F-flat major F-flat major F major (or the key of F) is a theoretical key based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E Its key signature has six flats and one double flat. The F major scale is: \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c' { </score> Its relative minor is D minor, usually replaced by C minor (see reason below) and its parallel minor is F minor, usually replaced by E minor, since F minor's four double-flats make it generally impractical to use. Because of that, it is usually enharmonic to E major with
E-flat major in E-flat major. Mahler's vast and heroic Eighth Symphony is in E-flat and his Second Symphony also ends in the key. This is not to say that, in the Classical period, E-flat major was only for bombastic music with brass. "E-flat was the key [Joseph] Haydn chose most often for [string] quartets, ten times in all, and in every other case he wrote the slow movement in the dominant, B-flat." Or "when composing church music and operatic music in E-flat major, [Joseph] Haydn often substituted cors anglais for oboes in this period", and also in the Symphony No. 22 in