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November 1

Works in D-sharp minor?

I have been wondering where I could find a complete list of pieces in D-sharp minor. No one seems to like this key very much (E-flat minor is way more common, maybe because it doesn't need diatonic double-sharps and yet has a similarly complicated key signature), so I'd think it would not be too hard to compile such a thing; but I can't find anyone who's done it. This nice site has such lists for the seven-accidental keys, but not the six-accidental ones. Double sharp (talk) 21:21, 1 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. The few examples I know: a Scriabin etude (Op. 8/12), three pieces from the WTC (WTC I, Fugue 8; WTC II, Prelude and Fugue 8), and the 2nd movement of Alkan's Grande Sonate Op. 33 (Quasi-Faust, although it ends in the relative major F-sharp). Double sharp (talk) 23:48, 1 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

IMSLP fortunately categorises its works by key (inter alia), and here's it's list of D-sharp minor pieces. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 00:02, 2 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@JackofOz: Thank you, this is wonderful! I suspected there weren't many (although one composer listed there seems to like the key a lot), but it's good to see there were more than I knew. BTW, there is one I knew before that I forgot to mention: Lyapunov's Transcendental Etude No. 2 (Ronde des fantômes). I guess things like this and the three I mentioned above would be missed as they are really part of collections (or in the Alkan case, an individual sonata movement). Double sharp (talk) 00:06, 2 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Also, take a look at Music written in all major and/or minor keys. My note in the Keys section lower down says:

Most composers of sets of 24 pieces have chosen E♭ minor over D♯ minor. Bach, Lyapunov and Ponce used D♯, but most composers have preferred E♭. The first use of D♯ minor was in Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, in Fugue No. 8 from Book 1 (although its corresponding Prelude was written in E♭ minor), while D♯ minor was used for both the Prelude and the Fugue in Book 2. Another is in Lyapunov's Étude d'execution transcendante No. 2, subtitled "Ronde des Fantômes".

I may well have missed some more, so maybe a trawl though might produce some more. For ex, I just discovered I'd missed Bartolomeo Campagnoli in the above note, but it wasn't meant to be exhaustive. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 00:22, 2 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@JackofOz: Again, thank you! Double sharp (talk) 00:50, 3 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I should note as a side-bar, that there is only a problem scoring works in D# minor using traditional musical notation, because of the quirks of the system. Composing works in D# minor, in the sense of creating a piece of music using the notes of that key, is exactly as hard (or easy) as creating works of music in any key. It's still just 12 notes across some number of octaves that are in your palette, and the piece of music is no more or less difficult to compose or perform (so long as it fits in the range of the instruments in question). The problem only comes in notating and sight reading the work, which may be why composers have avoided it. --Jayron 32 16:45, 4 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There are plenty of pieces in C-sharp major (7 sharps), even though its enharmonic equivalent D-flat major has only 5 flats. So the number of accidentals doesn't seem to be a big problem in this case. Yet C-sharp major's relative minor key, A-sharp minor is all but unknown. Most composers prefer B-flat minor (5 flats). I've never understood why C-sharp major with its 7 sharps is welcome to the family of keys but A-sharp minor with its 7 sharps is not. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:18, 4 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@JackofOz: I don't know of any source explaining it either for these keys. I do recall that relationships to the parallel key has been mentioned with respect to the F♯ vs G♭ question in Hugh Macdonald's essay [G-flat major, 9/8 time]: he notes that it may have impacted Bach's decision to pick C♯ over D♭ for the WTC. So it might be a reason. Double sharp (talk) 10:37, 5 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]