D-flat minor

D♭ minor

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

D-flat minor is a theoretical key based on the musical note D♭, consisting of the pitches D♭, E♭, F♭, G♭, A♭, B, C♭ and D♭. Its key signature has seven flats and one double flat.^[1]

Verdi's opera La Traviata, unusually, ends very decisively in D♭ minor. For clarity and simplicity, however, D♭ minor is usually notated as its enharmonic equivalent of C♯ minor, as it is, for example, in the second and third measures of Amy Beach's Canticle of the Sun.^[2] Mahler's thematic motif "der kleine Appell" ("call to order") from his Fourth and Fifth Symphonies is similarly notated. In his Symphony No. 4 (first movement) it is in D♭ minor, but in his Symphony No. 5 it is in C♯ minor. In the Adagio of his Symphony No. 9 a solo bassoon interpolation following the main theme appears first in D♭ minor, returning twice more notated in C♯ minor. Likewise, in the Adagio of Bruckner's Symphony No. 8, phrases that are tonally in D♭ minor are notated as C♯ minor.^[3][4][5][6]

References

1. ^ Thomas Busby (1840). "D Flat Minor". A dictionary of three thousand musical terms. revised by James Alexander Hamilton. London: D'Almaine and Co.. p. 55. 
2. ^ Amy Beach and Betty Buchanan (2006). The Canticle of the Sun. A-R Editions, Inc.. xiii. ISBN 0895795833. 
3. ^ Ernst Levy (1985). A Theory of Harmony. SUNY Press. p. 62. ISBN 0873959930. 
4. ^ James L. Zychowicz (2005). "Structural Considerations". Mahler's Fourth Symphony. Oxford University Press. p. 28. ISBN 0198162065. 
5. ^ Eero Tarasti (1996). "Music history revisited". In Eero Tarasti, Paul Forsell, and Richard Littlefield. Musical Semiotics in Growth. Indiana University Press. pp. 14–15. ISBN 0253329493. 
6. ^ Theodor W. Adorno (1992). Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. University of Chicago Press. pp. 165–166. ISBN 0226007693. 

Scales and keys