Key
D Minor
Minor key with one flat; relative minor of F major.
What it means
D minor is a minor key with one flat (B flat). Its relative major, sharing the same key signature, is F major; its parallel major, D major with two sharps, contrasts sharply with it.
In the notation
The natural minor scale of D minor consists of D, E, F, G, A, B flat, C, D; in the harmonic and melodic forms the seventh degree is raised to C sharp. In the notation the single flat appears on the line or space for B.
Musical use
D minor has been regarded since Mozart's time as an especially dramatic, often dark and fateful key. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart chose it for his opera Don Giovanni and for his Requiem, two works whose D minor tonality has since become closely associated with a sense of ominous gravity.