What is "f minor"

n. 1 (context music English) a minor key with the notes F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, E♭ 2 (context music English) the minor chord with a root of F

F minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. The harmonic minor raises the E to E. Its key signature has four flats.

Its relative major is A-flat major, and its parallel major is F major.

Two famous pieces in the key of F minor are Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, and Haydn's [[Symphony No. 49 (Haydn)|Symphony No. 49 in F minor, La Passione]].

Glenn Gould once said if he could be any key, he would be F minor, because "it's rather dour, halfway between complex and stable, between upright and lascivious, between gray and highly tinted...There is a certain obliqueness."

Helmholtz once described F minor as harrowing and melancholy. Schubart described this key as "Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave."