A-flat minor
Relative key | C-flat major |
---|---|
Parallel key | A-flat major |
Dominant key | E-flat minor |
Subdominant | D-flat minor (theoretical) →enharmonic: C-sharp minor |
Enharmonic | G-sharp minor |
Component pitches | |
A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, G♭ |
A-flat minor is a minor scale based on A♭, consisting of the pitches A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, and G♭. Its key signature has seven flats. Its relative major is C-flat major (or enharmonically B major), its parallel major is A-flat major, and its enharmonic equivalent is G-sharp minor.
The A-flat natural minor scale is:
Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The A-flat harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are:
Scale Degree Chords
- Tonic - A-flat minor
- Supertonic - B-flat diminished
- Mediant - C-flat major
- Subdominant - D-flat minor
- Dominant - E-flat minor
- Submediant - F-flat major
- Subtonic - G-flat major
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 music include:
- The Funeral March in Ludwig van Beethoven'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's Klavierstücke in E-flat major for Piano, D946/2.
- Schubert's Impromptu in A♭ major actually begins in A♭ minor, though this is written as A♭ major with accidentals.
- The first piece "Aime-moi" ("Love me") from Charles-Valentin Alkan's Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique
- Max Bruch'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's Iberia.
- Isaac Albéniz's La Vega.
- Etude No.13 in Moritz Moszkowski's Études de Virtuosité, Op. 72, although it ends in A-flat major.
- Leoš Janáček uses it for his Violin Sonata and the organ solo of his Glagolitic Mass.
- The opening of Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird.
- Franz Liszt's original version of "La campanella" from Grandes études de Paganini, which was subsequently rewritten in G-sharp minor.
- In Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony, there is a particularly aggressive restatement of the introduction of the third movement in A-flat minor.[1]
- The first movement of Charles Koechlin'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.[2]
- It is also used in Frederick Loewe's score to the 1956 musical play My Fair Lady; the Second Servants' Chorus is set in A-flat minor (the preceding and following choruses being a semitone lower and higher respectively).
- Antonín Dvořák's String Quartet No. 14, Op. 105, opens in A-flat minor.
More often, pieces in a minor mode that have A-flat's pitch as tonic are notated in the enharmonic key, G-sharp minor, 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.[nb 1]
Notes
- ^ An example of this is the bass clef staff of the harp parts in the Jupiter movement of Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets.[3]
References
- ^ Mahler, Gustav. Symphony No. 9 in Full Score, Dover, ISBN 0-486-27492-6 (1993), pp. 116–119.
- ^ Animated score on YouTube, Charles Koechlin's Partita for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 205
- ^ Holst, Gustav. The Planets in Full Score, Dover, ISBN 0-486-29277-0 (1996), p. 109.