A-flat minor

A-flat minor

Relative key	C-flat major
Parallel key	A-flat major
Dominant key	E-flat minor
Subdominant key	D-flat minor →enharmonic: C-sharp minor
Enharmonic key	G-sharp minor
Component pitches
A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, G♭

A-flat minor is a minor scale based on A♭, consisting of the pitches A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, and G♭. Its key signature has seven flats. Its relative major is C-flat major (or enharmonically B major), its parallel major is A-flat major, and its enharmonic equivalent is G-sharp minor.

The A-flat natural minor scale is:

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

The scale degree chords of A-flat minor are:

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

Although A-flat minor occurs in modulation in works in other keys, it is only rarely used as the principal key of a piece of music. Some well-known uses of the key in classical and romantic music include:

• The Funeral March in Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 12, Op. 26.
• An early section of the last movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 31, Op. 110 (although the key signature of this section uses only 6 flats, not 7).
• The second Trio in Franz Schubert's Klavierstücke in E-flat major for Piano, D946/2.
• Schubert's Impromptu in A♭ major actually begins in A♭ minor, though this is written as A♭ major with accidentals.
• The second movement of Ferdinand Ries' Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra in E-flat Major, also written as A♭ major with accidentals.
• The first piece "Aime-moi" ("Love me") from Charles-Valentin Alkan's Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique
• Max Bruch's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 88a, although the piece ends in A-flat Major.
• The Evocación from Book I of Isaac Albéniz's Iberia.
• Isaac Albéniz's La Vega.
• Etude No.13 in Moritz Moszkowski's Études de Virtuosité, Op. 72, although it ends in A-flat major.
• Leoš Janáček uses it for his Violin Sonata and the organ solo of his Glagolitic Mass.
• The opening of Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird.
• Franz Liszt's original version of "La campanella" from Grandes études de Paganini, which was subsequently rewritten in G-sharp minor.
• In Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony, there is a particularly aggressive restatement of the introduction of the third movement in A-flat minor.¹
• The first movement of Charles Koechlin's Partita for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 205, is in A-flat minor, and the earlier A-flat-minor portion is written with a 7-flat key signature, but the later A-flat-minor portion is written without any key signature, and uses the necessary flats as accidentals.²
• It is also used in Frederick Loewe's score to the 1956 musical play My Fair Lady; the Second Servants' Chorus is set in A-flat minor (the preceding and following choruses being a semitone lower and higher respectively).
• Antonín Dvořák's String Quartet No. 14, Op. 105, opens in A-flat minor.

More often, pieces in a minor mode that have A-flat's pitch as tonic are notated in the enharmonic key, G-sharp minor, because that key has just five sharps as opposed to the seven flats of A-flat minor. However, there may be cases where the A flat minor key with seven flats is preferred due to the frequent use of double sharps at the heads of notes when using the G sharp minor key with five sharps.

In some scores, the A-flat minor key signature in the bass clef is written with the flat for the F on the second line from the top.^{nb 1}