A-flat minor

A-flat minor is a minor scale starting on A.  Its key signature has seven flats.

Its relative major is C-flat major, and its parallel major is A-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent is G-sharp minor.

A-flat minor is rarely used as the main key of a piece of music. 
More often, pieces in a minor mode that have A as the tonic are written in the enharmonic key, G-sharp minor, because it has a simpler key signature.  Because of this, there are few works in A-flat minor.

In some scores, the A minor key signature in the bass clef is written with the flat for the F on the second line from the top.

In classical music 
 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)
 Johannes Brahms's Fugue for organ (c. 1857)
 Max Bruch's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 88a (although at least one two-piano transcription of this uses a 6-flat signature, similarly to the Op. 110 Beethoven example)
 the Evocación from Book I of Isaac Albéniz's Iberia
Isaac Albéniz's La Vega (c. 1897)
 Leoš Janáček uses it for his violin sonata and the organ solo of his Glagolitic Mass.
 Moritz Moszkowski used it for his piano étude, opus 72 number 13.

 Also Polonaise in A-Flat Minor, Chopin

In popular music
A-flat minor 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.

Another example of popular music in A-flat minor is Walkin' on the Sun by Smash Mouth.

Scales and keys

References

Other websites
 Overview of Compositions with 7 Accidentals

Category:Musical keys
Category:Minor scales