F-sharp major

F♯ major

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

F♯ major or F-sharp major is a major scale based on F♯, consisting of the pitches F♯, G♯, A♯, B, C♯, D♯, and E♯. Its key signature has six sharps.^[1]

Its relative minor is D♯ minor (or enharmonically E♭ minor). Its parallel minor is F♯ minor. Its enharmonic equivalent is G♭ major. In writing music in E major for B-flat instruments, it is preferable to use a G-flat rather than an F-sharp key signature.

F-sharp major is the key of the minuet in Joseph Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony, of Beethoven's Piano Sonata, Op. 78, of Chopin's Barcarolle, of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, of Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony, of Erich Korngold's Symphony Op. 40, and of Scriabin's Fourth Sonata. The key was the favourite tonality of Olivier Messiaen, who used it repeatedly throughout his work to express his most exciting or transcendent moods, most notably in the Turangalîla Symphony.

In a few scores, the F-sharp major key signature in the bass clef is written with the sharp for the A on the top line.

The key is rarely used in orchestral music, other than in passing. It is more common in keyboard music, such as the sonatas of Scriabin and Grieg's Lyric Piece, Til Våren. For orchestration of piano music, some theorists recommend transposing the music to F major or G major. If F-sharp major must absolutely be used, one should take care that B-flat wind instruments be notated in A-flat major, rather than G-sharp major. Where available, instruments in A could be used instead, giving a transposed key of A major.

The Presentation of the Rose scene in act two of Richard Strauss's opera Der Rosenkavalier is written in F-sharp major.

Ascending and descending F-sharp major scale.  Play in just intonation 

References

1. Frederic Woodman Root (1874). The Song Era: A Book of Instruction and Music for Elementary and Advanced Singing Classes, Choirs, Institutes and Conventions. John Church. p. 9.

External links

• Media related to F-sharp major at Wikimedia Commons
• List of instrumental music in F-sharp major