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.

Its relative minor is F minor, and its parallel minor is A-flat minor.

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 ang 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.

A-flat major is the flattest major key Domenico Scarlatti used in his keyboard sonatas, though just for two of them, K. 127 and K. 130.