G-sharp minor

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.

G-sharp minor
Relative keyB major
Parallel keyG-sharp major
enharmonic: A-flat major
Dominant keyD-sharp minor
enharmonic: E-flat minor
SubdominantC-sharp minor
EnharmonicA-flat minor
Component pitches
G♯, A♯, B, C♯, D♯, E, F♯

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
See also: List of symphonies 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.

See also

References
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