relative major

American  

noun

Music.

1. the major key whose tonic is the third degree of a given minor key.

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Etymology

Origin of relative major

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

I can’t say that it has to be in a major key or go to the chorus to get to the relative major to get that lift, because that isn’t really what happens.

From The Guardian

While the notes are identical in both, the effect upon the ear is different, according to the starting note, just as the descending melodic minor scale is de facto the same as the relative major scale, but not in its effect.

From Project Gutenberg

A near relative, Major A. D. Friedenthal, likewise became an evangelical Christian.

From Project Gutenberg

The First movement proper, from Lebhaft, seems at first as if it were to be in the customary Sonata-form; the Exposition beginning with two themes in the normal relationship of minor and relative major, though to be sure the second theme is more of a supplementary expansion of the first than one which provides a strong contrast.

From Project Gutenberg

It gradually cools down through a series of beautiful modulations and, in measure 84, the second theme—introduced by calls on the horn and sung by the oboe—enters in the relative major key of E-flat.

From Project Gutenberg