C SHARP MINOR

: ''Also see: C-sharp major, or C minor.''
'C-sharp minor' is a minor scale based on C-sharp, with the pitches C-sharp, D-sharp, E, F-sharp, G-sharp, A, B and C-sharp (natural minor scale). Its key signature consists of four sharps (''see below:'' Scales and keys).
Its relative major is E major, and its parallel major is C sharp major. The note 'C-sharp' is a half-tone between C & D.
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Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary.
There are only two known symphonies in the 18th Century written in this key. One of them is by Joseph Martin Kraus, but he appears to have found the key difficult since he later rewrote it in C minor. Even in the following two centuries C-sharp minor symphonies remained rare. Two notable examples are Mahler's Symphony No. 5 and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 7. Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 2 is also in C-sharp minor.
This key occurs more often in piano literature, however, from the 18th Century onwards. Domenico Scarlatti wrote just two keyboard sonatas in C-sharp minor, K. 246 and K. 247. But after Beethoven's ''Moonlight Sonata'', the key became more frequent in the piano repertoire.

Contents

Well-known classical compositions in this key

Well-known contemporary music in this key

Scales and keys

Well-known classical compositions in this key

★ Frederic Chopin - Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39; Waltz, Op.64, No.2; Prelude, Op. 45; Fantasie-Impromptu, Op. 66, Étude Op. 10, No. 4

★ Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 14, Op.27, No. 2 ''Moonlight''; also String Quartet No. 14, op. 131

★ Franz Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

★ Sergei Rachmaninoff - Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2

★ Gustav Mahler - first movement of Symphony No. 5

★ Hans Pfitzner - String Quartet No. 2 Op. 36 (1925) (and Symphony in C sharp Minor, an arrangement of the Quartet)

★ Sergei Prokofiev - Symphony No. 7, Op.131

★ Ture Rangström - Symphony No. 1 "August Strindberg in memoriam" (1914)

★ Emil von Reznicek - String Quartet No. 1 (written by 1921)

★ Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Piano Concerto Op. 30

★ Felix Draeseke - String Quartet No. 3 in C sharp minor Op. 66 (1895)

★ Robert Fuchs - Terzetto for two violins and viola in C sharp minor Op. 107

★ Philipp Scharwenka - Piano Trio in C sharp minor Op. 100 ([1])

★ Xaver Scharwenka - Piano Concerto No. 3 in C sharp minor Op. 80

★ Dmitri Shostakovich - Violin Concerto No. 2

★ Louis Vierne - Messe Solennelle (Opus 16) - SATB and Two Organs

Well-known contemporary music in this key

★ ''All Along the Watchtower'' - Bob Dylan

★ ''All That She Wants'' - Ace of Base

★ ''Barbie Girl'' - Aqua

★ ''California Dreamin''' - The Mamas and the Papas

★ ''Echoes'' - Pink Floyd

★ ''Everybody Knows'' - Leonard Cohen

★ ''Got My Mind Set On You'' - George Harrison

★ ''Livin' La Vida Loca'' - Ricky Martin

★ ''Mercy Street'' - Peter Gabriel

★ ''Message in a Bottle'' - The Police

★ ''More Human Than Human'' - White Zombie

★ ''Oops I Did It Again'' - Britney Spears

★ ''Sappy'' - Nirvana

★ ''Sludge Factory'' - Alice in Chains

★ ''Thriller'' - Michael Jackson

★ ''Crawling'' - Linkin Park

Scales and keys