G minor

G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B♭, C, D, E♭, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major.

The G natural minor scale is:



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





Scale degree chords

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

Mozart's use of G minor
G minor has been considered the key through which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart best expressed sadness and tragedy, and many of his minor key works are in G minor, such as Piano Quartet No. 1 and String Quintet No. 4. Though Mozart touched on various minor keys in his symphonies, G minor is the only minor key he used as a main key for his numbered symphonies (No. 25, and the famous No. 40). In the Classical period, symphonies in G minor almost always used four horns, two in G and two in B♭ alto. Another convention of G minor symphonies observed in Mozart's No. 25 and Mozart's No. 40 was the choice of E-flat major, the subdominant of the relative major B♭, for the slow movement, with other examples including Joseph Haydn's No. 39 and Johann Baptist Wanhal's G minor symphony from before 1771.

Notable works in G minor

 * Arcangelo Corelli
 * Christmas Concerto
 * Henry Purcell
 * "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas
 * Antonio Vivaldi
 * Violin Concerto, Op. 4/6, RV 316a
 * Violin Concerto, Op. 6/1, RV 324
 * Violin Concerto, Op. 6/3, RV 318
 * Violin Concerto, Op. 7/3, RV 326
 * Violin Concerto "Summer" from "The four seasons", Op. 8/2, RV 315
 * Violin Concerto, Op. 8/8, RV 332
 * Flute Concerto La Notte, Op. 10/2, RV 439
 * Oboe Concerto, Op. 11/6, RV 460
 * Georg Philipp Telemann
 * Fantasia for flute solo No. 12
 * Fantasia for viola da gamba solo No. 7
 * Johann Sebastian Bach
 * Violin Sonata No. 1, BWV 1001
 * Great Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 542
 * "Little" Fugue in G minor, BWV 578
 * English Suite No. 3, BWV 808
 * Joseph Haydn
 * Stabat Mater
 * Symphony No. 39
 * Symphony No. 83 "The Hen"
 * String Quartet No. 26, Op. 20, No. 3
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * Symphony No. 25
 * Symphony No. 40
 * String Quintet No. 4
 * Piano Quartet No. 1
 * Six Variations on "Hélas, j'ai perdu mon amant"
 * Ludwig van Beethoven
 * Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 5, No. 2
 * Piano Sonata No. 19, Op. 49/1
 * Franz Schubert
 * Stabat Mater, D 175
 * String Quartet No. 9, D 173
 * Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. posth. 137/3, D 408
 * Carl Maria von Weber
 * Trio for Piano, Flute and Cello, Op. 63
 * Felix Mendelssohn
 * Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 25
 * String Symphony No. 12
 * Frédéric Chopin
 * Piano Trio, Op. 8
 * Ballade No. 1, Op. 23
 * Nocturne, Op. 37, No. 1
 * Prelude "Impatience", Op. 28, No. 22
 * Cello Sonata, Op. 65
 * Polonaise in G minor, Op. posth.
 * Charles-Valentin Alkan
 * Scherzo diabolico, Op. 39, No. 3
 * Esquisses, Op. 63, No. 6 "Les cloches"; No. 26 "Petit air, Genre ancien"
 * Franz Liszt
 * Transcendental Étude No. 6 "Vision"
 * Robert Schumann
 * Symphony in G minor ("Zwickau")
 * Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 22
 * Piano Trio No. 3, Op. 110
 * Clara Schumann
 * Piano Trio, Op. 17
 * Johannes Brahms
 * Piano Quartet No. 1, Op. 25
 * Rhapsody, Op. 79/2
 * Capriccio, Op. 116/3
 * Ballade, Op. 118/3
 * Hungarian Dance No. 5 (orchestral version)
 * Camille Saint-Saëns
 * Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 22
 * Danse macabre, Op. 40
 * Max Bruch
 * Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 26
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
 * Symphony No. 1, Op. 13
 * Antonín Dvořák
 * Piano Concerto, Op. 33
 * Slavonic Dance No. 8
 * Rondo for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 94
 * Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 26
 * Bagatelles, Op. 47
 * Gabriel Fauré
 * Sicilienne, Op. 78
 * Claude Debussy
 * String Quartet, Op. 10
 * Isaac Albéniz
 * Cataluña, Op. 47, No. 2
 * Gustav Holst
 * Mars, the bringer of war, from the orchestral suite The Planets
 * Ralph Vaughan Williams
 * Mass in G minor
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff
 * Piano Concerto No. 4
 * Prelude in G minor
 * Cello Sonata
 * Sergei Prokofiev
 * Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 16
 * Dmitri Shostakovich
 * Symphony No. 11 The year 1905, Op. 103
 * Piano Quintet, Op. 57