Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp ( ♯ ), flat ( ♭ ), or rarely, natural ( ♮) symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the clef at the beginning of the first line. If the piece contains a section in a different key, the ...
C-flat major is the home key of the harp, with all its pedals in the top position, and it is considered the most resonant key for the instrument.Thus, in Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben, the first cue for the harps is written in C-flat major even though the rest of the orchestra, having previously played in E-flat major, retains a 3-flat key signature and is now playing in B major, marked ...
In the Classical period, C major was the key most often chosen for symphonies with trumpets and timpani. Even in the Romantic period, with its greater use of minor keys and the ability to use trumpets and timpani in any key, C major remained a very popular choice of key for a symphony. The following list includes only the most famous examples.
Nonetheless, Joseph Haydn still gets credit for writing the timpani part at actual pitch with an F major key signature (instead of transposing with a C major key signature), a procedure that made sense since he limited that instrument to the tonic and dominant pitches. [1]
Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" is written in C major. Many musicians have pointed out that every musical key conjures up specific feelings. [5] This idea is further explored in a radio program called The Signature Series. American popular songwriter Bob Dylan claimed the key of C major to "be the key of strength, but also the key of regret". [6]
Notes that are shown as sharp or flat in a key signature will be played that way in every octave—e.g., a key signature with a B ♭ indicates that every B is played as a B ♭. A key signature indicates the prevailing key of the music and eliminates the need to use accidentals for the notes that are always flat or sharp in that key.
E-flat major (or the key of E-flat) is a major scale based on E ♭, consisting of the pitches E ♭, F, G, A ♭, B ♭, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E ♭ minor, (or enharmonically D ♯ minor ). The E-flat major scale is:
F major is the home key of the English horn, the basset horn, the horn in F, the trumpet in F and the bass Wagner tuba. Thus, music in F major for these transposing instruments is written in C major. Most of these sound a perfect fifth lower than written, with the exception of the trumpet in F which sounds a fourth higher.