In the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, "G major is often a key of 68 chain rhythms", according to Alfred Einstein,[2] although Bach also used the key for some 44-based works, including his third and fourth Brandenburg Concertos.

Pianist Jeremy Denk observes that the Goldberg Variations are 80 minutes in G major.

39 (with the Gypsy Rondo), and one of his last two complete published string quartets (Op.

In addition, G major is the home key of Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, serving as the tonic for three of its four movements (the only exception being the second movement, titled Romanze which is in the subdominant key of C major).

For Ludwig van Beethoven, G major was a key for optimism and cheerful energy.

[citation needed] He regularly used this key, for instance in his Piano Sonatas No.

Composers like Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, Max Bruch, Anton Bruckner, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, César Cui and Sergei Rachmaninoff only used this key in a few small-scale or miscellaneous compositions, or even avoided it completely.

Nonetheless, some important Romantic music was written in G major.

Harold en Italie, a symphony with a solo viola part by Hector Berlioz, is in G major.

It is also the key of three major chamber music compositions by Johannes Brahms: String Sextet No.

Antonín Dvořák wrote four important pieces in G major: String Quintet No.

Camille Saint-Saëns chose G major as the key for his String Quartet No.

Gabriel Fauré only wrote one major composition in this key: his second Barcarolle for Piano, Op.

39/3) by Alexander Scriabin are in G major, as well as the Mazurka for orchestra op.

4 and Richard Strauss's tone poem Aus Italien Op.

It's the key for the opening 'Sinfonia' of Igor Stravinsky's Pulcinella suite, and for the Piano Concerto for two hands and the Violin Sonata No.

55 in this key, and Dmitri Shostakovich chose it for his Cello Concerto No.

G major is the key stipulated for the royal anthem of Canada, "God Save the King".

[4] The anthem "God Defend New Zealand" ("Aotearoa") was originally composed by John Joseph Woods in A-flat major, but after becoming New Zealand's national anthem in 1977, it was rearranged into G major to better suit general and massed singing.