D Major

The key of D, so distantly close, is a reveille, a military wake-up filled with trumpets, loudspeaker announcements, radio broadcasts, school buzzers, and bombs, whether Beethoven is using it for his ascending Mannheim Rocket scale, Mozart for his 4-hand sonata fanfare, or Schubert for his March Militaire. No matter how far afield Beethoven digs into the dirt of related keys, no matter what zephyrs harmonic progressions may stir in the idyllic meadows of the sonata's middle, the stigma of brittle D sticks, and must be returned to at the end of the day when the bell sounds, the lyre hanging limply like a dog's chastened tail between the piano legs.