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D minor

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

D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B-flat, C, and D (natural minor scale). Its key signature consists of one flat.

Its relative key is F major, and its parallel major is D major. D minor is one of two flat key signatures that requires a sharp for the leading tone (the other is G minor).

Some consider D minor the flattest key that is practical for a guitar to play. Of Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas, which often borrow mannerisms from guitar music of the period, 151 are in minor keys, and D minor is the most often chosen minor key, with 32 sonatas.

J S Bach's entire The Art of Fugue is in D minor and, jokingly, so is P. D. Q. Bach's Musical Offering. According to Alfred Einstein, the history of tuning has led D minor to be associated with counterpoint and chromaticism (for example, the chromatic fourth), and cites Mozart's chromatic Fugue in D minor. Mozart's Requiem is also written primarily in D minor. Of the two Piano Concertos that Mozart wrote in a minor key, one of them is in D minor, No. 20, K. 466. Sibelius' violin concerto is in D minor, although many of the best-known violin concertos are written in D major.

Michael Haydn wrote only one symphony in a minor key, in D minor, Perger 20, MH 393.

Since D minor is the key of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Bruckner felt apprehensive about writing his own Ninth Symphony in the same key.^[1]

Works in the classical music era and later beginning in minor typically end in major, or at least on a major chord (as picardy third), but there are a few notable examples of works in D minor ending in much sharper keys. Two symphonies that begin in D minor and end in E major are Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony and Nielsen's Symphony No. 4 (The Inextinguishable). Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, which is often performed without the finale, is another example of a symphony beginning in D minor and ending in E major. Liszt's Dante Symphony opens in D minor and ends in B major.

The first choice of clarinet for orchestral music in D minor is naturally the clarinet in B♭, and the clarinet part is then written with an E minor key signature. This choice, however, becomes problematic for multi-movement works that begin in D minor and end in D major. The B-flat clarinet parts would be written with an E major key signature, indicating an increased reliance on side keys and thus uncomfortable fingerings. A clarinet in A playing in D major would be written with an F major key signature, but in D minor would be written in A♭ major. One solution is to write the first movement for clarinet in B♭ and the last movement for clarinet in A (this is, for example, what Robert Volkmann does in his Symphony No. 1 in D minor). However, this burdens the player with having to warm up the A instrument in time for the switch. Ralph Vaughan Williams in his Symphony No. 8 in D minor and Dmitri Shostakovich in his Symphony No. 12 simply keep on using clarinets in B♭ even after switching to D major (written in E major). Mily Balakirev, in his Symphony No. 2 in D minor, opts to have three clarinets, two in B♭, one in A, playing throughout the whole piece.

Nigel Tufnel of the ficticious band Spinal Tap believes that D minor is "really the saddest of all keys," and that when a musician begins to play in D minor, "everyone instantly starts weeping."

• Piano Concerto No. 3 - Sergei Rachmaninoff
• "Der Tod und das Mädchen", D.810 - Franz Schubert
• Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (from The Magic Flute)
• Piano Concerto No. 20 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Concerto for Two Violins - Johann Sebastian Bach
• Toccata and Fugue in D Minor - Johann Sebastian Bach
• Czardas - Vittorio Monti
• Symphony No. 5 - Dmitri Shostakovich
• Carmina Burana - Carl Orff
• Symphony No. 3 - Gustav Mahler
• Requiem Mass in D minor - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Symphony No. 7 - Antonín Dvořák
• Symphony No. 9 - Ludwig van Beethoven

• Another Brick in the Wall - Pink Floyd
• Another Night - Real McCoy
• Blue Monday - New Order
• The Call of Ktulu - Metallica
• Careful with that Axe, Eugene - Pink Floyd
• The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band
• Drive - R.E.M.
• The Fairly OddParents theme
• I Won't See You Tonight Pt. 1 Avenged Sevenfold
• Fear of the Dark - Iron Maiden
• From Russia with Love - Matt Monro
• Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) - ABBA
• Hangar 18 - Megadeth
• Home Alone theme - John Williams
• It's a Man's Man's Man's World - James Brown
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius theme
• Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine
• Lay All Your Love On Me - ABBA
• Lick my Love Pump - Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap
• Like A Prayer - Madonna
• The Living Daylights - A-ha
• Lose Yourself - Eminem
• Ma Baker - Boney M
• Mr. Crowley - Ozzy Osbourne
• Oh My God - Michael Franti
• Once - Pearl Jam
• Pieces - Sum 41
• Rosalinda - Thalía
• Save a Prayer - Duran Duran (but the chorus is in B minor)
• Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Schism - Tool
• Smooth Operator - Sade
• Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
• Suteki Da Ne - Nobuo Uematsu
• The Phantom of the Opera theme
• Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce (also in D major)
• Vampire Killer - Castlevania/Vampire Killer
• Wishing You Were Here - Chicago
• The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra - Benjamin Britten

Beast and the Harlot (Mostly in this key) Avenged Sevenfold Bat Country-Aveged Sevenfold

All of Avenged Sevenfolds City of Evil cd is basically written in D Minor or its relative minor key F Major

• Alfred Einstein, Mozart, His Character, His Work, Chapter 10, "Mozart's Choice Of Keys" New York: Oxford University Press (1945)
• Sherman, Charles H. Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806), a chronological thematic catalogue of his works New York: Pendragon Press, 1993

1. ^ Hans-Hubert Schönzeler, Bruckner London: Calder & Boyars Ltd (1978): 106 - 107. "According to Göllerich, he [Bruckner] made the remark: "It really annoys me that the theme of my new symphony is in D minor, because everybody will say now: 'Of course, Bruckner's Ninth must be in the same key as Beethoven's!'"

Diatonic Scales and Keys
	Flats Sharps Major minor Major minor 0 C (Major), a (minor) 1 F d G e 2 B♭ g D b 3 E♭ c A f♯ 4 A♭ f E c♯ 5 D♭ b♭ B g♯ 6 G♭ e♭ F♯ d♯ 7 C♭ a♭ C♯ a♯
lower case letters are minor the table indicates the number of sharps or flats in each scale