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E-flat major

Major scale based on E-flat From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

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The E major scale is:

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Scale degree chords

The scale degree triads of E major are:

Characteristics

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The key of E major is often associated with bold, heroic music, in part because of Ludwig van Beethoven's usage. His Eroica Symphony, Emperor Concerto and Grand Sonata are all in this key. Beethoven's (hypothetical) 10th Symphony is also in E. But even before Beethoven, Francesco Galeazzi identified E major as "a heroic key, extremely majestic, grave and serious: in all these features it is superior to that of C."[1]

Three of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's completed Horn Concertos and Joseph Haydn's Trumpet Concerto are in E major and so is Anton Bruckner's Fourth Symphony with its prominent horn theme in the first movement. Another notable heroic piece in the key of E major is Richard Strauss's A Hero's Life. The heroic theme from the Jupiter movement of Gustav Holst's The Planets is in E major. Mahler's vast and heroic Eighth Symphony is in E and his Second Symphony also ends in this key.

However, in the Classical period, E major was not limited to solely bombastic brass music. "E-flat was the key Haydn chose most often for [string] quartets, ten times in all, and in every other case he wrote the slow movement in the dominant, B-flat major."[2] Or "when composing church music and operatic music in E major, [Joseph] Haydn often substituted cors anglais for oboes in this period", and also in Symphony No. 22.[3]

E major was the second-flattest key Mozart used in his music. For him, E major was associated with Freemasonry; "E-flat evoked stateliness and an almost religious character."[4]

Edward Elgar wrote his Variation IX "Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations in E major. Its strong, yet vulnerable character has led the piece to become a staple at funerals, especially in Great Britain.

Shostakovich used the E major scale to sarcastically evoke military glory in his Symphony No. 9.[5]

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Well-known compositions in this key

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Notes

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