F-sharp major

The scale degree chords of F-sharp major are:

• Tonic, F-sharp major
• Supertonic, G-sharp minor
• Mediant, A-sharp minor
• Subdominant, B major
• Dominant, C-sharp major
• Submediant, D-sharp minor
• Leading tone, E-sharp diminished

F-sharp major is the key of the minuets in Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony and of the String Quartet No. 5 from his Op. 76, of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 24, Op. 78, Verdi's "Va, pensiero" from Nabucco, Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony, Korngold's Symphony Op. 40, and Scriabin's Fourth Piano Sonata. The key was the favorite tonality of Olivier Messiaen, who used it throughout his work to express his most exciting or transcendent moods, most notably in the Turangalîla-Symphonie and the piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jésus.

Like G-flat major, F-sharp major is rarely used in orchestral music, other than in passing. It is more common in piano music. Some examples include a Nocturne and the Barcarolle by Chopin, the sonatas of Alexander Scriabin and several pieces from Grieg's Lyric Pieces. Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 14 is in this key.

Liszt was apparently fond of F-sharp major, having uplifting while meditative pieces like "Les jeux d'eaux à la villa d'este" from Années de Pèlerinage III, S.163 and "Bénediction de Dieu dans la Solitude" from the set Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses S.173 in this key. The first polka in Smetana's "3 Polkas de Salon" is in F-sharp major, as is Polonaise No. 1 by Stanisław Moniuszko.