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| Relative key | F minor |
|---|---|
| Parallel key | A-flat minor |
| Dominant key | E-flat major |
| Subdominant key | D-flat major |
| Component pitches | |
| A♭, B♭, C, D♭, E♭, F, G | |
A-flat major is amajor scale based onA♭, with the pitches A♭,B♭,C,D♭,E♭,F, andG. Itskey signature has fourflats.
The A-flat major scale is:
The A-flatharmonic major andmelodic major scales are
Itsrelative minor isF minor. Itsparallel minor,A-flat minor, would require seven flats and is usually written as theenharmonic key ofG-sharp minor instead, with five sharps.
Intuning systems where the number of notes per octave is not a multiple of 12, notes such as G♯ and A♭ are not enharmonically equivalent, nor are the corresponding key signatures. These tunings can produce keys with no analogue in12-tone equal temperament, possibly requiring double sharps, double flats, ormicrotonal alterations in key signatures.
Thescale degree chords of A-flat major are:
Beethoven chose A-flat major as the key of the slow movement for most of hisC minor works, a practice whichAnton Bruckner imitated in his first two C minor symphonies and alsoAntonín Dvořák inhis only C minor symphony. The second movement ofHaydn's43rd symphony inE-flat major is in A-flat major.Frédéric Chopin used this key in many of his works, particularly in hiswaltzes.
Since A-flat major was rarely chosen as the main key for orchestral works of the 18th century, passages or movements in the key often retained thetimpani settings of the preceding movement. For example, Beethoven'sSymphony No. 5 has the timpani set to C and G for the first movement. With hand-tuned timpani, there is no time to re-tune the timpani to A-flat and E-flat for the slow second movement in A-flat major; accordingly, the timpani in this movement are reserved for the passages in C major. In Bruckner'sSymphony No. 1 in C minor, however, the timpani are re-tuned between the first movement in C minor and the following in A-flat major.
Charles-Marie Widor considered A-flat major to be the second best key for flute music.[1]
A-flat major was the flattest major key to be used as the home key for the keyboard and piano sonatas ofDomenico Scarlatti,Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, with each of them using the key for two sonatas: Scarlatti's K. 127 and K. 130, Haydn's Hob XVI 43 and 46, and Beethoven'sOp. 26 andOp. 110, whileFranz Schubert used it forone piano sonata. It was also the flattest major key to be used for the preludes and fugues inJohann Sebastian Bach'sWell-Tempered Clavier, as flatter major keys were notated as their enharmonic equivalents.
Felix Mendelssohn,Johann Nepomuk Hummel,John Field, andFriedrich Kalkbrenner each wrote one piano concerto in A-flat (Mendelssohn's being for two pianos); they had the horns and trumpet tuned to E-flat.Max Bruch'sConcerto for Two Pianos inA-flat minor has its last movement in A-flat major, which is the parallel major; this concerto plays with the contrast between the two keys.
Scott Joplin'sMaple Leaf Rag is also written in A-flat major (the trio part of the composition is written in D-flat major).
Other compositions in A-flat major include:
Media related toA-flat major at Wikimedia Commons
