[Smt-talk] F SHARP MAJOR

[Donna Doyle]

Dear Steve,

Notice that most of your list's pieces are for keyboard. Take a look at your hand, place it outstretched on a keyboard and observe where your fingers rest. F#M/GbM are the most comfortable keys for pianists--long fingers on the black keys, short finger(s) on the white. 19th c pianist-composers experienced this. A story goes that when Schubert submitted his GbM Moment Musical for publication, the publisher took away the flats to sell more copies and ended up with left-over inventory. Also, who was the American songwriter who played everything in C#M on a transposing keyboard? Why not CM? Lastly, one need only observe a good church organist to know that just about anything can be managed on the keyboard by skillful hands (hence the WTC).  

Best regards,
Donna Doyle

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Aaron Copland School of Music
Queens College
Flushing, New York 11367

> On May 18, 2014, at 10:38 PM, Stephen Jablonsky <jablonsky at optimum.net> wrote:
> 
> I know that many of our members in academe are preparing for the end of the school year and have little time for a dalliance with a particular key and the rest of you have busy lives as well. I, on the other hand, being a lifteime composer, have a mild case of OCD and could not let go of this inquiry into the frequency of usage of F sharp major. A cursory search of the Internet, and some help from friends, has produced what may be the first definitive list of works in this very rare key. Obviously, the list does not include works that attempt to do things in every key. G flat major is another story for another day.
> 
> Beethoven                   Sonata No. 24, op.78
> 
> Chopin                        Nocturne op. 15, No. 2; Barcarole, op. 60; Impromptu, op. 36
> 
> Dvorak                        Humoresque, B. 138 (op. 32)
> 
> Huré                           Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 3
> 
> Korngold                     Symphony, op. 40
> 
> Liszt                            “Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude” from Harmonies poetique et religieuses, III
> 
> Mahler                        Symphony No. 10
> 
> Scarlatti                      Sonatas, K. 318 and 319
> 
> Schumann                  Romance, op. 28, No. 2
> 
> Scriabin                      Sonata No. 4, op. 30; Poeme, op. 32. No. 1
> 
> Soler                           Sonata, Rubio 90
> 
> 
> 
> Dr. Stephen Jablonsky, Ph.D.
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