A-flat minor

Minor scale based on A-flat

A-flat minor
${ \magnifyStaff #3/2 \omit Score.TimeSignature \key aes \minor s16 \clef F \key aes \minor s^"" }$
Component pitches
Relative key	C-flat major
Parallel key	A-flat major
Dominant key	E-flat minor →enharmonic: D-sharp minor
Subdominant	D-flat minor (theoretical) →enharmonic: C-sharp minor
Enharmonic	G-sharp minor
A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, G♭

A-flat minor is a minor scale based on A♭, consisting of the pitches A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, and G♭. Its key signature has seven flats. Its relative major is C-flat major (or enharmonically B major), its parallel major is A-flat major, and its enharmonic equivalent is G-sharp minor.

The A-flat natural minor scale is:

${ \omit Score.TimeSignature \relative c'' { \key aes \minor \time 7/4 aes^"Natural minor scale" bes ces des es fes ges aes ges fes es des ces bes aes2 \clef F \key aes \minor } }$

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

${ \omit Score.TimeSignature \relative c'' { \key aes \minor \time 7/4 aes^"Harmonic minor scale" bes ces des es fes g aes g fes es des ces bes aes2 } }$

${ \omit Score.TimeSignature \relative c'' { \key aes \minor \time 7/4 aes^"Melodic minor scale (ascending and descending)" bes ces des es f g aes ges! fes! es des ces bes aes2 } }$

Scale degree chords

Tonic - A-flat minor
Supertonic - B-flat diminished
Mediant - C-flat major
Subdominant - D-flat minor
Dominant - E-flat minor
Submediant - F-flat major
Subtonic - G-flat major

Music in A-flat minor

Although A-flat minor occurs in modulation in works in other keys, it is only rarely used as the principal key of a piece of music. Some well-known uses of the key in classical and romantic music include:

The Funeral March in Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 12, Op. 26.
An early section of the last movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 31, Op. 110 (although the key signature of this section uses only 6 flats, not 7).
The second Trio in Franz Schubert's Klavierstücke in E-flat major for Piano, D946/2.
Schubert's Impromptu in A♭ major actually begins in A♭ minor, though this is written as A♭ major with accidentals.
The second movement of Ferdinand Ries' Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra in E-flat Major, also written as A♭ major with accidentals.
The first piece "Aime-moi" ("Love me") from Charles-Valentin Alkan's Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique
Max Bruch's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 88a, although the piece ends in A-flat Major.
The Evocación from Book I of Isaac Albéniz's Iberia.
Isaac Albéniz's La Vega.
Etude No.13 in Moritz Moszkowski's Études de Virtuosité, Op. 72, although it ends in A-flat major.
Leoš Janáček uses it for his Violin Sonata and the organ solo of his Glagolitic Mass.
The opening of Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird.
Franz Liszt's original version of "La campanella" from Grandes études de Paganini, which was subsequently rewritten in G-sharp minor.
In Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony, there is a particularly aggressive restatement of the introduction of the third movement in A-flat minor.^[1]
The first movement of Charles Koechlin's Partita for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 205, is in A-flat minor, and the earlier A-flat-minor portion is written with a 7-flat key signature, but the later A-flat-minor portion is written without any key signature, and uses the necessary flats as accidentals.^[2]
It is also used in Frederick Loewe's score to the 1956 musical play My Fair Lady; the Second Servants' Chorus is set in A-flat minor (the preceding and following choruses being a semitone lower and higher respectively).
Antonín Dvořák's String Quartet No. 14, Op. 105, opens in A-flat minor.

More often, pieces in a minor mode that have A-flat's pitch as tonic are notated in the enharmonic key, G-sharp minor, because that key has just five sharps as opposed to the seven flats of A-flat minor.

In some scores, the A-flat minor key signature in the bass clef is written with the flat for the F on the second line from the top.^{[nb 1]}

Notes

^ An example of this is the bass clef staff of the harp parts in the Jupiter movement of Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets.^[3]

References

^ Mahler, Gustav. Symphony No. 9 in Full Score, Dover, ISBN 0-486-27492-6 (1993), pp. 116–119.
^ Animated score on YouTube, Charles Koechlin's Partita for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 205
^ Holst, Gustav. The Planets in Full Score, Dover, ISBN 0-486-29277-0 (1996), p. 109.