Key profile · major key
F♯ Major: Scale, Key Signature and Chords
F♯ major has six sharps. Scale: F♯ G♯ A♯ B C♯ D♯ E♯. Chords, staff, sound and real-song counts: 27 of 1,462 art songs, 19th of 24 keys.
Short answer
F♯ major has six sharps (F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯). Its scale is F♯ – G♯ – A♯ – B – C♯ – D♯ – E♯. Its relative minor, D♯ minor, uses the same key signature; its parallel minor, F♯ minor, starts on the same note. It sounds the same as G♭ major, which is written with six flats. In the 1,462 art songs of the OpenScore Lieder corpus, 27 are in F♯ major (1.8% of the corpus), which makes it the 19th most common of the 24 keys.
- F♯1
- G♯2
- A♯3
- B4
- C♯5
- D♯6
- E♯7
- 6♯key signature: F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯
- 27of 1,462 Lieder songs are in F♯ major (19th of 24 keys)
- 14of 1,974 Mutopia scores (18th of 24)
Counts come from open datasets: OpenScore Lieder is a library of mostly 19th-century European art songs, so the statistics describe that repertoire (plus the Mutopia scores and the catalogues named below), not music in general. Major or minor is an estimate for the Lieder; the key signatures are read exactly. Details are under “How this was counted”.
The F♯ major scale, its notes and its chords
The major scale is built from the steps whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. In F♯ major the two half steps fall between the 3rd and 4th degrees (A♯ and B) and between the 7th and 8th degrees (E♯ and F♯); every other neighbouring pair is a whole step.
Every chord is built from the notes of the scale by stacking thirds, so the spellings follow the key signature.
| Degree | Note | Name | Chord on it | Triad notes | Seventh chord |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | F♯ | Tonic | I (F♯) | F♯ – A♯ – C♯ | F♯maj7 (F♯ – A♯ – C♯ – E♯) |
| 2 | G♯ | Supertonic | ii (G♯m) | G♯ – B – D♯ | G♯m7 (G♯ – B – D♯ – F♯) |
| 3 | A♯ | Mediant | iii (A♯m) | A♯ – C♯ – E♯ | A♯m7 (A♯ – C♯ – E♯ – G♯) |
| 4 | B | Subdominant | IV (B) | B – D♯ – F♯ | Bmaj7 (B – D♯ – F♯ – A♯) |
| 5 | C♯ | Dominant | V (C♯) | C♯ – E♯ – G♯ | C♯7 (C♯ – E♯ – G♯ – B) |
| 6 | D♯ | Submediant | vi (D♯m) | D♯ – F♯ – A♯ | D♯m7 (D♯ – F♯ – A♯ – C♯) |
| 7 | E♯ | Leading tone | vii° (E♯dim) | E♯ – G♯ – B | E♯m7♭5 (E♯ – G♯ – B – D♯) |
The key signature of F♯ major
The key signature of F♯ major is six sharps: F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯ and E♯. Sharps are added to a signature in the order F, C, G, D, A, E, B and flats in the order B, E, A, D, G, C, F; F♯ major takes the first six sharps. The same signature belongs to D♯ minor, so a piece with this signature can be in either key; the last chord and the notes the melody leans on decide which. The key signature chart shows all 15 signatures. F♯ major is the same key as G♭ major on the keyboard, written with six flats instead of six sharps.
F♯ major on the staff, and how it sounds
The staves show the scale one octave from F♯. The buttons play the scale, the tonic chord (F♯) and the cadence I–IV–V–I, which in this key is F♯ → B → C♯ → F♯. Sound is made in your browser; nothing is downloaded. Without scripts the notes are listed under each staff.
F♯ G♯ A♯ B C♯ D♯ E♯ F♯
F♯ E♯ D♯ C♯ B A♯ G♯ F♯
Tonic chord: F♯ = F♯ – A♯ – C♯. Cadence I–IV–V–I: F♯ (F♯ – A♯ – C♯) → B (B – D♯ – F♯) → C♯ (C♯ – E♯ – G♯) → F♯.
musictheoryprint.com/keys/f-sharp-major/ — F♯ major, six sharps
F♯ major in real scores
Everything below was counted from open collections of real music, not written from memory. The Lieder are the main source because their key signatures are read directly from the notation.
Art songs. The OpenScore Lieder corpus holds 1,462 songs, nearly all from the 19th century. 27 of them are in F♯ major: 1.8% of the corpus and 2.7% of the 1,006 songs estimated to be major, which makes it the 19th most common of the 24 keys by song count. The key appears under 2 spellings in the files: 14 songs are written in G♭ major (six flats), out of 27 songs with that signature; 13 songs are written in F♯ major (six sharps), out of 14 songs with that signature.
Free scores. The Mutopia Project has 1,974 scores with a readable key; 14 are in F♯ major (0.7%, 18th of 24 keys).
Keys are merged by sound, so F♯ major and G♭ major are one key here. An even split over 24 keys would be 4.2% each. Rank 1 is the key with the most items in that dataset.
| Dataset | What is counted | In this key | Share | Rank of 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenScore Lieder | art songs; key signature plus estimated mode | 27 | 1.8% | 19th |
| Mutopia Project | free scores; key from MIDI or LilyPond source | 14 | 0.71% | 18th |
| MusicBrainz, Key attribute | catalogued works; key entered by editors | 95 | 0.70% | 21st |
| MusicBrainz, key in title | catalogued works; key read from the English title | 31 | 0.58% | 21st |
| Open Opus | works by 77 composers; key read from the work title | 16 | 0.45% | 19th |
| AcousticBrainz | recordings; machine-estimated key (strength 0.6 or more) | 1,167 | 1.8% | 20th |
Songs written in F♯ major
The line under each song gives its time signature, its length, the lowest and highest note of the vocal line and how the melody begins and ends. Song titles are the corpus’s own; the composer names link to the composer pages of this site.
8 songs written in F♯ major
- O komme, holde Sommernacht Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)from 8 Lieder und Gesänge, Op.584/4 · 39 bars · voice C♯4–F♯5 · melody begins on the 5th (C♯), ends on the 1st (F♯)
- Dans les bois Augusta Mary Anne Holmès (1847–1903)from Mélodies pour Piano et Chant (Chansons populaires)written in G♭ major (six flats) · 4/4 · 115 bars · voice D♭4–A♭5 · melody begins on the 3rd (B♭), ends on the 1st (G♭)
- Frühlingsnacht Robert Schumann (1810–1856)from Liederkreis, Op.392/4 · 31 bars · voice D♯4–F♯5 · melody begins on the 1st (F♯), ends on the 1st (F♯)
- Der Wanderer an die Quellen Josephine Lang (1815–1880)from 6 Lieder, Op.136/8 · 25 bars · voice B3–G♯5 · melody begins on the 5th (C♯), ends on the 5th (C♯)
- Wasserfahrt Robert Franz (1815–1892)from 6 Gesänge, Op.63/8 · 72 bars · voice F♯4–F♯5 · melody begins on the 3rd (A♯), ends on the 5th (C♯)
- Frühling Fanny Hensel (Mendelssohn) (1805–1847)from 6 Lieder, Op.72/4 · 57 bars · voice E♯4–A♯5 · melody begins on the 5th (C♯), ends on the 1st (F♯)
- Green Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)from Cinq Mélodies, Op.58written in G♭ major (six flats) · 3/4 · 37 bars · voice D♭4–G♭5 · melody begins on the 3rd (B♭), ends on the 3rd (B♭)
- Veilchen Mathilde Kralik (1857–1944)from Blumenliederwritten in G♭ major (six flats) · 6/8 · 31 bars · voice E♭4–G♭5 · melody begins on the 5th (D♭), ends on the 5th (D♭)
Chosen from 27 songs in F♯ major by a fixed rule: songs where the automatic chord analysis agrees with the estimated mode and whose signature never changes come first, then composers with a page on this site, then the composers best represented in the corpus, one song per composer.
What the songs in F♯ major do
Only 27 songs in this corpus are in F♯ major (written G♭ major: 14 and F♯ major: 13). That is too few for ending, chord or melody statistics (the threshold on this site is 30 songs), so none are shown. The pages for the commoner keys carry them; for this key the evidence is the dataset counts above and the catalogue figures below.
F♯ major in catalogues and recordings
MusicBrainz. Editors have entered a key for 13,669 catalogued works (parts and arrangements excluded); 95 of them are in F♯ major, 0.7% of those works and 21st of 24 keys. Reading the key from the English work title instead (“… in F♯ major”) finds 31 of 5,340 titles in F♯ major (21st of 24).
Open Opus. 16 of the 3,587 Open Opus work titles that name a key are in F♯ major (19th of 24 keys). Not one of the editor-flagged popular or recommended works with a key in the title is in F♯ major.
Recordings. Software that estimates the key of commercial recordings (AcousticBrainz, high-confidence estimates only) puts 1,167 of 63,124 recordings in F♯ major (20th of 24 keys). Estimates like this are known to lean to some keys, so use the figure only as a rough comparison with the written music.
Among the 49 best-catalogued composers; shown when F♯ major is one of the eight commonest keys in that composer’s keyed works. Six at most, most works first.
| Composer | Works with a key | In F♯ major | Share | Rank of the composer’s keys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Александр Николаевич Скрябин | 55 | 5 | 9.1% | 4th |
| Fryderyk Chopin | 75 | 4 | 5.3% | 6th |
| Louis Moreau Gottschalk | 49 | 3 | 6.1% | 5th |
What Wikipedia says about F♯ major
Excerpts from the English Wikipedia articles, quoted unchanged (references, tables and images removed). Statements about the character or history of the key are Wikipedia’s, not this site’s; follow the article links for the full text and its authors.
F-sharp major
F-sharp major is a major scale based on F♯, consisting of the pitches F♯, G♯, A♯, B, C♯, D♯, and E♯. Its key signature has six sharps. Its relative minor is D-sharp minor (or enharmonically E-flat minor) and its parallel minor is F-sharp minor. Its direct enharmonic, G-flat major, contains six flats in its key signature.
Music in F-sharp major
F-sharp major is the key of the minuets in Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony and of the String Quartet No. 5 from his Op. 76, of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 24, Op. 78, Verdi's "Va, pensiero" from Nabucco, Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony, Korngold's Symphony Op. 40, and Scriabin's Fourth Piano Sonata. The key was the favorite tonality of Olivier Messiaen, who used it throughout his work to express his most exciting or transcendent moods, most notably in the Turangalîla-Symphonie and the piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jésus.
Like G-flat major, F-sharp major is rarely used in orchestral music, other than in passing. It is more common in piano music. Some examples include a Nocturne and the Barcarolle by Chopin, the sonatas of Alexander Scriabin and several pieces from Grieg's Lyric Pieces. Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 14 is in this key.
Liszt was apparently fond of F-sharp major, having uplifting while meditative pieces like "Les jeux d'eaux à la villa d'este" from Années de Pèlerinage III, S.163 and "Bénediction de Dieu dans la Solitude" from the set Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses S.173 in this key. The first polka in Smetana's "3 Polkas de Salon" is in F-sharp major, as is Polonaise No. 1 by Stanisław Moniuszko.
Source: Wikipedia, “F-sharp major” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-06-23.
G-flat major
G-flat major is a major scale based on G♭, 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 (or enharmonically D-sharp minor). Its parallel minor, G-flat minor, is usually replaced by F-sharp minor, since G-flat minor's two double-flats make it generally impractical to use. Its enharmonic equivalent, F-sharp major, contains six sharps.
Characteristics
Like F-sharp major, G-flat major is rarely chosen as the main key for orchestral works. It 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, and is also used in the second movement "Le Gibet" of Ravel's famous Gaspard de la nuit.
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.
Source: Wikipedia, “G-flat major” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-06-23.
Relative key
In music theory, relative keys are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all of the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps.
Source: Wikipedia, “Relative key” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-06-11.
Closely related keys
The five keys closest to F♯ major share most of its notes: they are the keys on the other degrees of the scale whose chords are major or minor, and they differ from F♯ major by at most one sharp or flat. The sixth entry is the parallel key, which starts on the same note but has a different key signature. Counts are Lieder songs in each key.
- C♯ major Up a fifth (V, the dominant key) 7♯ · 1 step sharper on the circle 49 Lieder songs · C♯ major sounds the same as D♭ major; the link goes to that page
- B major Down a fifth (IV, the subdominant key) 5♯ · 1 step flatter on the circle 40 Lieder songs
- D♯ minor Relative minor (vi) 6♯ · same signature as this key 14 Lieder songs · D♯ minor sounds the same as E♭ minor; the link goes to that page
- G♯ minor Supertonic minor (ii) 5♯ · 1 step flatter on the circle 6 Lieder songs
- A♯ minor Mediant minor (iii) 7♯ · 1 step sharper on the circle 10 Lieder songs · A♯ minor sounds the same as B♭ minor; the link goes to that page
- F♯ minor Parallel minor (same tonic) 3♯ · 3 steps flatter on the circle 26 Lieder songs
Bach’s prelude in this key
In The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, Bach wrote one prelude and fugue in each of the 24 keys. For F♯ major it is No. 13: Prelude and Fugue in F♯ major, BWV 858. The prelude’s time signature is 12/16; the fugue has 3 voices.
Played by Kimiko Ishizaka, a free (CC0) recording; small mono mp3, nothing loads until you press play. Hear the fugue and see all 24 keys · About the recordings
How this was counted
- Note names. Computed by a script from the step pattern of the scale with the rule “one letter name per degree”, then checked against the circle-of-fifths formula for the key signature, the pitch pattern and the chord qualities. Nothing is copied from a table.
- Lieder. The key signature is the first key signature of the melody part, read directly from the MusicXML. The corpus does not record major or minor, so the mode is estimated with the Krumhansl–Schmuckler method on the notes under the opening signature; where an automatic harmonic analysis exists, the two agree on 977 of 1,023 songs (95.5%).
- Same sound, one key. Spellings are merged by pitch: F♯ major and G♭ major, D♭ major and C♯ major, E♭ minor and D♯ minor and so on are counted together, in every dataset, as on the page Most common keys in music.
- Chord analysis. Endings, progressions and key changes come from the automatic Roman-numeral analyses (AugmentedNet v1.9.1) of 1,156 of the songs. The analyses have not been corrected by people; the ending is the last pair of different chords, and a key change is a section of at least 8 bars (4 bars where stated).
- Melody and range. The first vocal line of each song whose key signature never changes; the first and last sounding notes, named relative to the tonic of the key. The lowest and highest notes are the extremes of the vocal line.
- Other datasets. Mutopia: the first key signature of the MIDI made from the LilyPond source, or the first
\keyin the source. MusicBrainz: the editor-entered Key attribute, and keys parsed from English titles. Open Opus: keys named in work titles. AcousticBrainz: machine estimates with a key strength of 0.6 or more, totals only. - Samples. A statistics block appears only when at least 30 songs back it; the sample size is printed with every block.
Data used
- OpenScore Lieder Corpus — 1,462 art songs, mostly 19th-century and European, transcribed to MusicXML by volunteers. CC0 1.0
- The Mutopia Project — 2,129 free scores (LilyPond sources and MIDI); only counts are shown. per piece: public domain, CC BY or CC BY-SA
- MusicBrainz (core data) — The open music database; counts of works by key. CC0 1.0
- Open Opus — A catalogue of 13,014 works by 77 composers. public domain (project README)
- AcousticBrainz — Machine key estimates for commercial recordings; totals only, no titles or artists. CC0 1.0
- Wikipedia — Excerpts of the key articles, quoted unchanged. CC BY-SA 4.0
What these numbers cannot tell you
- The Lieder are 19th-century-centred European art songs transcribed by volunteers, not a sample of all music. Nothing here measures pop, rock, jazz, film music or music from other traditions.
- A count of keys in scores and catalogues is not a count of listening: it does not say how often people hear each key.
- Major or minor in the Lieder is an estimate; the key signature (the number of sharps or flats) is exact. A piece with a given signature can be in the major or the relative minor.
- The MusicBrainz key field is filled in by volunteers for the works they care about, and leans to Baroque, Classical and Romantic instrumental music. Titles that spell the key in another language (for example “C-Dur”) are not read.
- AcousticBrainz keys are machine estimates and known to favour some keys; they are shown only for rough comparison.
- Chord analyses were produced by software and not checked by people; key changes depend strongly on the length threshold.
Checks run each time this page is rebuilt (11)
- scale spelling checked: seven different letter names in order, every note agrees with the key signature (six sharps)
- the scale has seven notes
- songs in F♯ major (27) equal the merged byKey counts of lieder-keys.json
- all 1,462 songs are assigned to one of the 24 keys
- Lieder share equals keys-across-corpora.json (1.8467852257181943 vs 1.85)
- spelling variants add up to the key total
- Mutopia pieces in F♯ major (14) equal the merged key counts of mutopia-keys-meter.json
- songs with a chord analysis (21) do not exceed the songs in the key (27)
- Wikipedia excerpts contain only allowed tags and no markup residue
- title is at most 60 characters (45)
- the page’s own text (short answer, introductions and paragraphs; no Wikipedia, captions, tables or method) is at least 400 words (988)
Data: OpenScore Lieder Corpus (CC0 1.0); The Mutopia Project (per-piece licences; counts only); MusicBrainz (CC0 1.0); Open Opus (public domain); AcousticBrainz (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (excerpts) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Computed for this site on 2026-10-03; the numbers are counts or shares from the datasets named above, not estimates for music in general. Licences and credits for everything used on this site are on the credits page.