F minor

F minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, and E♭. Its key signature consists of four flats. Its relative major is A-flat major and its parallel major is F major. Its enharmonic equivalent, E-sharp minor, has eight sharps, including the double sharp F, which makes it impractical to use.

F minor
Relative keyA-flat major
Parallel keyF major
Dominant keyC minor
SubdominantB-flat minor
Component pitches
F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, E♭

The F natural minor scale is:

Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The F harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are:

Music in F minor

Famous pieces in the key of F minor include Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2, Haydn's Symphony No. 49, La Passione and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

Glenn Gould once said if he could be any key, he would be F minor, because "it's rather dour, halfway between complex and stable, between upright and lascivious, between gray and highly tinted... There is a certain obliqueness."[1]

Helmholtz once described F minor as harrowing and melancholy. Christian Schubart described this key as "Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave". [2]

Notable compositions
See also: List of symphonies in F minor

E-sharp minor
E-sharp minor
Relative keyG-sharp major
enharmonic: A-flat major
Parallel keyE-sharp major
enharmonic: F major
Dominant keyB-sharp minor
enharmonic: C minor
SubdominantA-sharp minor
enharmonic: B-flat minor
EnharmonicF minor
Component pitches
E♯, F, G♯, A♯, B♯, C♯, D♯

E-sharp minor is a theoretical key based on the musical note E♯ and consisting of the pitches E♯, F, G♯, A♯, B♯, C♯ and D♯. Its key signature has six sharps and one double sharp (or eight sharps).

The E-sharp natural minor scale is:

Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The E-sharp harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are:

Its relative major is G-sharp major, which is usually replaced by A-flat major. Its parallel major, E-sharp major, is usually replaced by F major, due to the presence of 4 double-sharps in the E-sharp major scale causing it to be one of the more impractical key signatures in music to use. Although E-sharp minor is usually notated as F minor, it could be used on a local level, such as bars 17 to 22 in Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in C-sharp major. (E-sharp minor is the mediant minor key of C-sharp major.)

See also

Notes
  1. Cathering Meng, Tonight's the Night (Apostrophe Books, 2007): 21
  2. https://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html
  • Media related to F minor at Wikimedia Commons
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.