F minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, and E♭. The harmonic minor raises the E♭ to E♮. Its key signature has four flats (see below: Scales and keys).
Its relative major is A-flat major, and its parallel major is F major.
F minor is a key often associated with passion. Two famous pieces in the key of F minor are Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, and Haydn's Symphony No. 49 in F minor, La Passione.
Glenn Gould once said if he could be any key, he would be F minor, because "it's rather dour, halfway between complex and stable, between upright and lascivious, between gray and highly tinted...There is a certain obliqueness."
In the Baroque period, music in F minor was usually written with a three-flat key signature, and some modern editions of that repertoire retain that convention.
Read more about F Minor: Notable Compositions, E-sharp Minor, Scales and Keys
Famous quotes containing the word minor:
“Even a minor event in the life of a child is an event of that child’s world and thus a world event.”
—Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962)