D minor
Relative key F major
Parallel key D major
Dominant key
Subdominant
Notes in this scale
D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D


D minor is a minor scale based on D. Its key signature has one flat.

Its relative major is F major, and its parallel major is D major. D minor is one of the two flat-signature keys whose melodic and harmonic scales need a written sharp; the other is G minor.

Music in D minor

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Works in the classical music era and later that begin in a minor key often end in a major key, or at least on a major chord (as a picardy third), but there are a few notable examples of works in D minor ending in much sharper keys. Two symphonies that begin in D minor and end in E major are Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony and Nielsen's Symphony No. 4 (The Inextinguishable). Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, which is often performed without the finale, is another example of a symphony beginning in D minor and ending in E major. Liszt's Dante Symphony opens in D minor and ends in B major.

Similar to a D minor symphony ending in D major, a D major symphony can have for its allegro first movement a slow introduction in D minor. Joseph Haydn copied this procedure for the D major symphonies he wrote in London.[1]

J. S. Bach's entire The Art of Fugue is in D minor. According to Alfred Einstein, the history of tuning has led D minor to be associated with counterpoint and chromaticism (for example, the chromatic fourth), for example in Mozart's chromatic Fugue in D minor.[2] Mozart's Requiem is also written mainly in D minor. Of the two piano concertos that Mozart wrote in a minor key, one of them is in D minor, No. 20, K. 466. Sibelius's Violin Concerto is in D minor as is Schumann's, although many of the best-known violin concertos are written in D major.

Michael Haydn wrote only one symphony in a minor key and it is in D minor. 151 of Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are in minor keys, and 32 of these are in D minor, the most common minor key.

Since D minor is the key of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Bruckner was worried about writing his own Ninth Symphony in the same key.[3]


  1. H. C. Robbins Landon, Supplement to The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn London: Barrie & Rockliff (1961): 47 "Tonic minor Adagio introductions, especially in the key of D minor, were very popular with English composers of the year 1794"
  2. Alfred Einstein, Mozart, His Character, His Work, Chapter 10, "Mozart's Choice Of Keys" New York: Oxford University Press (1945)
  3. Hans-Hubert Schönzeler, Bruckner London: Calder & Boyars Ltd (1978): 106 - 107. According to Göllerich, he [Bruckner] made the remark: "It really annoys me that the theme of my new symphony is in D minor, because everybody will say now: 'Of course, Bruckner's Ninth must be in the same key as Beethoven's!'"

References

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  • Sherman, Charles H. Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806), a chronological thematic catalogue of his works New York: Pendragon Press, 1993.