A-flat major is a weighty, ponderous key with a particular gravity to it, a
shadowy, melancholic character. Unlike E-flat Major, A-flat Major is ill-suited
for grand narratives. It is not a very energetic key, but more suitable for contemplation. It is
especially fitting for bass tones because of its richness. Its color is a deep shade of bronze.
A-flat major is a key with A-flat as root and consists of the pitches A♭, B♭, C, D♭, E♭, F, and G. Its
key signature has four flats. Its relative minor is F minor. Its
parallel minor, A-flat minor, is
usually written instead as the enharmonic key of G-sharp minor, since
A-flat minor contains seven flats and G-sharp minor only contains five
sharps.
A-flat major was the flattest major key to be used as the home key for the keyboard and piano sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, with each of them using the key for two sonatas: Scarlatti's K. 127 and K. 130, Haydn's Hob XVI 43 and 46, and Beethoven's Op. 26 and Op. 110, while Franz Schubert used it for one piano sonata. It was also the flattest major key to be used for the preludes and fugues in Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, as flatter major keys were notated as their enharmonic equivalents.
Beethoven chose A-flat major as the key of the slow movement for most of
his C minor works, a practice which Anton Bruckner imitated in his
first two C minor symphonies and also Antonín Dvořák in his only C minor
symphony. The second movement of Haydn's 43rd symphony in E-flat major
is in A-flat major. A-flat Major was Chopin’s favorite key,
probably because of the contemplative and lyrical qualities. He used
this key in many of his works, particularly in his waltzes.
Felix Mendelssohn, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, John Field, and Friedrich Kalkbrenner each wrote one piano concerto in A-flat (Mendelssohn's is for two pianos); they had the horns and trumpet tuned to E-flat. Max Bruch's Concerto for Two Pianos in A-flat minor has its last movement in A-flat major, which is the parallel major; this concerto plays with the contrast between the two keys. (Unfortunately, none of these piano concertos is available in a suitable version on YouTube).
Characteristic compositions in A-flat major:
Johann Sebastian Bach, Prelude and Fugue Nr 17 BWV 862 in A-flat Major (Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Book I)
This Prelude in A-flat major opens with radiant sunshine, but there is also a darker side beneath the surface. In the Circle of Fifths, A-flat major is close to the "harsher" keys with lots of sharps or flats. You hear that the intonation begins to strain. Even the "home chord" of A-flat itself is not stable, which is heard clearly in the final chords. Maybe that is why music theorists of just after Bach had rather dark associations with this key. In 1779, Georg Joseph Vogler stated that A-flat major suggests “a black idea”, and Christian Schubart wrote a few years later about “the key of the grave: death, tomb, mortality..." The prelude is followed by a fugue that appears to evoke precisely this sort of association, as it is much more solemn. Whereas the prelude is practically all in major, the fugue keeps moving towards autumnal minor keys.
(Based on notes by the Netherlands Bach Society)
(Based on notes by the Netherlands Bach Society)
Olivier Fortin, harpsichordist
Domenico Scarlatti, Sonata in A-flat Major K. 127
In this sonata, composed at the height of his "flamboyant" period, Domenico Scarlatti skillfully combines Baroque conventions with musical daring. Divided into four symmetrical sequences reminiscent of the classical binary form of a sonata, Scarlatti infuses each of them with a particular identity. Evocation of dance, frenetic keyboard runs, rich harmonic ornaments, key changes, the master remains true to his reputation and shows great musical creativity.
Played by Kazuya Gunji, harpsichord
Played by Kazuya Gunji, harpsichord
Joseph Haydn, Piano Sonata No 31 in A flat major, Hob XVI:46
The earliest keyboard works of Haydn, written either for clavichord or harpsichord, were not called sonatas, but rather, in the Baroque manner, designated as partitas or divertimentos. The present sonata (composed around 1767–8) is written in a key (A-flat) with four flats, in contrast with a large number of the composer’s sonatas with no more than three accidentals in the key signature. This remarkable work is in fact an experimental piece, if only because of the key - and the slow movement is even in D-flat major, an outré key in the 18th c. and one never used by Mozart! Then there is the interruption of the flow of the movement (the first movement contains no less than seven fermatas), something which is in the style of the Empfindsamkeit. The movement is irregularly phrased and characterized by delicate ornaments and sighing appoggiaturas, and surpasses all of its predecessors in scale and expressive richness.
The extended second movement is stoically expressive even with its extensive ornamentation. With the extreme tonality goes a peculiar intimacy of expression: from the delicate contrapuntal opening, with the bass descending passacaglia-style, making this one of the most subtle and poetic of all Haydn’s slow movements
With its catchy, quicksilver main theme, the compact sonata-form finale the hell-bent-for-speed last movement provides a glorious physical release.
Played by Su Yeon Kim
The extended second movement is stoically expressive even with its extensive ornamentation. With the extreme tonality goes a peculiar intimacy of expression: from the delicate contrapuntal opening, with the bass descending passacaglia-style, making this one of the most subtle and poetic of all Haydn’s slow movements
With its catchy, quicksilver main theme, the compact sonata-form finale the hell-bent-for-speed last movement provides a glorious physical release.
Played by Su Yeon Kim
Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 31 op. 110 in A-flat major
Beethoven composed this sonata in 1821. It is the central piano sonata
in a group of three (opuses 109-110-111) that Beethoven wrote between
1820 and 1822, and the 31st of his published piano sonatas. The sonata
consists of three more or less interlocking movements, but the last movement incorporates both slow movement and finale.
The first movement is in sonata form, opening with a deceptively simple idea (marked - unusually for Beethoven, at this stage of his life - con amabilità), a theme that forms the basis for much of the motivic working of the whole Sonata. The second subject group is an amalgam of short ideas in E flat, one in the extreme high register of the instrument, another a brief alternation of rising scales and falling fifths, and the last a more gentle codetta idea that leads into a reprise of the first subject - which is in effect the brief, 16-bar development. The scherzo turns to F major, and is again remarkably simple in its outline and almost joky ideas. Its trio is in D flat major.
The real heart of this Sonata is its finale. It opens with a recitative, full of changes of tempo and figuration, before the Adagio proper gets under way - a tearful song over incessant semiquaver chords. This leads straight into a three-voice Allegro fugue, and the genius of Beethoven's scheme becomes clear when the fugue subject recalls the outline of the opening melody of the first movement - a subtle association by suggestion rather than outright imitation. The fugue dissolves into the Arioso and returns with the fugue subject turned upside down, leading into a triumphant coda.
Andreas Schiff, piano.
The first movement is in sonata form, opening with a deceptively simple idea (marked - unusually for Beethoven, at this stage of his life - con amabilità), a theme that forms the basis for much of the motivic working of the whole Sonata. The second subject group is an amalgam of short ideas in E flat, one in the extreme high register of the instrument, another a brief alternation of rising scales and falling fifths, and the last a more gentle codetta idea that leads into a reprise of the first subject - which is in effect the brief, 16-bar development. The scherzo turns to F major, and is again remarkably simple in its outline and almost joky ideas. Its trio is in D flat major.
The real heart of this Sonata is its finale. It opens with a recitative, full of changes of tempo and figuration, before the Adagio proper gets under way - a tearful song over incessant semiquaver chords. This leads straight into a three-voice Allegro fugue, and the genius of Beethoven's scheme becomes clear when the fugue subject recalls the outline of the opening melody of the first movement - a subtle association by suggestion rather than outright imitation. The fugue dissolves into the Arioso and returns with the fugue subject turned upside down, leading into a triumphant coda.
Andreas Schiff, piano.
Frédéric Chopin, Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op. 47
The third of four ballads by Chopin, composed between 1840 and 1841 and dedicated to Mademoiselle Pauline de Noailles, the 17-year-old daughter of the statesman Paul de Noailles.
Like many of Chopin's works set in A-flat major, Op. 47 is probably the richest among the ballads. In 6/8 Allegretto throughout, it includes three themes with several variations. From the single E-flat of the dominant, the 1st measure already strikes a wide arc. The relaxed mood loses itself in opposing dissonances and sforzatos. Mezza voce appears the again tranquil second theme in F major. It is varied twice in C major and once in A flat major. A wide arpeggio begins the furious F minor section, which returns in A flat major. It is followed by a quiet C-sharp minor idea, restless on the left, which turns to a luminous C-sharp major. It is varied in a grandiose modulation with arpeggiated octave chords on the right and wide octave leaps on the left. Varying once again in grumbling dissonances, it finds its way - for the first time since the beginning - to the A-flat major theme, this time in magnificent octave chords.
Like many of Chopin's works set in A-flat major, Op. 47 is probably the richest among the ballads. In 6/8 Allegretto throughout, it includes three themes with several variations. From the single E-flat of the dominant, the 1st measure already strikes a wide arc. The relaxed mood loses itself in opposing dissonances and sforzatos. Mezza voce appears the again tranquil second theme in F major. It is varied twice in C major and once in A flat major. A wide arpeggio begins the furious F minor section, which returns in A flat major. It is followed by a quiet C-sharp minor idea, restless on the left, which turns to a luminous C-sharp major. It is varied in a grandiose modulation with arpeggiated octave chords on the right and wide octave leaps on the left. Varying once again in grumbling dissonances, it finds its way - for the first time since the beginning - to the A-flat major theme, this time in magnificent octave chords.
Charles Richard-Hamelin
Frédéric Chopin Waltz op. 69 No. 1 “L’Adieu”
A waltz composed by Frédéric Chopin when he left Dresden, where he was staying, in 1835. Not published during his lifetime, it was published in 1853 and became famous as the Farewell Waltz (French: L'Adieu) - the farewell was with Maria Wodzińska, who had ended her love affair with Chopin.
The waltz is played Lento and is in Rondo form. The theme is a melody in a chromatic descending progression, which begins in F minor and changes to A-flat major in the 8th bar. There are some mazurka-like rhythms and three-degree chords in the middle of the melody, and some dance-like fragments.
Judith Valerie Engel, piano
The waltz is played Lento and is in Rondo form. The theme is a melody in a chromatic descending progression, which begins in F minor and changes to A-flat major in the 8th bar. There are some mazurka-like rhythms and three-degree chords in the middle of the melody, and some dance-like fragments.
Judith Valerie Engel, piano
Franz Liszt, Liebestraum No 3 in A-flat major
Liebesträume ("Dreams of Love") is a set of three solo piano works by Franz Liszt, published in 1850. Originally the three Liebesträume were conceived as lieder after poems by Ludwig Uhland and Ferdinand Freiligrath, depicting three different forms of love. Uhland's "Hohe Liebe" (exalted love) is saintly or religious love. The second song "Seliger Tod" (blessed death) evokes erotic love. Freiligrath's poem for the third nocturne is about unconditional mature love.
Liebestraum No. 3 in A-flat major is the last of the three and the most popular. It can be considered as split into three sections, each divided by a fast cadenza requiring dexterous finger work and a very high degree of technical ability. The same melody is used throughout the piece, each time varied, especially near the middle of the work, where the climax is reached.
Liebestraum No. 3 in A-flat major is the last of the three and the most popular. It can be considered as split into three sections, each divided by a fast cadenza requiring dexterous finger work and a very high degree of technical ability. The same melody is used throughout the piece, each time varied, especially near the middle of the work, where the climax is reached.
Alice Sara Ott, piano.
Antonín Dvořák, String Quartet No. 14 in A-Major Op. 105
In March 1895 - still in America - Dvořák began the first movement of his fourteenth string quartet, but interrupted composing until he returned to Vysoká u Příbramě. There he first composed the string quartet No. 13 and immediately afterwards completed this quartet in A-flat major. The almost euphoric mood - back in Bohemia! - translated into a quick and accurate way of working: between December 12 and 30, the quartet No. 14 was completed.
In the last nine years of his life, Dvořák would write no more chamber music, only symphonic poems and operas. In terms of mood, opus 105 is the milder, more relaxed counterpart to opus 106. It is less densely constructed; at the same time, the Slavonic influence is more pronounced.
Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro appassionato
The only quartet - besides No. 2 - that begins with a slow introduction.
Molto vivace
Scherzo with furiant-like rhythm and a lilting trio in D-flat major.
Lento e molto cantabile
Simple effortless song with a more chromatic middle section.
Allegro non tanto
In terms of rhythm, this recalls the Polka. It is cheerful, freer and looser than the 13th string quartet' .
The Fourteenth String Quartet is a worthy conclusion to Dvořák's chamber music oeuvre.
In the last nine years of his life, Dvořák would write no more chamber music, only symphonic poems and operas. In terms of mood, opus 105 is the milder, more relaxed counterpart to opus 106. It is less densely constructed; at the same time, the Slavonic influence is more pronounced.
Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro appassionato
The only quartet - besides No. 2 - that begins with a slow introduction.
Molto vivace
Scherzo with furiant-like rhythm and a lilting trio in D-flat major.
Lento e molto cantabile
Simple effortless song with a more chromatic middle section.
Allegro non tanto
In terms of rhythm, this recalls the Polka. It is cheerful, freer and looser than the 13th string quartet' .
The Fourteenth String Quartet is a worthy conclusion to Dvořák's chamber music oeuvre.
Shanghai String Quartet
Edward Elgar, Symphony No. 1 in A-flat Major
The Symphony in A-flat Major, Opus 55 (composed in 1907-08, premiered in Manchester on December 3, 1908 by the Hallé Orchestra under the baton of dedicatee Hans Richter) is the first of Edward Elgar's two completed symphonies. The work immediately found its way into the standard repertoire of the British and international concert circuit and stands at the base of 20th century British symphonic music (continued by composers such as Arnold Bax, Havergal Brian, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold. The First Symphony is still considered one of the masterpieces of its creator.
The symphony consists of four movements.
Andante nobilmente e semplice - Allegro
The slow introduction to the extended opening movement introduces a theme of solemn, hymnal character that serves as a motto for the entire work and recurs throughout the rest. The Allegro section is in D minor, a key that is extremely distant in kinship from the initial A-flat major because of the tritone spacing of the root notes.
Allegro molto
The scherzo oscillates between sections that are sometimes hectic, sometimes rhythmically aggressive, and more supple (trio-like) passages.
Adagio
After a period of calming, the songful Adagio follows attacca, its theme copying note-for-note the theme of the Scherzo (in slower motion).
Lento - allegro
The expansive and characterful complex final movement ends with a triumphant apotheosis of the motto theme in an effective final sonic fireworks display.
Andrew Manze | NDR Radiophilharmonie
The symphony consists of four movements.
Andante nobilmente e semplice - Allegro
The slow introduction to the extended opening movement introduces a theme of solemn, hymnal character that serves as a motto for the entire work and recurs throughout the rest. The Allegro section is in D minor, a key that is extremely distant in kinship from the initial A-flat major because of the tritone spacing of the root notes.
Allegro molto
The scherzo oscillates between sections that are sometimes hectic, sometimes rhythmically aggressive, and more supple (trio-like) passages.
Adagio
After a period of calming, the songful Adagio follows attacca, its theme copying note-for-note the theme of the Scherzo (in slower motion).
Lento - allegro
The expansive and characterful complex final movement ends with a triumphant apotheosis of the motto theme in an effective final sonic fireworks display.
Andrew Manze | NDR Radiophilharmonie
Dmitri Shostakovich, String Quartet No. 10 in A-flat major Op. 118
Composed from 9 to 20 July 1964, premiered by the Beethoven Quartet and dedicated to composer Mieczysław (Moisei) Weinberg, a close friend of Shostakovich.
The work has four movements:
I. Andante
The first movement is in sonata rondo form and makes use of soft dynamics. Opening with a four-note motif on the solo violin, the movement is largely written in E minor, a minor sixth away from the main key of A-flat major. This E minor/A-flat major dialogue recurs throughout the quartet. The movement ends morendo, denoting gradually dying away in volume.
II. Allegretto furioso
The second movement is in E minor. The emotional indicator 'furioso' is unique in Shostakovich's string quartets. Its beginning, four whole tone steps, references a subject used by Shostakovich in his Fifth Symphony and Eighth String Quartet.
III. Adagio (attacca)
The third movement is written in A minor, a semitone away from the tonic A-flat major, although it also employs the A-flat major and E minor tonalities which recur throughout the work. It is written in the passacaglia form, frequently used in Shostakovich's music. The passacaglia theme is developed, played with and without ground bass, and with added bars and beats throughout the movement.
IV. Allegretto – Andante
The fourth movement is played continuous from the third. It is written in A-flat major, the tonic key of the work. It also employs D minor, creating dissonance a tritone away from the tonic. It is written in sonata rondo form and makes extensive use of drones and folk song rhythms. In this movement, the themes of each of the preceding three movements are heard again, against the new rondo theme, including the passacaglia heme of the third movement, which is played fortississimo, creating a contrast against the movement's largely muted texture. The movement ends, marked morendo as with the first movement, creating an uncertain finish.
Jerusalem Quartet
The work has four movements:
I. Andante
The first movement is in sonata rondo form and makes use of soft dynamics. Opening with a four-note motif on the solo violin, the movement is largely written in E minor, a minor sixth away from the main key of A-flat major. This E minor/A-flat major dialogue recurs throughout the quartet. The movement ends morendo, denoting gradually dying away in volume.
II. Allegretto furioso
The second movement is in E minor. The emotional indicator 'furioso' is unique in Shostakovich's string quartets. Its beginning, four whole tone steps, references a subject used by Shostakovich in his Fifth Symphony and Eighth String Quartet.
III. Adagio (attacca)
The third movement is written in A minor, a semitone away from the tonic A-flat major, although it also employs the A-flat major and E minor tonalities which recur throughout the work. It is written in the passacaglia form, frequently used in Shostakovich's music. The passacaglia theme is developed, played with and without ground bass, and with added bars and beats throughout the movement.
IV. Allegretto – Andante
The fourth movement is played continuous from the third. It is written in A-flat major, the tonic key of the work. It also employs D minor, creating dissonance a tritone away from the tonic. It is written in sonata rondo form and makes extensive use of drones and folk song rhythms. In this movement, the themes of each of the preceding three movements are heard again, against the new rondo theme, including the passacaglia heme of the third movement, which is played fortississimo, creating a contrast against the movement's largely muted texture. The movement ends, marked morendo as with the first movement, creating an uncertain finish.
Jerusalem Quartet
[Incorporates text from the relevant English, Dutch, German and Japanese Wikipedia articles]