Steve Schwartz writes:

>Fourth, the keys of equal temperament, to many musicians, do NOT sound
>alike.  Rimsky-Korsakov was extremely sensitive to key-color, as was
>Scriabin.  To Rimsky, for example, Eb was the "key of great cities." He
>begged Mussorgsky to change the progression in Godunov's map scene, so
>that the climax of the text -- "cities" -- ended on Eb.  Mussorgsky
>probably thought Rimsky was crazy, but he made the change.

He couldn't have thought it all that crazy, considering the key of The
Great Gate of Kiev.

 - seb