B-flat minor

B-flat minor is a minor scale based on B♭, consisting of the pitches B♭, C, D♭, E♭, F, G♭, and A♭. Its key signature has five flats. Its relative major is D-flat major and its parallel major is B-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent, A-sharp minor, which would contain seven sharps, is not normally used.

The B-flat natural minor scale is:



Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The B-flat harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are:





Scale degree chords

 * Tonic – B-flat minor
 * Supertonic – C diminished
 * Mediant – D-flat major
 * Subdominant – E-flat minor
 * Dominant – F minor
 * Submediant – G-flat major
 * Subtonic – A-flat major

Characteristics
B-flat minor is traditionally a 'dark' key.

The old valveless horn was barely capable of playing in B-flat minor: the only example found in 18th-century music is a modulation that occurs in the first minuet of Franz Krommer's Concertino in D major, Op. 80.

Notable classical compositions

 * Charles-Valentin Alkan
 * Prelude Op. 31, No. 12 (Le temps qui n'est plus)
 * Symphony for Solo Piano, 3rd movement: Menuet
 * Samuel Barber
 * Adagio for Strings
 * Frédéric Chopin
 * Piano Sonata No. 2 "Funeral March"
 * Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1
 * Scherzo No. 2
 * Prelude Op. 28, No. 16 "Hades"
 * Mazurka Op. 24, No. 4
 * Franz Liszt
 * Transcendental Étude No. 12 (Chasse-neige) from Transcendental Études
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff
 * Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36
 * Alexander Scriabin
 * Études Op. 8: No. 11 in B-flat minor
 * Dmitri Shostakovich
 * Symphony No. 13, Op. 113 ("Babi Yar")
 * String Quartet No. 13, Op. 138
 * Richard Strauss
 * An Alpine Symphony begins and ends in B-flat minor.
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
 * Piano Concerto No. 1
 * Marche slave
 * William Walton
 * Symphony No. 1
 * Sylvius Leopold Weiss
 * Tombeau sur la Mort de Compte d'Logy