E-flat major

E-flat major
${ \magnifyStaff #3/2 \omit Score.TimeSignature \key es \major s16 \clef F \key es \major s^"" }$
Relative key	C minor
Parallel key	E-flat minor
Dominant key	B-flat major
Subdominant key	A-flat major
Component pitches
	E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D

E-flat major 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♭ major scale is:

$\header { tagline = ##f } scale = \relative b { \key es \major \omit Score.TimeSignature es^"E♭ major scale" f g as bes c d es d c bes as g f es2 \clef bass \key es \major} \score { { << \cadenzaOn \scale \context NoteNames \scale >> } \layout { } \midi { } }$

Scale degree chords

The scale degree chords of E♭ major are:

Tonic – E♭ major
Supertonic – F minor
Mediant – G minor
Subdominant – A♭ major
Dominant – B♭ major
Submediant – C minor
Leading tone – D diminished

Characteristics

The key of E♭ major is often associated with bold, heroic music, in part because of Ludwig van Beethoven's usage. His Eroica Symphony, Emperor Concerto and Grand Sonata are all in this key. Beethoven's (hypothetical) 10th Symphony is also in E♭. But even before Beethoven, Francesco Galeazzi [de] identified E♭ major as "a heroic key, extremely majestic, grave and serious: in all these features it is superior to that of C."^[1] Jean-Benjamin de La Borde in 1780 ascribed to E♭ major the quality of being "grave and very somber".^[2]

During the Baroque era, Marc-Antoine Charpentier in his Règles de composition (circa 1682) thought of this key as "cruel and hard".^[3] Johann Mattheson in the work Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre (1713) stated that E♭ major is "pathetic; concerned with serious and plaintive things; bitterly hostile to all lasciviousness".^[3]

In the mid-eighteenth century, E♭ major became associated with ombra scenes in opera seria, describing sightings of or interactions with ghosts, demons, witches, and oracles. In the hands of composers such as Niccolò Jommelli and Tommaso Traetta, there emerges a preference for accompagnato recitatives in E♭ major for such scenes, allowing further modulation to the more extreme flat minor keys for moments of heightened drama. This preference went on to influence the key choices for ombra scenes in the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Joseph Haydn and even the young Mozart.^[4]

Three of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's completed Horn Concertos and Joseph Haydn's Trumpet Concerto are in E♭ major and so is Anton Bruckner's Fourth Symphony with its prominent horn theme in the first movement. Another notable heroic piece in the key of E♭ major is Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben. The heroic theme from the Jupiter movement of Gustav Holst's The Planets is in E♭ major. Mahler's vast and heroic Eighth Symphony is in E♭ and his Second Symphony also ends in this key.

However, in the Classical period, E♭ major was not limited to solely bombastic brass music. "E-flat was the key Haydn chose most often for [string] quartets, ten times in all, and in every other case he wrote the slow movement in the dominant, B-flat major."^[5] Or "when composing church music and operatic music in E♭ major, [Joseph] Haydn often substituted cors anglais for oboes in this period", and also in Symphony No. 22.^[6]

E♭ major was the second-flattest key Mozart used in his music. For him, E♭ major was associated with Freemasonry; "E-flat evoked stateliness and an almost religious character."^[7]

Edward Elgar wrote his Variation IX "Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations in E♭ major. Its strong, yet vulnerable character has led the piece to become a staple at funerals, especially in Great Britain.

Shostakovich used the E♭ major scale to sarcastically evoke military glory in his Symphony No. 9.^[8]

Well-known compositions in this key

Notes

^ Francesco Galeazzi, Elementi teorico-practici di musica (1796) as translated to English in Rita Steblin, A History of Key Characteristics in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries. University of Rochester Press (1996): 111
^ La Borde, Jean-Benjamin de (1780). Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne (in French). Paris: Ph.-D. Pierres, Imprimeur ordinaire du Roi.. Quoted in Cyr 1992, p. 33
^ ^a ^b Cyr, Mary (1992). Performing Baroque Music. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. p. 33. ISBN 9780931340499.
^ McClelland, Clive (March 2001). Ombra music in the Eighteenth Century: Context, Style and Signification (PhD Thesis). University of Leeds – School of Music. PDF
^ Paul Griffiths, The String Quartet. New York: Thames & Hudson (1983): 29
^ David Wyn Jones, "The Symphonies of Haydn" in A Guide to the Symphony, ed. Robert Layton. Oxford: Oxford University Press
^ Robert Harris, What to Listen for in Mozart. Simon & Schuster (2002): 174
^ Fay, Laurel (1999). Shostakovich: A Life. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513438-9.

External links

Media related to E-flat major at Wikimedia Commons

[1] Francesco Galeazzi, Elementi teorico-practici di musica (1796) as translated to English in Rita Steblin, A History of Key Characteristics in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries. University of Rochester Press (1996): 111

[2] La Borde, Jean-Benjamin de (1780). Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne (in French). Paris: Ph.-D. Pierres, Imprimeur ordinaire du Roi.. Quoted in Cyr 1992, p. 33

[Cyr_1992-3] Cyr, Mary (1992). Performing Baroque Music. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. p. 33. ISBN 9780931340499.

[4] McClelland, Clive (March 2001). Ombra music in the Eighteenth Century: Context, Style and Signification (PhD Thesis). University of Leeds – School of Music. PDF

[5] Paul Griffiths, The String Quartet. New York: Thames & Hudson (1983): 29

[6] David Wyn Jones, "The Symphonies of Haydn" in A Guide to the Symphony, ed. Robert Layton. Oxford: Oxford University Press

[7] Robert Harris, What to Listen for in Mozart. Simon & Schuster (2002): 174

[8] Fay, Laurel (1999). Shostakovich: A Life. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513438-9.

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