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G minor

Minor key and scale based on the note G

Summary

Minor key and scale based on the note G

FieldValue
nameG minor
{ \magnifyStaff #3/2 \omit Score.TimeSignature \key g \minor s16 \clef F \key g \minor s^"" }
relativeB-flat major
dominantD minor
subdominantC minor
parallelG major
first_pitchG
second_pitchA
third_pitchB
fourth_pitchC
fifth_pitchD
sixth_pitchE
seventh_pitchF

{ \magnifyStaff #3/2 \omit Score.TimeSignature \key g \minor s16 \clef F \key g \minor s^"" }

G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major.

The G natural minor scale is:

\header { tagline = ##f } scale = \relative f' { \key g \minor \omit Score.TimeSignature g^"G natural minor scale" a bes c d es f g f es d c bes a g2 \clef F \key g \minor } \score { { } \layout { } \midi { } }

Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The G harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are:

\header { tagline = ##f } scale = \relative f' { \key g \minor \omit Score.TimeSignature g^"G harmonic minor scale" a bes c d es fis g fis es d c bes a g2 } \score { { } \layout { } \midi { } } \header { tagline = ##f } scale = \relative f' { \key g \minor \omit Score.TimeSignature g^"G melodic minor scale (ascending and descending)" a bes c d e fis g f! es! d c bes a g2 } \score { { } \layout { } \midi { } }

Scale degree chords

The scale degree chords of G minor are:

  • Tonic – G minor
  • Supertonic – A diminished
  • Mediant – B-flat major
  • Subdominant – C minor
  • Dominant – D minor
  • Submediant – E-flat major
  • Subtonic – F major

Mozart's use of G minor

Main article: Mozart and G minor

G minor has been considered the key through which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart best expressed sadness and tragedy, and many of his minor key works are in G minor, such as Piano Quartet No. 1 and String Quintet No. 4. Though Mozart touched on various minor keys in his symphonies, G minor is the only minor key he used as a main key for his numbered symphonies (No. 25, and the famous No. 40). In the Classical period, symphonies in G minor almost always used four horns, two in G and two in B alto. Another convention of G minor symphonies observed in Mozart's No. 25 and Mozart's No. 40 was the choice of E-flat major, the subdominant of the relative major B, for the slow movement, with other examples including Joseph Haydn's No. 39 and Johann Baptist Wanhal's G minor symphony from before 1771.

Notable works in G minor

  • Arcangelo Corelli
    • Christmas Concerto
  • Henry Purcell
    • "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas
  • Antonio Vivaldi
    • Violin Concerto, Op. 4/6, RV 316a
    • Violin Concerto, Op. 6/1, RV 324
    • Violin Concerto, Op. 6/3, RV 318
    • Violin Concerto, Op. 7/3, RV 326
    • Violin Concerto "Summer" from "The four seasons", Op. 8/2, RV 315
    • Violin Concerto, Op. 8/8, RV 332
    • Flute Concerto La Notte, Op. 10/2, RV 439
    • Oboe Concerto, Op. 11/6, RV 460
  • Georg Philipp Telemann
  • Johann Sebastian Bach
    • Violin Sonata No. 1, BWV 1001
    • Great Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 542
    • "Little" Fugue in G minor, BWV 578
    • English Suite No. 3, BWV 808
  • Joseph Haydn
    • Stabat Mater
    • Symphony No. 39
    • Symphony No. 83 "The Hen"
    • String Quartet No. 26, Op. 20, No. 3
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
    • Symphony No. 25
    • Symphony No. 40
    • String Quintet No. 4
    • Piano Quartet No. 1
    • Six Variations on "Hélas, j'ai perdu mon amant"
  • Ludwig van Beethoven
    • Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 5, No. 2
    • Piano Sonata No. 19, Op. 49/1
  • Franz Schubert
    • Stabat Mater, D 175
    • String Quartet No. 9, D 173
    • Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. posth. 137/3, D 408
  • Carl Maria von Weber
    • Trio for Piano, Flute and Cello, Op. 63
  • Felix Mendelssohn
    • Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 25
    • String Symphony No. 12
  • Frédéric Chopin
    • Piano Trio, Op. 8
    • Ballade No. 1, Op. 23
    • Nocturne, Op. 37, No. 1
    • Prelude "Impatience", Op. 28, No. 22
    • Cello Sonata, Op. 65
    • Polonaise in G minor, Op. posth.
  • Charles-Valentin Alkan
    • Scherzo diabolico, Op. 39, No. 3
    • Esquisses, Op. 63, No. 6 "Les cloches"; No. 26 "Petit air, Genre ancien"
  • Franz Liszt
    • Transcendental Étude No. 6 "Vision"
  • Robert Schumann
    • Symphony in G minor ("Zwickau")
    • Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 22
    • Piano Trio No. 3, Op. 110
  • Clara Schumann
    • Piano Trio, Op. 17
  • Bedřich Smetana
    • Piano Trio, Op. 15
  • Johannes Brahms
    • Piano Quartet No. 1, Op. 25
    • Rhapsody, Op. 79/2
    • Capriccio, Op. 116/3
    • Ballade, Op. 118/3
    • Hungarian Dance No. 5 (orchestral version)
  • Camille Saint-Saëns
    • Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 22
    • Danse macabre, Op. 40
  • Max Bruch
    • Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 26
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
    • Symphony No. 1, Op. 13
  • Antonín Dvořák
    • Piano Concerto, Op. 33
    • Slavonic Dance No. 8
    • Rondo for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 94
    • Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 26
    • Bagatelles, Op. 47
  • Edvard Grieg
    • Ballade in the Form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song, Op. 24
  • Gabriel Fauré
    • Sicilienne, Op. 78
  • Claude Debussy
    • String Quartet, Op. 10
  • Isaac Albéniz
    • Cataluña, Op. 47, No. 2
  • Mykola Leontovych
    • Shchedryk
  • Gustav Holst
    • Mars, the bringer of war, from the orchestral suite The Planets
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams
    • Mass in G minor
  • Sergei Rachmaninoff
    • Piano Concerto No. 4
    • Prelude in G minor
    • Cello Sonata
  • Sergei Prokofiev
    • Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 16
  • Dmitri Shostakovich
    • Symphony No. 11 The year 1905, Op. 103
    • Piano Quintet, Op. 57

References

References

  1. [[Hellmut Federhofer]], foreword to the [[Bärenreiter]] [[Urtext edition]] of Mozart's Piano Quartet in G minor. "{{Lang. de. G-Moll war für Mozart zeitlebens die Schicksaltonart, die ihm für den Ausdruck des Schmerzes und der Tragik am geeignetsten erschien." ("G minor was, for Mozart, the most suitable fate-key throughout his life for the expression of pain and tragedy.")
  2. [[H. C. Robbins Landon]], ''Mozart and Vienna''. New York: Schirmer Books (1991): 48. "Writing for four horns was a regular part of the ''Sturm und Drang'' G minor equipment." Robbins Landon also notes that Mozart's No. 40 was first intended to have four horns.
  3. [[James Hepokoski]] and Warren Darcy, ''Elements of Sonata Theory'' (Oxford University Press: 2006) p. 328
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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