Confident and Hopeful A Major

The key of A Major has been called sincere, confident, and full of hope. In fact, 19th Century musicologist Ernst Pauer said it “excels all the other keys in portraying sincerity of feeling.” That may be, but as you can hear in the examples below, it also can be heroic, tender, and light on its feet. How many of them can you identify?

To see the names of the works, click and scroll down over the white space below:

1. Mozart: Clarinet Concerto
2. Borodin:  Steppes of Asia
3. Bizet: Carmen Overture
4. Chopin: “Military” Polonaise
5. Suppe: Light Cavalry Overture
6. Mozart: “La ci darem” from Don Giovanni
7. Berlioz: “The Ball” from Symphonie Fantastique
8. MacDowell: To a Wild Rose
9. Mendelssohn: Symphony No 4, ‘Italian’
10. Tchaikovsky: Valse from Swan Lake
11. Schubert: Trout Quintet, Mvt 3, Scherzo
12. Beethoven: Symphony No 7 Finale