G-sharp minor
 | |
| Relative key | B major enharmonic: C♭ major |
|---|---|
| Parallel key | G♯ major enharmonic: A♭ major |
| Dominant key | D♯ major enharmonic: E♭ major / D♯ minor |
| Subdominant key | C♯ minor |
| Enharmonic key | A♭ minor |
| Component pitches | |
| G♯, A♯, B, C♯, D♯, E, F♯ | |
   |
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. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary.
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.
The main theme of the Academy Award-winning score for the film Gravity, as well as the notable songs 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 must absolutely be used, one should take care that B-flat wind instruments be notated in B-flat minor, rather than A-sharp minor.
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
