What key?

[.COM]

Can anyone inform me with the keys of these pieces:

"Revolutionary Etude"
"Ocean Etude"

Are they in c#minor?

If yes, why are both ending chords in C major?

Thank you.

-P/L

[Antnee]

Yes they both are in c minor.

They end on c major because... well I guess because that's how chopin wanted them...  

[.COM]

Oops, I meant c minor.

Thanks RondoAllaTony for clearing that up for me but...,

why do both pieces end with a C major chord. :-/

-P/L

[donjuan]

Oops, I meant c minor.

Thanks RondoAllaTony for clearing that up for me but...,

why do both pieces end with a C major chord. :-/

-P/L

look, do you know how 2 dimentional the music would be if the whole thing were all in C minor?

[Antnee]

I don't understand...  It ends that way because that's how Chopin wrote it!

Do you mean 'why would they still say it is in c minor if it ends in c major?'

[.COM]

Yes.

P/L :-/

[steinwaymodeld]

I don't understand...  It ends that way because that's how Chopin wrote it!

Do you mean 'why would they still say it is in c minor if it ends in c major?'

There is something called 'transpose' you know?

And does a piece have to end in the key that it starts out? I have never heard such a restriction

[Daevren]

Usually it does.

Is it in C major witch large parts in the other key, the key of c minor.

Or is it in c minor and just ends in C major?

You could call them c minor because Chopin called them c minor, or because Chopin wrote them in that key sig.

[steve]

It is traditional for pieces to end in the key in which they started; in the case of these pieces, however, the device Chopin used is called a Tièrce de Picardie, which is the conclusion of a minor piece with the tonic chord of the parallel major, and which originated in the Baroque era.  It appears in quite a lot of pieces, of which the prelude BWV 999 is the one which leaps to mind for me, and is simply an interesting way to depart from the ear's expectation at the end of the piece.