D-flat major

D-flat major is a major scale based on D-flat, consisting of the pitches D♭, E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭ and C. Its key signature has five flats (see below: Scales and keys).

Its relative minor is B-flat minor. Its parallel minor is D-flat minor, usually replaced by C-sharp minor, since D-flat minor, which would contain a double-flat in the key signature, is rarely used for practical composing and arranging. Thus, in his Prelude No. 15 in D-flat major ("Raindrop"), Frédéric Chopin switches from D-flat major to C-sharp minor for the middle section in the parallel minor, while in his Fantaisie-Impromptu, primarily in C-sharp minor, he switches to D-flat major for the middle section for the same reason.

D-flat major is enharmonic to C-sharp major. In music for the harp, D-flat major would be preferable, not only for the reason that harp strings are more resonant in the flat position, but also because modulation to the dominant key is easier (by putting the G pedal in the natural position, whereas there is no double-sharp position in which to put the F pedal for G-sharp major).

Hector Berlioz called this key "majestic" in his 1856 Grand Traité d'Instrumentation et d'Orchestration modernes, while having a much different opinion of its enharmonic counterpart. Despite this, when he came to orchestrate Carl Maria von Weber's piano piece Invitation to the Dance in 1841, he transposed it from D-flat to D major, to give the strings a more manageable key and to produce a brighter sound.^[1]

Charles-Marie Widor considered D-flat major to be the best key for flute music.^[2]

Although this key was relatively unexplored during the Baroque and Classical periods, Franz Schubert used it quite frequently in his sets of écossaises, valses and so on, as well as entering it and even flatter keys in his sonatas, impromptus and the like. Beethoven, too, used this key extensively in his Second Piano Concerto.

The flatted pitches of D-flat major correspond to the black keys of the piano, and there is much significant piano music written in this key. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 is written in B-flat minor, but the famous opening theme is in D-flat major. Sergei Rachmaninoff composed the famous 18th variation of his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in this key, pehaps emphasizing the generally-held view that D-flat major is the most romantically-flavoured of the major keys; and his friend Nicolai Medtner similarly chose it for the sensually romantic "big tune" in the last movement of his "Ballade" Piano Concerto No. 3. Claude Debussy also composed the famous Clair de lune in this key, with a significant section in C-sharp minor. Edvard Grieg composed the second movement of his Piano Concerto in D-flat. Frédéric Chopin's Nocturne in D-flat, Op. 27, is in this key.

In orchestral music the examples are fewer. Gustav Mahler concluded his last completed Ninth Symphony with an adagio in D-flat major, rather than the home key of D major of the first movement. Antonín Dvořák wrote the second movement of his Symphony No. 9 in D-flat major. Every other movement is in E minor. The first piano concerto of Sergei Prokofiev is also written in D-flat major, with a short slow movement in G-sharp minor.

References

Scales and keys