A-flat major

A-flat major is a major scale based on A-flat, consisting of the pitches A-flat, B-flat, C, D-flat, E-flat, F, G, and A-flat. Its key signature consists of four flats.

Ascending and descending A-flat Major Scale

Its relative minor is F minor, and its parallel minor is A-flat minor. The key is said to have a peaceful, serene feel, and was used quite often by Franz Schubert.

Beethoven often chose A-flat major as the key for a slow movement following a movement in C minor, a practice which Anton Bruckner imitated in his first two C minor symphonies and also Antonín Dvořák in his only C minor symphony.

Since A-flat major was not often chosen as the main key for orchestral works of the 18th Century, passages or movements in the key often retained the timpani settings of the preceding movement. For example, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor has the timpani set to C and G for the first movement. With hand tuned timpani, there is no time to retune the timpani to A-flat and E-flat for the slow second movement in A-flat. In Bruckner's Symphony No. 1 in C minor, however, the timpani are retuned between the first movement in C minor and the following in A-flat major.

There are many arrangements of The Star-Spangled Banner in A-flat major, and professional singers are expected to sing it in either A-flat or B-flat major for auditions.

Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major is the only symphony in that key in the standard orchestral repertoire. A-flat major is the flattest major key Domenico Scarlatti used in his keyboard sonatas, though he used it only twice, in K. 127 and K. 130. Felix Mendelssohn and John Field each wrote one piano concerto in A-flat (Mendelssohn's being for two pianos); they had the horns and trumpet tuned to E-flat.

Well Known Songs In This Key

• Poetry in Motion - Johnny Tillotson
• Flying Without Wings - Westlife
• American Idiot - Green Day