D minor

D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major.
The D natural minor scale is:
Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The D harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are:
Scale Degree Chords
Tonic - D minor
Supertonic - E diminished
Mediant - F major
Subdominant - G minor
Dominant - A minor
Submediant - B-flat major
Subtonic - C major
Music in D minor
Of Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas, 151 are in minor keys, and with 32 sonatas, D minor is the most often chosen minor key.
The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach is in D minor.
Michael Haydn's only minor-key symphony, No. 29, is in D minor.
According to Alfred Einstein, the history of tuning has led D minor to be associated with counterpoint and chromaticism (for example, the chromatic fourth), and cites Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor. Mozart's Requiem is written primarily in D minor, as are the famous Queen of the Night Aria, "Der Hölle Rache", the ouverture and the final scene of Don Giovanni. Of the two piano concertos that Mozart wrote in a minor key, one of them is in D minor: Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466. Furthermore, his string quartet no. 13 K173 and string quartet no. 15 K421 (one of the high profile Haydn-quartets) are also in D minor.
The only chamber music compositions in D minor by Ludwig van Beethoven are his stormy Piano Sonata No. 17 and the haunting Largo of the Ghost Trio Op. 70/1. Franz Schubert's Death and the Maiden Quartet is in D minor. A number of Gabriel Fauré's chamber music works are written in D minor, including the Piano Trio Op. 120, the First Piano Quintet Op. 89, and the First Cello Sonata Op. 109. Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht is in D minor, as is his String Quartet No. 1.
Since D minor is the key of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Anton Bruckner felt apprehensive about writing his own Symphony No. 9 in the same key. As well as Bruckner's First Mass, some other post-Beethoven symphonies are in D minor, including Symphony No. 4 by Robert Schumann, the only Symphony written by César Franck, and Symphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler.
Jean Sibelius often reserved the key of D minor for compositions he saw as being of a noble character; the Violin Concerto, the Sixth Symphony, and the string quartet Voces intimae are each in the key.
The tonality of D minor held special significance for Helene and Alban Berg.
D minor is particularly recurrent in the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, with pieces written in the key occupying close to one eighth of his total compositional output, including the Third Piano Concerto, the Piano Sonata No. 1, the Symphony No. 1, the Trio élégiaque No. 2, the Études-Tableaux, Op. 33, No. 4 and Op. 39, No. 8, the Corelli Variations, and the symphonic poem Prince Rostislav.
Works in the classical music era and later beginning in minor typically end in major, or at least on a major chord (such as a picardy third), but there are a few notable examples of works in D minor ending in much sharper keys. Two symphonies that begin in D minor and end in E major are Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony and Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 4 (The Inextinguishable). Franz Liszt's Dante Symphony opens in D minor and ends in B major.
Similar to a D minor symphony ending in D major, as with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, a D major symphony can have for its allegro first movement a slow introduction in D minor. Robbins Landon wrote that "Tonic minor Adagio introductions, especially in the key of D minor, were very popular with English composers of the year 1794", and Joseph Haydn copied this procedure for the D major symphonies he wrote in London.
Film composer Hans Zimmer is one of the most prominent users of the key of D minor in modern times. Many of his well-known scores were written in the key; notable examples are Gladiator, The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Da Vinci Code. His frequent use of the key has been noticed by reviewers such as Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com, who has called the trend "ridiculous stubbornness".
Notable compositions
George Frideric Handel
Keyboard suite in D minor (HWV 437)
Johann Sebastian Bach
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903
Harpsichord Concerto No. 1, BWV 1052
English Suite No. 6, BWV 811
Cello Suite No. 2, BWV 1008
Concerto for Two Violins, BWV 1043
The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
Partita for solo violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004
Georg Philipp Telemann
Fantasia for flute solo No. 6
Fantasia for viola da gamba solos No. 11
Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 26 "Lamentatione"
String Quartet in D minor, Hob.III:76 "Fifths"
Michael Haydn
Symphony No. 29
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Kyrie in D minor, K 341
Fantasia in D minor, K 397
String Quartet No. 15, K 421
Piano Concerto No. 20, K 466
Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute
Requiem, K 626
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 17, Op. 31 No. 2 "Tempest"
Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 "Choral"
Franz Schubert
String Quartet No. 14 "Death and the Maiden"
Felix Mendelssohn
Variations sérieuses, Op. 54
Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 40
Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 49
Symphony No. 5 "Reformation"
Frédéric Chopin
Prelude Op. 28, No. 24 "Storm"
Polonaise, Op. 71 No. 1
Charles-Valentin Alkan
"Le chemin de fer", Op. 27
"En rythme molossique", No. 2 from 12 études in all the minor keys, Op. 39
Franz Liszt
Transcendental Étude No. 4 "Mazeppa", from S. 139, for piano
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 7, S. 244/7, for piano
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 17, S. 244/17, for piano
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 19, S. 244/19, for piano
Mazeppa, S. 100, symphonic poem
Dante Symphony, S. 109, choral symphony
Robert Schumann
Violin Concerto, WoO 23
Symphony No. 4, Op. 120
Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 63
Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 121
César Franck
Symphony in D minor
Édouard Lalo
Cello Concerto
Anton Bruckner
Symphony in D minor
Symphony No. 3
March in D minor
Mass No. 1
Symphony No. 9 (unfinished)
Johannes Brahms
Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 15
Tragic Overture
Violin Sonata No. 3 Op. 108
Modest Mussorgsky
Night on Bald Mountain
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Orchestral Suite No. 1 Op. 43
Antonín Dvořák
Symphony No. 4 Op. 13, B. 41
Symphony No. 7 Op. 70, B. 141
String Quartet No. 9 Op. 34
Serenade for Wind Instruments Op. 44
Gabriel Fauré
Requiem (Fauré) Op. 44
Piano Quintet No. 1, Op. 89
Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 109
Piano Trio, Op. 120]]
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 3
Jean Sibelius
Violin Concerto Op. 47
String Quartet, Voces intimae, Op. 56
Symphony No. 6 Op. 104
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Symphony No. 8
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Symphony No. 1 Op. 13
Piano Sonata No. 1 Op. 28
Piano Concerto No. 3 Op. 30
Eugène Ysaÿe
Violin Sonata No. 3 "Ballade"
Sergei Prokofiev
Toccata for piano Op. 11
Symphony No. 2 Op. 40
Piano Sonata No. 2 Op. 14
Aram Khachaturian
Violin Concerto
Dmitri Shostakovich
Cello Sonata Op. 40
Symphony No. 5 Op. 47
Symphony No. 12 Op.112
See also
Chord (music)
Chord notation
Key (music)
Major and minor
Notes
External links
Minor scales
Musical keys