 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "G-sharp minor" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Relative key | B major |
|---|---|
| Parallel key | G-sharp major (theoretical) →enharmonic:A-flat major |
| Dominant key | D-sharp minor |
| Subdominant | C-sharp minor |
| Enharmonic | A-flat minor |
| Component pitches | |
| G♯, A♯, B, C♯, D♯, E, F♯ | |
G-sharp minor is aminor scale based onG♯, consisting of the pitches G♯,A♯,B,C♯,D♯,E, andF♯. Itskey signature has fivesharps.[1]
Itsrelative major isB major. Itsparallel major,G-sharp major, is usually replaced by itsenharmonic equivalent ofA-flat major, since G-sharp major has an F
in its key signature, making it less convenient to use.A-flat minor, its enharmonic, has seven flats, whereas G-sharp minor only has five sharps; thus G-sharp minor is sometimes used as the parallel minor forA-flat major. (The same enharmonic situation occurs with the keys ofD-flat major andC-sharp minor, and in some cases, with the keys ofG-flat major andF-sharp minor).
The G-sharpnatural minor scale is:
Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The G-sharpharmonic minor andmelodic minor scales are:
Thescale degree chords of G-sharp minor are:
Despite the key rarely being used in orchestral music other than tomodulate, it is more common in keyboard music, as inPiano Sonata No. 2 byAlexander Scriabin, who actually seemed to prefer writing in it.Dmitri Shostakovich used the key in the second movement of his8th String Quartet, and the slow fourth movement of his8th Symphony is also in this key. If G-sharp minor is used in orchestral music, composers generally write B♭ wind instruments in the enharmonicB-flat minor, rather thanA-sharp minor to facilitate reading the music (or A instruments are used instead, giving a transposed key ofB minor).
Fewsymphonies are written in G-sharp minor; among them areNikolai Myaskovsky's 17th Symphony,Elliot Goldenthal's Symphony in G-sharp minor (2014) and an abandoned work ofjuvenilia byMarc Blitzstein.
The minuet from thePiano Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 44 ("The Farewell") byJan Ladislav Dussek is in G-sharp minor.
Frédéric Chopin composed aPolonaise in G-sharp minor, Op. posth., in 1822. HisÉtude Op. 25 No. 6, the first mazurka from hisOp. 33 and his 12th prelude from the24 Preludes, Op. 28, are in G-sharp minor as well.
Modest Mussorgsky wrote the movements, "Il vecchio castello" (The Old Castle) and "Bydło" (Cattle), fromPictures at an Exhibition in G-sharp minor.
Liszt's "La campanella" from hisGrandes études de Paganini is in G-sharp minor.
Alexander Scriabin'sSecond Piano Sonata "Sonata-Fantasy", Op. 19, is in G-sharp minor.
Maurice Ravel's "Scarbo" fromGaspard de la nuit (1908), is in G-sharp minor.
Sibelius wrote theslow movement of hisThird Symphony in G-sharp minor.
Bach also wrote the movements, "Prelude and Fugue No. 18", from both books ofThe Well-Tempered Clavier which is also in G-sharp minor; both movements from Book 1 end with aPicardy third, utilizing aB-sharp in the finalG-sharp major chord.
