F major (or the key of F) is a musical major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B♭, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat (see below: Scales and keys). It is by far the oldest key signature with an accidental, predating the others by hundreds of years.[citation needed]
Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor.
F major key is the home key of the English horn, the basset horn, the horn in F, the trumpet in F and the bass Wagner tuba. Thus, music in F major for these instruments is written in C major key. Most of these sound a perfect fifth lower than written, with the exception of the trumpet in F which sounds a fourth higher. (The basset horn also often sounds an octave and a fifth lower.)
Of the six Overtures Francesco Maria Veracini wrote for Prince Friedrich Augustus in Dresden, most are in either F major or B-flat major because of the limitations of the winds in the Prince's orchestra.