F-sharp major

F♯ major
Relative key	D♯ minor
Parallel key	F♯ minor
Dominant key	C♯ major
Subdominant	B major
Enharmonic	G♭ major
Component pitches
	F♯, G♯, A♯, B, C♯, D♯, E♯

F♯ major or F-sharp major is a major scale based on F♯, consisting of the pitches F♯, G♯, A♯, B, C♯, D♯, and E♯. Its key signature has six sharps.^[1]

Its relative minor is D♯ minor (or enharmonically E♭ minor). Its parallel minor is F♯ minor. Its enharmonic equivalent is G♭ major. In writing music for transposing instruments in B-flat or E-flat, it is preferable to use a G-flat rather than an F-sharp key signature. If F-sharp major must absolutely be used, one should take care that B-flat wind instruments be notated in A-flat major, rather than G-sharp major (or G instruments used instead, giving a transposed key of B major), and D-flat instruments in F major instead of E-sharp major, in order to avoid double sharps in key signatures.

F-sharp major is the key of the minuet in Joseph Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony, of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 24, Op. 78, of Chopin's Barcarolle, of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, of Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony, of Erich Korngold's Symphony Op. 40, of Scriabin's Fourth Sonata. The key was the favorite tonality of Olivier Messiaen, who used it repeatedly throughout his work to express his most exciting or transcendent moods, most notably in the Turangalîla-Symphonie.

In a few scores, the F-sharp major key signature in the bass clef is written with the sharp for the A on the top line.^{[citation needed]}

Like G♭ major, this key is rarely used in orchestral music, other than in passing. It is more common in piano music, such as the sonatas of Scriabin and Grieg's Lyric Piece.

The Presentation of the Rose scene in act two of Richard Strauss's opera Der Rosenkavalier is written in F-sharp major.

$\transpose c fis \relative c' \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" \remove "Bar_engraver" } { \key c \major c d e f | g a b c | b a g f | e d c }$

References

^ Frederic Woodman Root (1874). The Song Era: A Book of Instruction and Music for Elementary and Advanced Singing Classes, Choirs, Institutes and Conventions. John Church. p. 9.

External links

Media related to F-sharp major at Wikimedia Commons
List of instrumental music in F-sharp major

[Root1874-1] Frederic Woodman Root (1874). The Song Era: A Book of Instruction and Music for Elementary and Advanced Singing Classes, Choirs, Institutes and Conventions. John Church. p. 9.

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