G-sharp minor
 |
 | |
| Relative key | B major |
|---|---|
| Parallel key | G-sharp major enharmonic: A-flat major |
| Dominant key | D-sharp minor enharmonic: E-flat minor |
| Subdominant | C-sharp minor |
| Enharmonic | A-flat minor |
| Component pitches | |
| G♯, A♯, B, C♯, D♯, E, F♯ | |
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.
The G-sharp natural minor scale is:
Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The G-sharp harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are:
Its relative major is B major. Its parallel major, G-sharp major, is usually replaced by its enharmonic equivalent of A-flat major, since G-sharp major features an F
in the key signature and A-flat major only has four flats, making it rare for G-sharp major to be used. A-flat minor, its enharmonic, with seven flats, has a similar problem, thus G-sharp minor is often used as the parallel minor for A-flat major. (The same enharmonic situation occurs with the keys of D-flat major and C-sharp minor).
Music in G-sharp minor
Despite the key rarely being used in orchestral music other than to modulate, it is not entirely uncommon in keyboard music, as in Piano Sonata No. 2 by Alexander Scriabin, who actually seemed to prefer writing in it. It is also found in the second movement in Shostakovich's 8th String quartet. If G-sharp minor is used, composers generally write B♭ wind instruments in the enharmonic B-flat minor, rather than A-sharp minor to facilitate reading the music (or A instruments used instead, giving a transposed key of B minor). Where available, instruments in D♭ can be used instead, giving a transposed key of the enharmonic G minor, rather than F minor, while the E horns would have parts written in the key of E minor.
Few symphonies are written in G-sharp minor; among them are Nikolai Myaskovsky's 17th Symphony, Elliot Goldenthal's Symphony in G-sharp minor (2014) and an abandoned work of juvenilia by Marc Blitzstein.
Frédéric Chopin composed a Polonaise in G-sharp minor, opus posthumous in 1822. His Étude No. 6 is in G-sharp minor as well.
Modest Mussorgsky wrote the movements "The Old Castle" and "Bydło" from Pictures at an Exhibition in G-sharp minor.
Liszt's "La campanella" from his Grandes études de Paganini is in G-sharp minor.
Sibelius wrote the slow movement of his Third Symphony in G-sharp minor.
Parts of the Allegro non Tropo movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's third quartet, and the Allegro Molto movement of his eighth quartet are also in G-sharp minor.
