Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The Gharmonic minor andmelodic minor scales are:
G minor has been considered the key through whichWolfgang Amadeus Mozart best expressed sadness and tragedy,[1] and many of his minor key works are in G minor, such asPiano Quartet No. 1 andString Quintet No. 4. Though Mozart touched on various minor keys in hissymphonies, G minor is the only minor key he used as a main key for his numbered symphonies (No. 25, and the famousNo. 40). In theClassical period, symphonies in G minor almost always used fourhorns, two in G and two in B♭ alto.[2] Another convention of G minor symphonies observed in Mozart's No. 25 and Mozart's No. 40 was the choice ofE-flat major, the subdominant of the relative major B♭, for the slow movement, with other examples includingJoseph Haydn'sNo. 39 andJohann Baptist Wanhal's G minor symphony from before 1771.[3]
^Hellmut Federhofer, foreword to theBärenreiterUrtext edition of Mozart's Piano Quartet in G minor. "G-Moll war für Mozart zeitlebens die Schicksaltonart, die ihm für den Ausdruck des Schmerzes und der Tragik am geeignetsten erschien." ("G minor was, for Mozart, the most suitable fate-key throughout his life for the expression of pain and tragedy.")
^H. C. Robbins Landon,Mozart and Vienna. New York: Schirmer Books (1991): 48. "Writing for four horns was a regular part of theSturm und Drang G minor equipment." Robbins Landon also notes that Mozart's No. 40 was first intended to have four horns.
^James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy,Elements of Sonata Theory (Oxford University Press: 2006) p. 328
Media related toG minor at Wikimedia Commons
