D-flat minor

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Db minor
Image:F-flat Major key signature.png
Relative key Fb major
Parallel key Db major
Enharmonic C-sharp minor
Component pitches
Db, Eb, Fb, Gb, Bbb, Cb, Db, Db

D-flat minor is a minor scale based on the musical note D-flat, consisting of the pitches D-flat, E-flat, F-flat, G-flat, A-flat, B-double flat, C-flat, and D-flat. Its key signature has eight flats.[1]

For clarity and simplicitly, D-flat minor is usually notated as its enharmonic equivalent of C-sharp minor, as it is, for example, in the second and third measures of Amy Beach's Canticle of the Sun, which are tonally D-flat minor but notated as C sharp minor. Mahler's thematic motif "der kleine Appell" ("call to order") from his Fourth and Fifth Symphonies is similarly notated. In his Symphony No. 4 (first movement) it is in D-flat minor, but in his Symphony No. 5 it is in C sharp minor. In the Adagio of his Symphony No. 9 a solo bassoon interpolation following the main theme appears first in D-flat minor, returning twice more notated in C sharp minor. Likewise, in the Adagio of Bruckner's Symphony No. 8, phrases that are tonally in D-flat minor are notated as C sharp minor.[2][3][4][5][6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Thomas Busby (1840). "D Flat Minor", A dictionary of three thousand musical terms, revised by J.A. Hamilton, London: D'Almaine and Co., 55. 
  2. ^ Amy Beach and Betty Buchanan (2006). The Canticle of the Sun. A-R Editions, Inc., xiii. ISBN 0895795833. 
  3. ^ Ernst Levy (1985). A Theory of Harmony. SUNY Press, 62. ISBN 0873959930. 
  4. ^ James L. Zychowicz (2005). "Structural Considerations", Mahler's Fourth Symphony. Oxford University Press, 28. ISBN 0198162065. 
  5. ^ Eero Tarasti (1996). "Music history revisited", in Eero Tarasti, Paul Forsell, and Richard Littlefield: Musical Semiotics in Growth. Indiana University Press, 14–15. ISBN 0253329493. 
  6. ^ Theodor W. Adorno (1992). Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy, Translated by Edmund Jephcott, University of Chicago Press, 165–166. ISBN 0226007693. 

[edit] Scales and keys

v • d • e
Diatonic Scales and Keys
Circle of fifths
flats sharps
major minor major minor
0 C, a
1 F d G e
2 B♭ g D b
3 E♭ c A f♯
4 A♭ f E c♯
5 D♭ b♭ B g♯
6 G♭ e♭ F♯ d♯
7 C♭ a♭ C♯ a♯
lower case letters are minor
the table indicates the number of sharps or flats in each scale