G-sharp minor

G♯ minor

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

G-sharp natural minor scale ascending and descending.  Play  G-sharp harmonic minor scale ascending and descending.  Play  G-sharp melodic minor scale ascending and descending.  Play

G♯ minor or G-sharp minor is a minor scale based on G♯, consisting of the pitches G♯, A♯, B, C♯, D♯, E, and F♯. For the harmonic minor, the F♯ is raised to F. Its key signature has five sharps.

Its relative major is B major, and its parallel major is G-sharp major, usually replaced by A-flat major, its enharmonic equivalent, since G♯ major, which would contain a double-sharp in the key signature, is rarely used for practical composing and arranging, with a similar problem to that of A♭ minor. Therefore, G♯ minor is often used as the parallel minor for A♭ major.

Few symphonies are written in G♯ minor; among them are Nikolai Myaskovsky's 17th Symphony, Christopher Schlegel's 5th Symphony, and an abandoned work of juvenilia by Marc Blitzstein.

Despite the key rarely being used in orchestral music other than to modulate, it is not entirely uncommon in keyboard music, as in the sonatas of Alexander Scriabin. For orchestration of piano music, some theorists recommend transposing the music to G minor or A minor. If G-sharp minor is used, composers generally write B-flat wind instruments in the enharmonic B-flat minor, rather than A-sharp minor to facilitate reading the music.

In a few scores, the sharp A in the bass clef is written on the top line.

References

Notes

Sources

• A. Morris, "Symphonies, Numbers and Keys" in Bob's Poetry Magazine, III.3, 2006.

External links

• Media related to G-sharp minor at Wikimedia Commons