G-sharp minor

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G-sharp minor
B-major g-sharp-minor.svg
Relative keyB major
Parallel keyG-sharp major (theoretical)
→enharmonic A-flat major
Dominant keyD-sharp minor
SubdominantC-sharp minor
EnharmonicA-flat minor
Component pitches
G, A, B, C, D, E, F

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.

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 a Fdouble sharp in the key signature, making it impractical to use. 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).

The G-sharp natural minor scale is:

 {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c'' {
  \clef treble \key gis \minor \time 7/4 gis4^\markup "Natural minor scale" ais b cis dis e fis gis fis e dis cis b ais gis2
  \clef bass \key gis \minor
} }

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:

 {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c'' {
  \clef treble \key gis \minor \time 7/4
  gis4^\markup "Harmonic minor scale" ais b cis dis e fisis gis fisis e dis cis b ais gis2
} }
 {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c'' {
  \clef treble \key gis \minor \time 7/4
  gis4^\markup "Melodic minor scale (ascending and descending)" ais b cis dis eis fisis gis fis! e! dis cis b ais gis2
} }

Music 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 is orchestral music, 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).

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, Op. posth., in 1822. His Étude No. 6 and his 12th prelude from the 24 Preludes, Op. 28, are in G-sharp minor as well.

Modest Mussorgsky wrote the movements, "The Old Castle" and "Bydło" (Cattle), from Pictures at an Exhibition in G-sharp minor.

Liszt's "La campanella" from his Grandes études de Paganini is in G-sharp minor.

Alexander Scriabin's second piano sonata "Sonata-Fantasy", Op. 19, is in G-sharp minor.

Maurice Ravel's "Scarbo" from Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is in G-sharp minor.

Sibelius wrote the slow movement of his Third Symphony in G-sharp minor.

See also[]

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