Compositions in more than one key

[albion]

Symphony No.2 (1926) by Arnold Bax is officially designated as being in E minor and C major.

Are there any other works which are customarily labelled as being in more than one key (excluding the numerous bitonal or polytonal works where no key designation is given, eg. Holst's Terzetto)?

[Florian]

Altough not labelled explicitely on the front page of the score, Elgar's first Symphony is in A flat major and d minor. There are hints that Elgar indeed wanted to write a Symphony in two keys ad once. Moreover, there is a part-song ('There is sweet music') which is in G and A flat major at the same time. Interestingly, the part-song dates from about the same time as the Symphony.

[albion]

Altough not labelled explicitely on the front page of the score, Elgar's first Symphony is in A flat major and d minor.

Whilst it undoubtedly has something of a split-personality in terms of tonality, Elgar's work resolutely remains "Symphony No.1 in A flat, Op.55."

I was wondering if Bax's 2nd is really a unique case, or whether any other works are designated [name of work] in [name of key] and [name of another key] ...

[saxtromba]

Franz Schubert's first string quartet is customarily listed as being in c minor/B-Flat Major (and even that doesn't quite cover its tonal digressions!).

[eschiss1]

with that Schubert quartet, and the early piano sonatas of his that likewise do (C major/A minor, etc.)... and some other works (Handel's concerto grosso op.3/1 - even though the habit of ending where one began had more exceptions in those days, though more for vocal works) I sometimes do wonder (I've noticed some others do, as they appear in some Schubert worklists as "incomplete"...) if those works came down complete (just as i do for e.g. a certain piano sonata whose scan I found at the Library of Congress website, 2 movements in different keys, the most exceptional feature of which seems to be just that- though I might like it better if I heard it performed.)

[JimL]

Separate movements in a single multi-movement work don't count.  That is to say, many or even most symphonies have a movement or two in keys other than that given as the tonality of the work.  Concertos that have all of the same movements in the same tonality (if not modality) are actually in the minority.  Brahms' and Chopin's 1st PCs come to mind.  Contrast that with, say the piano concertos of Beethoven, in which only the 1st and final movements are in the same key.  The middle movements are always in different keys in all of Beethoven's concertos including the Triple and VC, and the majority of Romantic period composers followed suit.  Schubert's 8th Symphony as most often performed is only the first two completed movements, in B minor and E Major.  The unfinished scherzo movement was again in B minor.  So judging the key of an unfinished work by saying "well, the only two completed movements are in different keys, so he must have been composing the sonata in two different keys" doesn't hold up in the context of standard practice of the time.

[eschiss1]

I wasn't being clear (I'm not sure how, but apparently not...)- those two piano sonatas whose first movements and last movements are in different keys are from quite early in Schubert's career (D279 and another I think?) - and that they are unfinished is an inference, not a known fact. It's been several places and times stated that they are unfinished, but usually, I think, on the assumption that he would have completed them with a finale in the same key as their opening movements, not because we know him to have ever intended to return to them based on letters of his, etc.- at least, not that anyone's ever told me. (Likewise, I think, the Handel concerto grosso op.3/1 with its opening movement in B-flat and its conclusion in G minor...)

Indeed, given that they are from so very early in Schubert's career- they are the first two sonatas in the Dover edition, I think- one could as well ask why he never returned to them (well, the answer is obvious, but one could still ask.)