F-flat major

{{Infobox musical scale

| name=F-flat major
{ \magnifyStaff #3/2 \omit Score.TimeSignature \key fes \major s16 \clef F \key fes \major s^"" }
{{nobold|Alternative notations}}{ \magnifyStaff #3/2 \omit Score.TimeSignature \set Staff.keyAlterations = #`((6 . ,FLAT)(2 . ,FLAT)(5 . ,FLAT)(1 . ,FLAT)(4 . ,FLAT)(0 . ,FLAT)(3 . ,FLAT)(6 . ,DOUBLE-FLAT)) s^"" }
{ \magnifyStaff #3/2 \omit Score.TimeSignature \set Staff.keyAlterations = #`((6 . ,DOUBLE-FLAT)(2 . ,FLAT)(5 . ,FLAT)(1 . ,FLAT)(4 . ,FLAT)(0 . ,FLAT)(3 . ,FLAT)) s^"" }

| relative=D-flat minor
→enharmonic: C-sharp minor

| parallel=F-flat minor
→enharmonic: E minor

| dominant=C-flat major

| subdominant=B-double flat major
→enharmonic: A major

| first_pitch=F{{music|flat}}

| second_pitch=G{{music|flat}}

| third_pitch=A{{music|flat}}

| fourth_pitch=B{{music|doubleflat}}

| fifth_pitch=C{{music|flat}}

| sixth_pitch=D{{music|flat}}

| seventh_pitch=E{{music|flat}}

|enharmonic=E major}}

F-flat major (or the key of F-flat) is a key based on F♭ (musical note), consisting of the pitches F{{music|b}}, G♭ (musical note), A♭ (musical note), B double flat, C♭ (musical note), D♭ (musical note), and E♭ (musical note). Its key signature has eight flats, requiring one double flat and six single flats.{{cite book|title=The Road to Music|author=Nicolas Slonimsky|page=16|location=New York|date=1960|publisher=Dodd, Mead, & Co.}} Because F-flat major requires eight flats, including a B{{music|bb}}, it is almost always notated as its enharmonic equivalent of E major, with four sharps. The same is true of the relative minor of D-flat minor, usually replaced by C-sharp minor. F-flat minor, the parallel minor, would be replaced by E minor, since F-flat minor requires four double-flats.

The F-flat major scale is:

{{block indent|

\header { tagline = ##f }

scale = \relative f' { \key fes \major \omit Score.TimeSignature

fes^"F♭ natural major scale" ges as beses ces des es fes es des ces beses as ges fes2}

\score { { << \cadenzaOn \scale \context NoteNames \scale >> } \layout { } \midi { } }

}}

Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The F-flat harmonic major and melodic major scales are:

{{block indent|

\header { tagline = ##f }

scale = \relative f' { \key fes \major \omit Score.TimeSignature

fes^"F♭ harmonic major scale" ges as beses ces deses es fes es deses! ces beses as ges fes2 }

\score { { << \cadenzaOn \scale \context NoteNames \scale >> } \layout { } \midi { } }

}}

{{block indent|

\header { tagline = ##f }

scale = \relative f' { \key fes \major \omit Score.TimeSignature

fes^"F♭ melodic major scale (ascending and descending)" ges as beses ces des es fes eses deses ces beses as ges fes2 }

\score { { << \cadenzaOn \scale \context NoteNames \scale >> } \layout { } \midi { } }

}}

The scale-degree chords of F-flat major are:

Music in F-flat major

F-flat appears as a secondary key area in several works in flat keys. Part of Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen uses F-flat major, which one commentator has called "a bitter enharmonic parody" of the earlier manifestations of E major in the piece.{{cite book|title=Richard Strauss: New Perspectives on the Composer and His Work|author=Bryan Randolph Gilliam|page=237|date=1998|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=0-8223-2114-9}}

Beethoven also used F-flat major in his Piano Sonata No. 31, Op. 110. In the first movement's exposition, the transitional passage between the first and second subjects consists of arpeggiated figuration beginning in A-flat major and modulating to the dominant key of E-flat major. In the recapitulation, the key for this passage is changed to bring the second subject back in A-flat major: the transitional passage appears in a key that would theoretically be F-flat major, but which is notated in E major, presumably because Beethoven judged this easier to read – this key being a major third below the key of the earlier appearance of this passage. Likewise, the second movement (in A-flat major) of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 (Pathétique) contains six measures of what would theoretically be F-flat major, but notated as E major (keeping the 4-flat key signature of the movement, so every note in the passage has an accidental).

Another example of F-flat major being notated as E major can be found in the Adagio of Haydn's Trio No. 27 in A-flat major. The Finale of Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 employs enharmonic E for F-flat, but its coda employs F-flat directly, with a Phrygian cadence through F-flat onto the tonic.{{cite web|author=Donald Betts|date=2005|url=http://innig.net./music/betts-innervoice/|work=The Inner Voice|title=Beethoven's Piano Sonata Opus 110}}{{cite book|title=Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata|author1=James Arnold Hepokoski|author2=Warren Darcy|page=326|date=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-514640-9}}{{cite book|title=Bruckner's Symphonies: Analysis, Reception and Cultural Politics|author=Julian Horton|page=127|date=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-82354-4}}

An example of F-flat major being used directly is in Victor Ewald's Quintet No. 4 in A-flat major (Op. 8), where the entirety of the third movement is notated in this key.{{cite web |url=http://www.enspub.com/pages/sku93503.htm |title=Ewald: Quintet No 4 in Ab, op 8|publisher=Ensemble Publications |access-date=1 June 2016}}

The climax that occurs in the middle of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings resolves to F-flat major.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} The final cadence of John Rutter's setting of Robert Herrick's poem "What Sweeter Music" is in F-flat major.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

References

Category:Musical keys

Category:Major scales

F-flat major

Music in F-flat major

See also

References