i find myself preferring C-sharp major to D-flat major—it feels like a quite different key, & a brighter one (entirely a different "colour"—d-flat major is a pale blue like the edges of the sky, c-sharp major is a more brilliant and intense shade of gold than what i think of as the "golden key" b-flat major)
i also quite like e-flat minor (which is, again, the polar opposite of d-sharp minor—deep purple as opposed to pale green)
Well put, dyn! I don't believe the key of C-sharp major has ever been used, though. I think it has something to do just with the sounds of the works "sharp" and "flat"-"sharp" makes you think of something harder and more brilliant, while "flat" makes you think of something softer and more reflective or romantic.
E-flat minor, like B-flat minor and D-flat major, is another key favored almost exclusively by the Russian composers-examples include the sixth symphonies of Prokofiev and Myaskovsky as well as Rachmaninov's Elegie (which I am learning on the piano) and Etude Tableau no. 5, Khachaturian's Toccata, Shostakovich's SQ 15 and Eshpai's Symphony no. 1. Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov has the honor of writing two symphonies in this key (his first and second)! Also Ivanovs' epic Symphony no. 4
Atlantis. Some non-Russian/Soviet pieces in this key include van Gilse's Symphony no. 2 and Rudolf Karel's
Renaissance Symphony. But, most famous of all, Stevie Wonder's song
Superstition ;D
