E-flat major

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**E♭ major**
Relative key	C minor

Parallel key	E-flat minor
Enharmonic
Component pitches
E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D, E♭

E♭ major or E-flat major is a major scale based on E-flat, consisting of the pitches E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats: B, E, A (see below: Scales and keys).

Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E-flat minor.

E-flat major is often associated with bold, heroic music, in part because of Beethoven's usage. His Eroica Symphony and his Emperor Concerto are both in this key. Also Beethoven's (hypothetical) 10th symphony is in the key of E-flat major.

Another reason for using E-flat major is that it is a very good key for brass instruments (valveless 19th-century brass instruments specifically constructed to sound in this key were found to produce the most satisfying tone color).

Ascending and descending E-flat major Scale.

Thus, three of Mozart's completed horn concerti and Joseph Haydn's famous Trumpet Concerto are in E-flat major, and so is Anton Bruckner's Fourth Symphony with its prominent horn theme in the first movement. Another famous heroic piece in the key of E-flat major is Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life). The heroic theme from the Jupiter movement of Holst's The Planets is in E-flat major. Mahler's vast and heroic Eighth Symphony is in E-flat, and his Second Symphony also ends in the key.

E-flat major is also a very common key for gospel music. "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 E-flat major.^[1]

It is also frequently used to express serenity, such as in Frédéric Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2.