C sharp minor

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**C♯ minor**
Relative key	E major

Parallel key	C♯ major
Component pitches
C♯, D♭, E, F♭, G♭, A, B♯, C♯

C sharp minor is a minor scale based on C sharp, consisting of the pitches C sharp, D sharp, E, F sharp, G sharp, A, B sharp and C sharp (harmonic minor scale). Its key signature consists of four sharps.

Its relative major is E major, and its parallel major is C sharp major.

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.

[edit] C sharp minor in Classical Music

Frederic Chopin - Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39; Waltz, Op.64, No.2; Prelude, Op. 45
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 - 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