D minor

D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B-flat, C-sharp, and D (harmonic minor scale). Its key signature consists of one flat.

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Its relative key is F major, and its parallel major is D major.

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Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary.

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According to Alfred Einstein, the history of tuning has led D minor to be associated with counterpoint and chromaticism (for example, the chromatic fourth), and cites Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's chromatic fugue in D minor. Mozart's Requiem is also written primarily in D minor.

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Since D minor is the key of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Anton Bruckner felt apprehensive about writing his own Ninth Symphony in the same key.

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Works in the classical music era and later beginning in minor typically end in major, or at least on a major chord (as picardy third), but there are a few notable examples of works in D minor especially ending in much sharper keys. Two symphonies that begin in D minor and end in E major are Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony and Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 4 (The Inextinguishable). Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, as it is often performed without Finale, is another example of a symphony beginning in D minor and ending in E major. Franz Liszt's Dante Symphony, opens in D minor and ends in B major.

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Some consider D minor the flattest key that is practical for a guitar to play.

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The Spinal Tap song "Lick My Love Pump" was written in D minor. According to Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), it is the saddest of all keys. Franz Schubert's famous "Der Tod und das M?dchen" String Quartet is in D minor.

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Of Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas, 151 are in minor keys, and D minor is the most often chosen minor key, with 32 sonatas. Johann Sebastian Bach's entire The Art of Fugue is in D minor, and jokingly, so is P.D.Q. Bach's Musical Offering.

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Minor scale: A minor scale in musical theory is a diatonic scale whose third scale degree is an interval of a minor third above the tonic. While some definitions of minor scale encompass modes with the minor third, such as Dorian mode, most musicians use the term to refer to the natural minor, harmonic minor, an...

Key signature: :For use in cryptography see Key signature (cryptography)...

Relative key: In music, the relative minor of a particular major key (or the relative major of a minor key) is the key which has the same key signature but a different tonic, as opposed to parallel minor or major, respectively. For example, G major and E minor both have a single sharp in their key signature; so w...

D minor related Images and Photos (experimental)

Copy of 'Partita in D Minor for Violin' by Johann Sebastian Bach	Morris Minor UK 1950	Fort Minor: The Rising Tied	Fort Minor: The Rising Tied
Ursa Major & Minor	Laodicea Asia Minor	Leopard Gecko Asia Minor to NW India	Duckweed Lemna Minor on a Pond Surface North America
The Major and the Minor DVD (Full Frame)	The Major and the Minor Ray Milland Ginger Rogers 1942	Map of Asia Minor: Norway Sweden Denmark Lapland Poland Turkey Russia and Moscow c.1626	Halo Reach Series 2 Grunt Minor Action Figure