The Universal Favorite, E-Flat Major

A look today at the key of E-flat Major, which has more than its share of memorable masterpieces. Perhaps thats because as one musicologist described it, the key “boasts the greatest variety of expression… At once serious and solemn, it is the exponent of courage and determination and gives the piece a brilliant, firm and dignified character.”

The pieces heard in the montage are listed below. To reveal them, click and drag over the white space.

1. Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 4
2. Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, ‘Emperor’
3. Bernstein: Candide Overture
4. Mozart: Magic Flute Overture
5. Haydn: Trumpet Concerto
6. Mussorgsky: “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Pictures at an Exhibition
7. Elgar: “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations
8. Mendelssohn: Octet
9. Schumann: Symphony No. 3, ‘Rhenish’
10. Bruch: Scottish Fantasy
11. Sibelius: Symphony No. 5
12. Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica’