G major

G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F♯. Its key signature has one sharp, F♯.

G major's relative minor is E minor, and its parallel minor is G minor.

For orchestral works in G major, the timpani are typically set to G and D, a fifth apart, rather than a fourth apart as for most other keys.

Notable compositions

Baroque period

Classical era

G-flat major

G-flat major is a major scale based on G-flat, consisting of the pitches G♭, A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, and F. Its key signature has six flats.

Its relative minor is E-flat minor. Its parallel minor is G-flat minor, usually replaced by F-sharp minor, since G-flat minor's two double-flats make it generally impractical to use.

Its direct enharmonic equivalent is F-sharp major, a key signature with six sharps.

Rarely chosen as the main key for orchestral works, G-flat major is more often used as a main key for piano works, such as the impromptus of Chopin and Schubert. It is the predominant key of Maurice Ravel's Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet.

A striking use of G-flat major can be found in the love duet "Tu l'as dit" that concludes the fourth act of Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Les Huguenots.

Austrian composer Gustav Mahler was fond of using G-flat major in key passages of his symphonies; examples include: The choral entry during the finale of his Second Symphony, during the first movement of his Third Symphony, the modulatory section of the Adagietto from his Fifth Symphony, and during the Rondo-Finale of his Seventh Symphony. Mahler's Tenth Symphony was composed in the enharmonic key of F-sharp major.

G-sharp major

G-sharp major is a theoretical key based on the musical note G-sharp, consisting of the pitches G♯, A♯, B♯, C♯, D♯, E♯ and F. Its key signature has six sharps and one double sharp.

For clarity and simplicity, G-sharp major is usually notated as its enharmonic equivalent of A-flat major. However, it does appear as a secondary key area in several works in sharp keys - most notably in the Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp major from Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. The G-sharp minor prelude (and, in some editions, the fugue) from the same set ends with a Picardy third, on a G-sharp major chord.

G-sharp major is tonicised briefly in several of Frédéric Chopin's nocturnes in C-sharp minor. A section in the second movement of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 is in G-sharp major, although the key signature has 4 sharps. The end of the exposition of the second movement Charles-Valentin Alkan's Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges', subtitled Quasi-Faust, is in G-sharp major, albeit written with a six-sharp key signature (the movement opens in D-sharp minor and ends in F-sharp major).