Its strong, yet vulnerable character has led the piece to become a staple at funerals, especially in Great Britain. For him, E-flat major was associated with Freemasonry 'E-flat evoked stateliness and an almost religious character.' Įdward Elgar wrote his Variation IX 'Nimrod' from the Enigma Variations in E-flat major. Į-flat major was the second-flattest key Mozart used in his music. 'E-flat was the key Haydn chose most often for quartets, ten times in all, and in every other case he wrote the slow movement in the dominant, B-flat major.' Or 'when composing church music and operatic music in E-flat major, Haydn often substituted cors anglais for oboes in this period', and also in Symphony No. However, in the Classical period, E-flat major was not limited to solely bombastic brass music. Mahler's vast and heroic Eighth Symphony is in E-flat and his Second Symphony also ends in this key. The heroic theme from the Jupiter movement of Holst's The Planets is in E-flat major.

Another notable heroic piece in the key of E-flat major is Richard Strauss's A Hero's Life. Three of Mozart's completed Horn Concertos and Joseph Haydn's Trumpet Concerto are in E-flat major, and so is Anton Bruckner's Fourth Symphony with its prominent horn theme in the first movement. But even before Beethoven, Francesco Galeazzi identified E-flat major as 'a heroic key, extremely majestic, grave and serious: in all these features it is superior to that of C.' Beethoven's (hypothetical) 10th Symphony is also in E-flat. His Eroica Symphony, Emperor Concerto and Grand Sonata are all in this key. The key of E-flat major is often associated with bold, heroic music, in part because of Beethoven's usage. Audio playback is not supported in your browser.

E flat minor key