Key Signature - Wikipedia

Key signature - Wikipedia
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_signature
Key signature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), and
rarely, natural () symbols placed together on the staff. Key signatures are
generally written immediately after the clef at the beginning of a line of
musical notation, although they can appear in other parts of a score,
notably after a double barline.
A key signature designates notes that are to be played higher or lower
than the corresponding natural notes and applies through to the end of the
Key signature A major
piece or up to the next key signature. A sharp symbol on a line or space in
/ F minor with three
the key signature raises the notes on that line or space one semitone
above the natural, and a flat lowers such notes one semitone. Further, a
sharps placed after the
symbol in the key signature affects all the notes of one letter: for instance,
clef.
a sharp on the top line of the treble staff applies to Fs not only on that
line, but also to Fs in the bottom space of the staff, and to any other Fs.
This convention was not universal until the late Baroque and early Classical period, however;
music published in the 1720s and 1730s, for example, uses key signatures showing sharps or flats
on both octaves for notes which fall within the staff.
An accidental is an exception to the key signature, applying only in the measure in which it
appears.
Although a key signature may be written using any combination of sharp and flat symbols, fifteen
diatonic key signatures are by far the most common, and their use is assumed in much of this
article. A piece scored using a single diatonic key signature and no accidentals contains notes of at
most seven of the twelve pitch classes, which seven being determined by the particular key
signature.
Each major and minor key has an associated key signature that sharpens or flattens the notes which
are used in its scale. However, it is not uncommon for a piece to be written with a key signature that
does not match its key, for example, in some Baroque pieces,[1] or in transcriptions of traditional
modal folk tunes.[2]
Later on, this use of a key signature that is theoretically incorrect for a piece as a whole or a
self-contained section of a piece became less common (in contrast to brief passages within a piece,
which, as they modulate from key to key often temporarily disagree with the key signature); but it
can be found at least as late as one of Beethoven's very late piano sonatas. For example, in his
Sonata No. 31 in A major, Op. 110, the first appearance of the Arioso section in the final
movement is notated throughout in six flats; but it both begins and ends in A minor and has a
significant modulation to C major, and both these keys theoretically require seven flats in their key
signature. (The second appearance later in the movement of this same section, a semitone lower, in
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G minor, uses the correct key signature of two flats.)
Contents
1 Conventions
1.1 Notational conventions
1.2 Variants of standard conventions
2 Major scale structure
2.1 Scales with sharp key signatures
2.2 Scales with flat key signatures
3 Relationship between key signature and key
3.1 Additional terminology
4 Exceptions
4.1 Unusual signatures
5 History
6 Table
7 See also
8 References
Conventions
In principle, any piece can be written with any key signature, using
accidentals to correct the pattern of whole and half steps. The
purpose of the key signature is to minimize the number of such
accidentals required to notate the music. The sequence of sharps or
flats in key signatures is generally rigid in modern music notation.
This allows musicians to identify the key simply by the number of
sharps or flats (which is the same in any clef), rather than their
position on the staff. For example, if a key signature has only one
sharp, it must be an F sharp.[3]
(1) B major scale: no key

signature; accidentals required
throughout
However, in 20th-century music, there are occasional exceptions to

(2) B major scale: key
this, where a piece uses an unorthodox or synthetic scale, where a
signature; accidentals not
key signature may be invented to reflect this. This may consist of a
needed
number of sharps or flats that are not the normal ones (such as a
signature of just C or E), or it may consist of one or more sharps
combined with one or more flats (such as a signature containing both F and B). Key signatures of
this kind can be found in the music of Bla Bartk, for example.
The effect of a key signature continues throughout a piece or movement, unless explicitly cancelled
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by another key signature. For example, if a five-sharp key signature is placed at the beginning of a
piece, every A in the piece in any octave will be played as A sharp, unless preceded by an
accidental (for instance, the A in scale (2) illustrated right the next-to-last note is played as an
A even though the A in the key signature (the last sharp sign) is written an octave lower).[3]
In a score containing more than one instrument, all the instruments are usually written with the
same key signature. Exceptions include:
If an instrument is a transposing instrument.
If an instrument is a percussion instrument with indeterminate pitch.
Composers usually omit the key signature for timpani parts. Besides not using a key
signature, timpani parts were early on also treated often as transposing instrument parts, the
pitch of the high drum being written as C and, as timpani were almost always tuned a 4th
apart, dominant on the low drum and tonic on the high drum, the pitch of the low drum being
written as G, with the actual pitch indicated at the beginning of the part, e.g. timpani in DA,
if they were tuned A (low drum) and D (high drum).
Composers may omit the key signature for horn and occasionally trumpet parts. This is
perhaps reminiscent of the early days of brass instruments, when crooks would be added to
them, in order to change the length of the tubing and allow playing in different keys.
On occasion, in more modern works, instruments may be notated in different keys even when
they are not transposing instruments, because the music is polytonal and the different parts are
actually in different keys which sound together.
Notational conventions
The convention for the notation of key signatures follows the circle of fifths. Starting from C major
(or equivalently A minor) which has no sharps or flats, successively raising the key by a fifth adds
a sharp, going clockwise round the circle of fifths. The new sharp is placed on the new key's
leading note (seventh degree) for major keys or supertonic (second degree) for minor keys. Thus G
major (E minor) has one sharp which is on the F; then D major (B minor) has two sharps (on F and
C) and so on.
Similarly successively lowering the key by a fifth adds a flat, going counter-clockwise round the
circle of fifths. The new flat is placed on the subdominant (fourth degree) for major keys or
submediant (sixth degree) for minor keys. Thus F major (D minor) has one flat which is on the B;
then B major (G minor) has two flats (on B and E) and so on.
Put another way: for key signatures with sharps, the first sharp is placed on F line with subsequent
sharps on C, G, D, A, E and B; for key signatures with flats, the first flat is placed on B with
subsequent flats on E, A, D, G, C and F. There are thus 15 conventional key signatures, with up to
seven sharps or flats and including the empty signature of C major (A minor).
Corollaries:
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Starting from a key with flats in

its key signature: raising by fifths
successively reduces the flats to
zero at C major (A minor).
Further such raising adds sharps
as described above.
Starting from a key with sharps:
lowering by fifths successively
reduces those sharps to zero.
Further such lowering adds flats
as described above.
When the process of raising by a
fifth (adding a sharp) produces
more than five or six sharps,
successive such raising generally
involves changing to the
enharmonic equivalent key using
a flat-based signature. Typically
this is at F = G, but may also
be at C = D or B = C. The
same principle applies to the
process of successive lowering
by a fifth.
Circle of fifths showing major and minor keys and their

signatures
The relative minor is a minor third down from the major, regardless of whether it is a flat or a sharp
key signature.
The key signatures with seven flats () and seven sharps () are rarely used because they have
simpler enharmonic equivalents. For example, the key of C major (seven sharps) is more simply
represented as D major (five flats). For modern practical purposes these keys are (in twelve tone
equal temperament) the same, because C and D are enharmonically the same note. Pieces are
written in these extreme sharp or flat keys, however: for example, Bach's Prelude and Fugue No. 3
from Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier BWV 848 is in C major. The modern musical
Seussical by Flaherty and Ahrens also has several songs written in these extreme keys.
The key signature may be changed at any time in a piece, usually at the beginning of a measure,
simply by notating the new signature, although if the new signature has no sharps or flats, a
signature of naturals, as shown, is needed to cancel the preceding signature. If a change in signature
occurs at the start of a new line on the page, where a signature would normally appear anyway, the
new signature is customarily repeated at the end of the previous line to make the change more
conspicuous.
Variants of standard conventions
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In strictly correct, traditional use, when the key signature

change goes from sharps to flats or vice versa, the old key
signature should be cancelled with the appropriate number of
naturals before the new one is inserted; but many more recent
publications (whether of newer music or newer editions of older
music) dispense with the naturals and simply insert the new
signature.
'Natural key signature': a key

signature with seven naturals ()
used to cancel the seven sharps
() of the previous signature.
Similarly, when a signature with either flats or sharps in it

changes to a smaller signature of the same type, strict
application of tradition or convention would require that naturals first be used to cancel just those
flats or sharps that are being subtracted in the new signature before the new signature itself is
written; but, again, more modern usage often dispenses with these naturals.
When the signature changes from a smaller to a larger signature of the same type, the new signature
is simply written in by itself, in both traditional and newer styles.
At one time it was usual to precede the new signature with a double barline (provided the change
occurred between bars and not inside a bar), even if it was not required by the structure of the
music to mark sections within the movement; but more recently it has increasingly become usual to
use just a single barline. The courtesy signature that appears at the end of a line immediately before
a change is usually preceded by an additional barline; often the line at the very end of the staff is
omitted in this case.
If both naturals and a new key signature appear at a key signature change, there are also more
recently variations about where a barline will be placed (in the case where the change occurs
between bars). For example, in some scores by Debussy, in this situation the barline is placed after
the naturals but before the new key signature. Hitherto, it would have been more usual to place all
the symbols after the barline.
In key signatures of five or more sharps or of seven flats, one occasionally encounters variant
positions of particular symbols in the key signatures, both of them in the bass clef.
The A which is the fifth sharp in the sharp signatures may occasionally be notated on the top line
of the bass staff, whereas it is more usually found in the lowest space on that staff. An example of
this can be seen in the full score of Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome, in the third section, "Pines
of the Janiculum" (which is in B major), in the bass-clef instrumental parts.
In the case of seven-flat key signatures, the final F may occasionally be seen on the second-top
line of the bass staff, whereas it would more usually appear below the bottom line. An example of
this can be seen in Isaac Albniz's Iberia: first movement, "Evocacin", which is in A minor.
Major scale structure
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Except for C major, key signatures appear in two varieties, "sharp key signatures" ("sharp keys")
and "flat key signatures" ("flat keys"), so called because they contain only one or other.[4]
Scales with sharp key signatures

Sharp key signatures consist of a number of sharps between one and seven, applied in this order:
F C G D A E B (or Five Cowboys Got Drunk At Eddie's Bar/Funny Chuck Got Down And
Energetically Boogied).[5][6] A mnemonic device often used to remember this is "Father Charles
Goes Down And Ends Battle."[4] The key note or tonic of a piece in a major key is immediately
above the last sharp in the signature.[7] For example, one sharp (F) in the key signature of a piece
in a major key indicates the key of G major, the next note above F. (Six sharps, the last one being
E (an enharmonic spelling of F) indicate the key of F major, since F has already been sharped in
the key signature.)
Major key
Number
of sharps
C major
G major
D major
Sharp notes
minor key
Enharmonic
Equivalent
A minor
None
E minor
None
F, C
B minor
None
A major
F, C, G
F minor
None
E major
F, C, G, D
C minor
None
B major
F, C, G, D, A
G minor
C major/A minor
F major
F, C, G, D, A, E
D minor
G major/E minor
C major
F, C, G, D, A, E, B A minor
D major/B minor
This table shows that each scale starting on the fifth scale degree of the previous scale has one new
sharp, added in the order given above.[6]
Scales with flat key signatures

"Flat key signatures" consist of one to seven flats, applied as: B E A D G C F[5][6] (same as the
order of sharps, but reversed, or Better Eat A Darn Good Chicken Fajita.) The mnemonic device is
then reversed for use in the flat keys: "Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father".[4] The major
scale with one flat is F major. In all other "flat major scales", the tonic or key note of a piece in a
major key is four notes below the last flat, which is the same as the second-to-last flat in the
signature.[7] In the major key with four flats (B E A D), for example, the penultimate flat is A,
indicating a key of A major.
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Major key
Number
of flats
C major
F major
B major
Flat notes
Minor key
Enharmonic
equivalent
A minor
None
D minor
None
B, E
G minor
None
E major
B, E, A
C minor
None
A major
B, E, A, D
F minor
None
D major
B, E, A, D, G
B minor
C major/A minor
G major
B, E, A, D, G, C
E minor
F major/D minor
C major
B, E, A, D, G, C, F A minor
B major/G minor
In this case each new scale starts a fifth below (or a fourth above) the previous one.
Relationship between key signature and key

A key signature is not the same as a key; key signatures are merely notational devices. They are
convenient principally for diatonic or tonal music.
The key signature defines the diatonic scale that a piece of music uses without the need for
accidentals. Most scales require that some notes be consistently sharped or flatted. For example, the
only sharp in the G major scale is F sharp, so the key signature associated with the G major key is
the one-sharp key signature. However, it is only a notational convenience; a piece with a one-sharp
key signature is not necessarily in the key of G major, and likewise, a piece in G major may not
always be written with a one-sharp key signature; this is particularly true in pre-Baroque music,
when the concept of key had not yet evolved to its present state.
In any case, more extensive pieces often change key (modulate) during contrasting sections, and
only sometimes is this change indicated with a change of key signature; if not, the passage in the
second key will not have a matching key signature.
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor,
BWV 538 by Bach has no key
signature, leading it to be called the
Dorian, but it is still in D minor; the
Bs that occur in the piece are written
with accidentals.
Additional terminology
Bach Cantata 106 is almost entirely in E major, but has only

two flats, not three, in the key signature Play
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Keys which are associated with the same key signature are called relative keys.
When musical modes, such as Lydian or Dorian, are written using key signatures, they are called
transposed modes.
Exceptions
Exceptions to common-practice-period use may be found in
Klezmer scales, such as Freygish (Phrygian). In the 20th
century, composers such as Bartk and Rzewski (see below)
began experimenting with unusual key signatures that departed
from the standard order.
D Freygish scale rendered by

NoteWorthy Composer. Play
Because of the limitations of the traditional highland bagpipe scale, key signatures are often
omitted from written pipe music, which otherwise would be written with two sharps, the usual F
and C.[8]
Unusual signatures
The above key signatures only express diatonic scales and are therefore sometimes called standard
key signatures. Other scales are written either with a standard key signature and use accidentals as
required, or with a non-standard key signature. Examples of the latter include the E (right hand),
and F and G (left hand) used for the E diminished (E octatonic) scale in Bartk's Crossed
Hands (no. 99, vol. 4, Mikrokosmos), or the B, E and F used for the D Phrygian dominant scale
in Frederic Rzewski's God to a Hungry Child.
The absence of a key signature does not always mean that the music is in the key of C major / A
minor as each accidental may be notated explicitly as required, or the piece may be modal or
atonal.
The common-practice-period conventions are so firmly established that some musical notation
programs have been unable to show non-standard key signatures until recently.[9]
History
The use of a one-flat signature developed in the Medieval period, but signatures with more than one
flat did not appear until the 16th century, and signatures with sharps not until the mid-17th
century.[10]
When signatures with multiple flats first came in, the order of the flats was not standardized, and
often a flat appeared in two different octaves, as shown at right. In the late 15th and early 16th
centuries, it was common for different voice parts in the same composition to have different
signatures, a situation called a partial signature or conflicting signature. This was actually more
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common than complete signatures in the 15th century.[11] The 16th-century

motet Absolon fili mi attributed to Josquin des Prez features two voice parts with
two flats, one part with three flats, and one part with four flats.
Baroque music written in minor keys often was written with a key signature with
fewer flats than we now associate with their keys; for example, movements in C
minor often had only two flats (because the A would frequently have to be
sharpened to A in the ascending melodic minor scale, as would the B).
Table
Key signature Major key Minor key
C major
no sharps or flats
A minor
Variant key
signatures in a
Victoria
motet. In the
superius
(soprano) part
the E appears
first, and in
two other
parts a flat
occurs in two
octaves.
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Key
signature
Added Major Minor

key
key
Key
signature
G
E
major minor
1 sharp
Added Major Minor

key
key
F
D
major minor
G
B
major minor
C
E
major minor
F
A
major minor
D
B
major minor
G
E
major minor
C
A
major minor
1 flat
D
B
major minor
2 sharps
2 flats
A
F
major minor
3 sharps
3 flats
E
C
major minor
4 sharps
4 flats
B
G
major minor
5 sharps
5 flats
F
D
major minor
6 sharps
6 flats
C
A
major minor
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7 sharps
7 flats
See also
Key signature names and translations
Major and minor
Parallel key
Relative key
Theoretical key
Universal key
References
1. Schulenberg, David. Music of the Baroque. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. p. 72.
(https://books.google.com/books?id=P4x3aKvOQWAC&pg=PA72&
vq=%22the+key+of+a+baroque+work%22&source=gbs_search_r&cad=1_1&
sig=ACfU3U3x7lhOyyIiT-O_HsTZlZxw8FrkSA). "() to determine the key of a Baroque work one
must always analyze its tonal structure rather than rely on the key signature."
2. Cooper, David. The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland. Cork: Cork University Press,
2005. p. 22 (https://books.google.com/books?id=PzrfncNnr4cC&pg=PA25IA13&vq=%22In+a+few+cases+Petrie+has+given+what+is+clearly+a+modal+melody+a+key+signatur
e+which+suggests+that+it+is+actally+in+a+minor+key%22&source=gbs_search_r&cad=1_1&
sig=ACfU3U0BqVPTuQnnaH32iLpCvrYnyT143Q). "In a few cases Petrie has given what is clearly a
modal melody a key signature which suggests that it is actually in a minor key. For example, Banish
Misfortune is presented in D minor, although it is clearly in the Dorian mode."
3. |url=http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-read-key-signatures.html |title=How to Read Key
Signatures|accessdate=29 January 2014
4. Schonbrun, Marc (2005). The Everything Music Theory Book, p.68. ISBN 1-59337-652-9.
5. Bower, Michael. 2007. "All about Key Signatures (http://www.empire.k12.ca.us/capistrano
/Mike/capmusic/Key%20Signatures/key_signatures.htm)". Modesto, CA: Capistrano School (K12)
website. (Accessed 17 March 2010).
6. Jones, George Thaddeus. 1974. Music Theory: The Fundamental Concepts of Tonal Music Including
Notation, Terminology, and Harmony, p.35. Barnes & Noble Outline Series 137. New York,
Hagerstown, San Francisco, London: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 9780064601375.
7. Kennedy, Michael. 1994. "Key-Signature". Oxford Dictionary of Music, second edition, associate editor,
Joyce Bourne. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869162-9.
8. Nienhuys, Han-Wen; Nieuwenhuizen, Jan (2009). "GNU LilyPond Notation Reference". 2.6.2
Bagpipes. Retrieved 2010-03-28. "Bagpipe music nominally uses the key of D Major (even though that
isnt really true). However, since that is the only key that can be used, the key signature is normally not
written out."
9. One of the most popular musical notation programs, Finale, has only included the option to create a
non-standard key signature since their 2009 version: Finale 2009 User Manual for Windows.
"Non-Standard Key Signature." http://www.finalemusic.com/UserManuals/Finale2009Win/Finale.htm
(accessed February 17, 2011).
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10. "Key Signature", Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed.

11. "Partial Signature", Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Key_signature&oldid=757007547"

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