

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

's original version of "

La campanella "La campanella" (Italian for "The little bell") is the nickname given to the third of Franz Liszt's six ''Grandes études de Paganini'', S. 141 (1851). It is in the key of G-sharp minor. This piece is a revision of an earlier version from 1838, ...

" from ''

Grandes études de Paganini The ''Grandes études de Paganini'', S. 141, are a series of six études for the piano by Franz Liszt, revised in 1851 from an earlier version (published as ', S. 140, in 1838). It is almost exclusively in the final version that these pieces are ...

'', which was subsequently rewritten in

. * In

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

's Ninth Symphony, there is a particularly aggressive restatement of the introduction of the third movement in A-flat minor. * The first movement of

Charles Koechlin Charles-Louis-Eugène Koechlin (; 27 November 186731 December 1950), commonly known as Charles Koechlin, was a French composer, teacher and musicologist. He was a political radical all his life and a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things ...

's Partita for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 205, is in A-flat minor, and the earlier A-flat-minor portion is written with a 7-flat key signature, but the later A-flat-minor portion is written without any key signature, and uses the necessary flats as accidentals.,

's Partita for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 205 * It is also used in

Frederick Loewe Frederick Loewe (, originally German Friedrich (Fritz) Löwe ; June 10, 1901 – February 14, 1988) was an Austrian-United States, American composer. He collaborated with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner on a series of Broadway musicals, including ''Br ...

's score to the 1956 musical play ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons f ...

''; the Second Servants' Chorus is set in A-flat minor (the preceding and following choruses being a semitone lower and higher respectively). More often, pieces in a minor mode that have A-flat's pitch as tonic are notated in the

enharmonic In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note, interval, or key signature that is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature but "spelled", or named differently. The enharmonic spelling of a written n ...

key,

, because that key has just five sharps as opposed to the seven flats of A-flat minor. In some scores, the A-flat minor key signature in the bass clef is written with the flat for the F on the second line from the top.

Notes

References

External links

Overview of Compositions with 7 Accidentals
{{DEFAULTSORT:A-flat minor Musical keys Minor scales