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 key is C minor, and its parallel key is E-flat minor, (or enharmonically D-sharp minor).
The E major scale is:
Scale degree chords
The
scale degree chords of E major are:
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, identified E major as "a heroic key, extremely majestic, grave and serious: in all these features it is superior to that of C."
[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] Jean-Benjamin de La Borde in 1780 ascribed to E major the quality of being "grave and very somber".
[. Quoted in ]
During the Baroque music, Marc-Antoine Charpentier in his Règles de composition (circa 1682) thought of this key as "cruel and hard".
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 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.[ PDF]
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 Joseph 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."[Paul Griffiths, The String Quartet. New York: Thames & Hudson (1983): 29] Or "when composing church music and operatic music in E major, Joseph Haydn often substituted Cor anglais for in this period", and also in Symphony No. 22.[David Wyn Jones, "The Symphonies of Haydn" in A Guide to the Symphony, ed. Robert Layton. Oxford: Oxford University Press]
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."[Robert Harris, What to Listen for in Mozart. Simon & Schuster (2002): 174]
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.
Well-known compositions in this key
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Johann Sebastian Bach
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Cello Suite No. 4, BWV 1010
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Prelude & Fugue in E-flat major "St. Anne", BWV 552
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Ludwig van Beethoven
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Septet for Strings and Woodwinds, Op. 20
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Symphony No. 3, Op. 55 "Eroica"
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Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73 "Emperor"
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Piano Sonata No. 4, Op. 7 "Grand Sonata"
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Piano Sonata No. 18, Op. 31/3 "The Hunt"
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Piano Sonata No. 26, Op. 81a "Les Adieux"
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Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 12/3
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Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op.70 No.2
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Sextet for Horns and String Quartet, Op. 81b
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String Quartet No. 10, Op. 74
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String Quartet No. 12, Op. 127
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Vincenzo Bellini
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Johannes Brahms
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Intermezzo for piano op. 117/1
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Rhapsody for piano op. 119/4
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Clarinet Sonata op. 120/2
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Horn trio op. 40
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Max Bruch
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Anton Bruckner
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Symphony No. 4, WAB 104 "Romantic"
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Frédéric Chopin
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Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9, No. 2
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Étude in E-flat, Op. 10, No. 11
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Grande valse brillante, Op. 18
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Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante, Op. 22
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Prelude in E-flat, Op. 28, No. 19
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Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 55, No. 2
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Jan Ladislav Dussek
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Piano Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 44 ("The Farewell")
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Antonín Dvořák
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String Quartet Op. 51
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String Quintet Op. 97
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Edward Elgar
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Variations on an Original Theme, Variation IX "Nimrod"
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Joseph Haydn
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String Quartet Op. 33, No. 2, "The Joke"
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Piano Sonata in E-flat, No. 59, Hob.XVI/49
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Piano Sonata in E-flat, No. 62, Hob XVI/52
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Franz Liszt
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Piano Concerto No. 1, S.124
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Transcendental Étude No. 7 "Eroica"
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Gustav Mahler
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Symphony No. 8, "The Symphony of a Thousand"
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Felix Mendelssohn
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Sonata for clarinet and piano
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Octet, Op. 20
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String Quartet (unnumbered)
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String Quartet No. 5 Op. 44, No. 3
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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K. 16
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Serenade for winds, K. 375
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Piano Concerto No. 9, K. 271 "Jeunehomme"
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Piano Concerto No. 10 for two pianos, K. 365/316a
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Piano Concerto No. 14, K. 449
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Piano Concerto No. 22, K. 482
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Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, K. 364/320d
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Symphony No. 39, K. 543
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Piano Sonata, K. 282 (189g)
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Divertimento for String Trio, K. 563
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Kegelstatt Trio
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Piano Quartet, K. 493
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Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452
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String Quintet, K. 614
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Horn Quintet, K. 407 (386c)
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Horn Concerto, K. 417
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Horn Concerto, K. 447
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Horn Concerto, K. 495
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Camille Saint-Saëns
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Sonata for clarinet and piano, Op. 167
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Franz Schubert
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Impromptu in E-flat, Op. 90, No. 2
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Piano Trio No. 2
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Mass in E-flat major, D. 950
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Robert Schumann
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Symphony No. 3, Op. 97 "Rhenish"
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Piano Quintet, Op. 44
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Piano Quartet Op. 47
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Dmitri Shostakovich
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Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 107
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Symphony No. 3, Op. 20
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Symphony No. 9, Op. 70
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Jean Sibelius
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John Philip Sousa
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The Stars and Stripes Forever
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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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Richard Wagner
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Carl Maria von Weber
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Grand Duo Concertant, Op. 48
Notes
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