B-flat minor

B minor or B-flat minor is a minor scale based on B♭. Its key signature has five flats. It has the pitches of B♭ , C, D♭, E♭, F, G♭, A♭, and B♭.

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

B-flat minor is often seen as a "dark" key.Wilfred Mellers, "Round and About in Górecki's Symphony No. 3" Tempo 168 3 (1989): 23 Tchaikovsky said that the oboe solo in B-flat minor in the second movement of his Symphony No. 4 was "the feeling that you get when you are all alone".

The old valveless horn could not play easily in B-flat minor. In fact, the only example found in 18th century music is a modulation in the first minuet of Franz Krommer's Concertino in D major, Opus 80.J. Murray Barbour, Trumpets, Horns, and Music (1964), p. 163

In classical music
Frédéric Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2, Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1, and Scherzo No. 2
Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonata No. 2
Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13
Peter Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1
Peter Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave
Sir William Walton's Symphony No. 1In popular music
"Part-Time Lover" – Stevie Wonder
"Cannonball (Damien Rice song)" - Damien Rice
All eight songs on The Raveonettes' Whip It On'' album are in the key of B-flat minor. Sune Rose Wagner said it was because "Shostakovich's symphony no. 13 was in B flat minor".

References

Category:Musical keys
Category:Minor scales