D-flat minor

D♭ minor

Relative key	F♭ major enharmonic: E major
Parallel key	D♭ major
Dominant key	A♭ minor enharmonic: G♯ minor
Subdominant	G♭ minor enharmonic: F♯ minor
Enharmonic	C♯ minor
Component pitches
D♭, E♭, F♭, G♭, A♭, B, C♭, D♭

D-flat minor is a theoretical key based on the musical note D♭, consisting of the pitches D♭, E♭, F♭, G♭, A♭, B, C♭ and D♭.  Play  Its key signature has six flats and one double flat.^[1]

Two of Verdi's most well-known operas, La traviata and Rigoletto, unusually, both end very decisively in D♭ minor. For clarity and simplicity, however, D♭ minor is usually notated as its enharmonic equivalent of C♯ minor, as it is, for example, in the second and third measures of Amy Beach's Canticle of the Sun.^[2] Mahler's thematic motif "der kleine Appell" ("call to order") from his Fourth and Fifth Symphonies is similarly notated. In his Symphony No. 4 (first movement) it is in D♭ minor, but in his Symphony No. 5 it is in C♯ minor. In the Adagio of his Symphony No. 9 a solo bassoon interpolation following the main theme appears first in D♭ minor, returning twice more notated in C♯ minor. Likewise, in the Adagio of Bruckner's Symphony No. 8, phrases that are tonally in D♭ minor are notated as C♯ minor.^[3][4][5][6]

References

1. Thomas Busby (1840). "D Flat Minor". A dictionary of three thousand musical terms. revised by James Alexander Hamilton. London: D'Almaine and Co. p. 55.
2. Amy Beach and Betty Buchanan (2006). The Canticle of the Sun. A-R Editions, Inc. p. xiii. ISBN 0-89579-583-3.
3. Ernst Levy (1985). A Theory of Harmony. SUNY Press. p. 62. ISBN 0-87395-993-0.
4. James L. Zychowicz (2005). "Structural Considerations". Mahler's Fourth Symphony. Oxford University Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-19-816206-5.
5. Eero Tarasti (1996). "Music history revisited". In Eero Tarasti, Paul Forsell, and Richard Littlefield. Musical Semiotics in Growth. Indiana University Press. pp. 14–15. ISBN 0-253-32949-3.
6. Theodor W. Adorno (1992). Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. University of Chicago Press. pp. 165–166. ISBN 0-226-00769-3.

Scales and keys