F-flat major


F major 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:

Its relative minor is D minor, usually replaced by C minor 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 4 sharps.

Music in F major

Although F major is usually notated as its enharmonic equivalent of E major, because E major has four sharps only as opposed to F major's eight flats, part of Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen uses F major, which one commentator has called "a bitter enharmonic parody" of the earlier manifestations of E major in the piece.
Beethoven also used F major in his Piano Sonata No. 31, Op. 110. In the first movement's exposition, the transitional passage between the first and second subjects consists of arpeggiated figuration beginning in A major and modulating to the dominant key of E major. In the recapitulation, the key for this passage is changed to bring the second subject back in A major: the transitional passage appears in a key that would theoretically be F major, but which is notated in E major, presumably because Beethoven judged this easier to read – this key being a major third below the key of the earlier appearance of this passage. Likewise, the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 contains six measures of what would theoretically be F major, but notated as E major.
Another example of F major being notated as E major can be found in the Adagio of Haydn's Trio No. 27 in A major. The Finale of Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 employs enharmonic E for F, but its coda employs F directly, with a phrygian cadence through F onto the tonic.
An example of F major being used directly is in Victor Ewald's Quintet No. 4 in A major, where the entirety of the third movement is notated in this key.
The climax that occurs in the middle of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings resolves to F major.