E-flat major

E-flat major

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E♭ major

Relative key	C minor
Parallel key	E♭ minor
Dominant key	B♭ major
Subdominant	A♭ major
Component pitches
E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D, E♭

The E♭ (E-flat) major scale consists of the pitches E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats: B, E, A.

Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E♭ minor.

E-flat major is often associated with bold, heroic music, in part because of Beethoven's usage. His Eroica Symphony, Emperor Concerto and Grand Sonata are all in this key. Also Beethoven's (hypothetical) 10th symphony is in the key of E-flat major. But even before Beethoven, Francesco Galeazzi identified E-flat major as "a heroic key, extremely majestic, grave and serious: in all these features it is superior to that of C."^[1]

Thus, three of Mozart's completed horn concerti and Joseph Haydn's famous Trumpet Concerto are in E-flat major, and so is Anton Bruckner's Fourth Symphony with its prominent horn theme in the first movement. Another famous heroic piece in the key of E-flat major is Richard Strauss's A Hero's Life. The heroic theme from the Jupiter movement of Holst's The Planets is in E-flat major. Mahler's vast and heroic Eighth Symphony is in E-flat, and his Second Symphony also ends in the key.

Ascending and descending E-flat major scale

	Ascending and descending scale in E-flat major
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This is not to say that in the Classical period E-flat major was only for bombastic music with brass. "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."^[2] Or "when composing church music and operatic music in E‑flat major, [Joseph] Haydn often substituted cors anglais for oboes in this period," and also in the Symphony No. 22 in E-flat major.^[3]

For Mozart, E-flat major was associated with Freemasonry, "E-flat evoked stateliness and an almost religious character."^[4]

Well-known compositions in this key See also:

 

List of symphonies in E-flat major

• Isaac Albéniz
  • Eritaña from Iberia
• Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Cello Suite No. 4, BWV 1010
• Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Septet for Strings and Woodwinds, Op. 20
  • Symphony No. 3, Op. 55 "Eroica"
  • Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73 "Emperor"
  • Piano Sonata No. 4, Op. 7 "Grand Sonata"
  • Piano Sonata No. 26, Op. 81a "Les Adieux"
• Max Bruch
  • Scottish Fantasy in E-flat major, Op. 46
• Anton Bruckner
  • Symphony No. 4, WAB 104 "Romantic"
• Frédéric Chopin
  • Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2
  • Grande valse brillante, Op. 18
  • Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante, Op. 22
  • Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 55 No. 2
• Joseph Haydn
  • String Quartet Op. 33 No. 2, "The Joke"
  • Symphony No. 22, Hob.I:22 "Philosopher"
  • Symphony No. 103, Hob.I:103 "Drumroll"
  • Trumpet Concerto, Hob.VIIe:1
• Niccolò Jommelli
  • Requiem (1756)
• Gustav Mahler
  • Symphony No. 8, "The Symphony of a Thousand"
• Felix Mendelssohn
  • Octet, Op. 20
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Overture to The Magic Flute, K. 620
  • Piano Concerto No. 9, K. 271 "Jeunehomme"
  • Piano Concerto No. 10 for two pianos, K. 365/316a
  • Piano Concerto No. 22, K. 482
  • Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, K. 364/320d
  • Sinfonia Concertante for oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, K. 297b (spurious)
  • Symphony No. 39, K. 543
• Modest Mussorgsky
  • The Great Gate of Kiev (Final movement of Pictures at an Exhibition)
• Franz Liszt
  • Piano Concerto No. 1, S.124
• Robert Schumann
  • Symphony No. 3, Op. 97 "Rhenish"
• Dmitri Shostakovich
  • Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 107
  • Symphony No. 9, Op. 70
• Jean Sibelius
  • Symphony No. 5, Op. 82
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  • 1812 Overture, Op. 49
• Vangelis
  • Hymne
• Richard Wagner
  • Prelude to Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)