D major

D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F#, G, A, B, C# and D. Its key signature consists of two sharps.

Related Topics:
Major scale - Key signature

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Its relative minor is B minor, and its parallel minor is D minor.

Related Topics:
Relative minor - B minor - Parallel minor - D minor

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Many violin concertos are in D major (e.g., those by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky), since D major is a suitable key for writing violin music. It is also appropriate for guitar music, with drop D tuning making two Ds available as open strings. Since Domenico Scarlatti often imitated the mannerisms of the guitar in his keyboard sonatas, it is not a coincidence that more than 70 of his 555 sonatas are in D major, more than any other key.

Related Topics:
Violin concerto - Ludwig van Beethoven - Johannes Brahms - Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Violin - Guitar - Drop D tuning - Domenico Scarlatti

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For some beginning wind instrument students, however, D major is not a very suitable key, for example, D major music transposes to E major on B-flat wind instruments, and beginning methods generally tend to avoid keys with more than three sharps.

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Even so, the clarinet in B-flat is still often used for music in D major, and is perhaps the sharpest key that is practical for the instrument. There are composers, however, who in writing a piece in D minor with B-flat clarinets, will have them change to clarinets in A if the music switches to D major.

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23 of Joseph Haydn's 104 Symphonies are in D major, making it the most often used main key in Haydn's Symphonies. The vast majority of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's unnumbered symphonies are in D major.

Related Topics:
Joseph Haydn - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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Alexander Scriabin considered D major to be golden in color, and in a discussion with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov gave an example from one of his own operas where a character sang in D major about gold.

Related Topics:
Alexander Scriabin - Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

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