B-flat minor

B♭ minor or B-flat minor is a minor scale based on B♭. Its key signature has five flats. It has the pitches of B♭ , C, D♭, E♭, F, G♭, A♭, and B♭.

B♭ minor

Relative key	D♭ major
Parallel key	B♭ major
Dominant key
Subdominant
Notes in this scale
B♭, C, D♭, E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭

Its relative major is D-flat major, and its parallel major is B-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent is A-sharp minor.

B-flat minor is often seen as a "dark" key.^[1] Tchaikovsky said that the oboe solo in B-flat minor in the second movement of his Symphony No. 4 was "the feeling that you get when you are all alone".

The old valveless horn could not play easily in B-flat minor. In fact, the only example found in 18th century music is a modulation in the first minuet of Franz Krommer's Concertino in D major, Opus 80.^[2]

In classical music

• Frédéric Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2, Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1, and Scherzo No. 2
• Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonata No. 2
• Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13
• Peter Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1
• Peter Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave
• Sir William Walton's Symphony No. 1

In popular music

• "Part-Time Lover"^[3] – Stevie Wonder
• "Cannonball (Damien Rice song)"^[4] - Damien Rice
• All eight songs on The Raveonettes' Whip It On album are in the key of B-flat minor. Sune Rose Wagner said it was because "Shostakovich's symphony no. 13 was in B flat minor".^[5]