D minor
 |
|
| Relative key | F major |
|---|---|
| Parallel key | D major |
| Dominant key | A minor |
| Subdominant | G minor |
| Component pitches | |
| D, E, F, G, A, B♭, C, D | |
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B♭, and C. In the harmonic minor, the C is raised to C♯. Its key signature has one flat (see below: Scales and keys).
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 scale variations require the addition of a written sharp; the other is G minor.
Of Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas, 151 are in minor keys, and with 32 sonatas, D minor is the most often chosen minor key.
Nigel Tufnel, one of the members of the musical spoof megagroup Spinal Tap, speaks of "a musical trilogy I'm working on in D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why."
J. S. Bach's entire 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), and cites Mozart's chromatic fugue in D minor. Mozart's Requiem is also written primarily in D minor, as is the aria "Der Hölle Rache". 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. The tonality of D minor held special significance for Helene and Alban Berg.
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