Pieces in c/d without major resolutions?

[mlsmithz]

A bizarre topic I know but it's something I've been wondering about.  Possibly the two most popular minor keys since the Baroque era are C minor and D minor, and the vast majority of pieces in those two keys end in the major, whereas the other popular minor keys (most notably E minor, A minor, G minor, and F minor) are a very mixed bag (significant examples for each include the Sibelius Symphony No.1 and Brahms No.4, Mozart's Sonata K.310, the Saint-Saens Concerto No.2, and Beethoven's 'Appassionata').  For example:

- Nearly every piece in Bach's 'The Art of Fugue' makes a transition from D minor to D major; the D minor English Suite has three movements with major resolutions compared to two for the E minor suite, one for the A minor suite, and none for the G minor.

- Beethoven's two minor key symphonies are in C minor and D minor; both end in major, as do the Op.10 No.1 and Op.111 sonatas (two of the four Beethoven minor key sonatas with major key conclusions, the others being Op.49 No.1 and Op.90).

- Mozart's Fantasies in C minor and D minor K.396 and 397 both end in major, as does the Concerto in D minor K.466.

- Schubert's 'Tragic' symphony ends both C minor movements with major resolutions; we can only wonder if he planned a major resolution for the 'Unfinished', in B minor. (Though if one subscribes to the theory that Entr'acte I from 'Rosamunde' was originally sketched as the finale to the symphony, the answer is 'yes'.)

- Among the 13 minor key etudes from Chopin's Op.10 and Op.25, both C minor etudes end in major; neither etude in F minor does so, nor does either etude in C-sharp minor. (On a related note, Chopin only wrote two pieces in D minor: the prelude Op.28 No.24 and the polonaise Op.71 No.1.  Neither ends in major.)

- The Transcendental Etudes of Liszt in D minor and C minor both end in major (which is fitting for the former given the final note of triumph, but since the latter seems to end with the death of the object of the titular 'Wilde jagd', a minor key conclusion might have been as apt).

- Of Bruckner's eleven symphonies (including Nos.0 and 00), three each are in C minor and D minor; except for the unfinished No.9, all of them end in major, whereas No.00 in F minor does not.  It seems fair to assume a major ending was planned for No.9.

- Brahms' C minor symphony (No.1) ends in major; the E minor symphony (No.4) does not.

- The Saint-Saens Concerto in C minor (No.4) ends in major; the G minor concerto (No.2) does not.

- The only minor key Rachmaninov prelude to end in major is the one in C minor.

- The only minor key Kabalevsky prelude to end in major is the one in D minor.

- The D minor fugue from the Shostakovich Op.87 has a D major coda which lasts longer than the entire D major fugue, while the C minor prelude and fugue both end in major (this does also happen in the F minor prelude and fugue though, but nowhere else).

I'm certainly not saying I don't like the above pieces, in fact some of them are personal favourites!  It's merely an observation.  However, it has made me curious as to which pieces out there go against this trend; which pieces (piano or otherwise) in C minor or D minor end in those keys (or, at least, do not end in C major or D major)?  I find them both gloriously dark keys and am quite partial to pieces which retain this aura of darkness to the double bar.  So far, I've been able to name the following:

Bach: Invention No.2 (C minor), Invention No.4, Sinfonia No.4 (D minor).
Mozart: Fantasy K.475 and Sonata K.457, Concerto K.491 (C minor).
Beethoven: 'Pathetique' and 32 Variations (C minor), 'Tempest' sonata (D minor).
Schubert: 'Death and the Maiden' string quartet (D minor).
Chopin: Nocturne Op.48 No.1, Polonaise Op.40 No.2, Prelude Op.28 No.20 (C minor), Prelude Op.28 No.24, Polonaise Op.71 No.1 (D minor).
Liszt: 'Orage' from 'Annees de pelerinage' Book I (C minor).
Alkan: Symphony, 1st movement (C minor), 'En rhythme molossique' (D minor).
Brahms: String quartet No.1 (C minor), Violin sonata No.3 (D minor).
Debussy: Cello sonata (D minor).
Faure: Prelude Op.103 No.5 (D minor).
Medtner: Sonata tragica, Op.39 No.5 (C minor).
Prokofiev: Piano sonata No.2, Symphony No.2 (D minor).
Rachmaninov: Trio elegiaque No.2, Prelude Op.23 No.3, Corelli variations (D minor).
Shostakovich: Prelude Op.34 No.20, Symphony No.4 (C minor), Prelude Op.34 No.24, Cello sonata (D minor).

I'm not counting pieces in either key in which an early movement ends in minor but the finale ends in major, just ones where the finale (if the piece has several movements) ends in a key other than the parallel major (some of the pieces above have ambiguous final chords).

Obviously the above list is not exhaustive; anyone have any others?

[TheHammer]

Bump, hehe...that is too interesting to sink into the black pits of PF oblivion.

On the other hand, I did not found anything, really, literally everything ends in the Major (some more, Beethoven 3rd concerto, Choral Fantasy, Rachmaninov 2nd PC, Brahms 1st PC, Schubert's Impromtu op. 90/1 and so on...)

However, Schubert wrote some pieces:
Fantasy in Cminor (not Wanderer) I think D. 2 E or something (?)
Allegretto in Cminor D. 915 (well, no full piece, does not count probably)
The second of the "3 Klavierstuecke" in Cminor, ends in Cb-Major, or but the third piece is in C Major again. Why???

Hadyn Sonata Hob. XVI: 20, Cminor
Plus I have a piano reduction of Haydn's work: "The seven last words of our Redeemer on the cross" don't know how they handle it with the keys, but the Introduzione is in Dminor, whereas the Finale (Terremoto) is in C-Minor.

I saw a score of a Bach Fantasia (BWV 919) which ends in C-Minor (and begins in it as well).

How come that you missed the famous C-Minor posth. Nocturne?

The D- and C-Minor pieces in Tschaikowsky's Album for the Young.

Beethoven: Allegretto WoO 53
Bagatelle WoO52
Bagatelle Op. 119/5    all of this is C-Minor as well

Now I realize these are just insignificant pieces, so don't really prove you wrong, but we can say that there are at least some pieces without Major resolution. Can anybody explain why so many composition end in the Major though? Is this just coincidence?

[jhon]

It is just COMMON for several minor-key pieces to end in major - that's why there could be such long lists above.    And there's much more.   

More interestingly, what about major-key pieces to end in minor?  This is more rare as it usually would denote a dark conclusion.  Also, such form is much harder to compose and thus, more ingenuity is required by the composer. 

One example is CHOPIN'S Nocturne in B major, Op.32,No.1 which all of a sudden just ends in B minor!    (Chopin is really a genius... )  Perhaps you can help me add some more like this. 

[mlsmithz]

Pieces that begin in major keys but end in minor keys are certainly not plentiful but they're out there.  Examples:

Schubert: Impromptu Op.90 No.2 in E-flat major, ends in E-flat minor.
Brahms: Rhapsody Op.119 No.4 in E-flat major also ends in E-flat minor; the Piano Trio No.1 in B major Op.8 has a finale which is in B minor from start to finish.
Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 in A major, the 'Italian', has a finale in A minor from start to finish; the Rondo capriccioso in E major, Op.14, ends in E minor.
Alkan: Etude Op.35 No.10 in G-flat major from 'Twelve Etudes in the major keys' ends in F-sharp minor, as does the Prelude in G-flat major from Op.31. (Did Alkan not like the key of G-flat major??) The sonata for cello and piano Op.47 has a first movement in E major and a finale in E minor.
Chopin: The F major Ballade Op.38 ends in A minor.
Tchaikovsky: One of his very early piano pieces (Waltz-scherzo or some similar title) begins in A major and ends in A minor.
Shostakovich: String Quartet No.2 in A major Op.68 has theme-and-variations finale in A minor.

The finales of a number of operas (primarily the ones with tragic final scenes by Verdi and Puccini; 'La Traviata' and 'Il Trovatore' both leap to mind) also shift from major to minor; that is, the key signature for the final bars is that of the parallel major of the final (minor) key.

More interesting (and certainly more rare) perhaps would be a piece which begins in major but which shifts tonic in addition to ending in minor (notice most of the above pieces end in the parallel minor to the initial key) - the Chopin ballade is the only such piece I know. (By contrast, the first movement of the Schumann A minor string quartet Op.41 No.1 shifts to F major about two or three minutes in and stays there for the rest of the movement!)

Going back to Schubert, both F minor impromptus Op.142 end in minor, whereas, as TheHammer observes, the C minor impromptu from the Op.90 set ends in major.  I've heard the Bach Fantasia to which you allude; there's also the C minor prelude and fugue and D minor fugue from WTC Book 2, the C minor French Suite (but not the D minor French or English Suites), and the C minor Partita, while for organ there's the Fantasia and Fugue in C minor BWV 537 and, of course, the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565.

Actually, for that matter there are plenty of pieces from the Baroque era which avoid major resolutions - I've heard plenty by Handel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Couperin, Rameau, and Soler, for a start - but then there are also plenty which embrace major resolutions - I've heard several by Frescobaldi and Byrd, for example.  But certainly after Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven started leaving their mark, pieces in minor keys - particularly C minor and D minor - which did not jump into the parallel major for the final bars became harder to find.

And, apologies for omitting the Chopin C minor nocturne Op. posth. from my list above! A charming piece if not as high quality as the other two posthumously published nocturnes (Op.72 No.1 in E minor and the C-sharp minor nocturne which quotes the F minor piano concerto in several places (I understand Chopin wrote it for his sister as a stepping stone to playing the F minor concerto) - both of those, of course, end in major).