E major
tonality
E major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F♯, G♯, A, B, C♯, and D♯. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, F-flat major, has six flats and the double-flat B, which makes that key less convenient to use.
The E major scale is:
Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The E harmonic major and melodic major scales are:
Scale degree chords
The scale degree chords of E major are:
Tonic – E major
Supertonic – F-sharp minor
Mediant – G-sharp minor
Subdominant – A major
Dominant – B major
Submediant – C-sharp minor
Leading-tone – D-sharp diminished
Music in E major
Antonio Vivaldi used this key for the "Spring" concerto from The Four Seasons.
Johann Sebastian Bach used E major for a violin concerto, as well as for his third partita for solo violin; the key is especially appropriate for the latter piece because its tonic (E) and subdominant (A) correspond to open strings on the violin, enhancing the tone colour (and ease of playing) of the bariolage in the first movement.
Only two of Joseph Haydn's 106 symphonies are in E major: No. 12 and No. 29.
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This entry incorporates text from “E major” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.