tonality
Home note system
Tonality is the organization of music around a central note or chord, called the tonic, which gives a piece its sense of home or resolution.
Most Western music from the 17th through 19th centuries operates within tonality—major and minor keys establish expectations that composers fulfill or subvert.
The piece shifts from C major to A minor, creating a darker tonality.
Music that abandons this system is called atonal.
Outside music, tonality refers to the overall quality of tones in a voice, instrument, or visual work: the warm tonality of her photographs.
Lock-opening device
- modeWay or method
- majorOf chief importance
- minorScale with lowered third
- tonicInvigorating medicinal drink
dominant · subdominant · chord · scale · modulation · resolution · harmony · dissonance
Word form alteration
- pitchFrequency of sound
- registerRecord officially; vocal range
- timbreSound's distinctive character
- resonanceAmplified oscillation at natural frequency
modulation · cadence · expression · delivery · emphasis · articulation · prosody · accentuation
Prevailing emotional condition
darkness · brightness · melancholy · joyfulness · tension · lightness · heaviness · character
High-ranking government official
- CantoneseSouthern Chinese dialect
- VietnameseOf Southeast Asian nation
- ThaiOf Bangkok's nation
- YorubaNigerian people and language
key
Lock-opening device
tonic · dominant · subdominant · chord · scale · modulation · resolution · harmony · dissonance · consonance
inflection
Word form alteration
resonance · modulation · cadence · expression · delivery · emphasis · articulation · prosody · accentuation · phrasing
mood
Prevailing emotional condition
warmth · darkness · brightness · melancholy · joyfulness · tension · lightness · heaviness · character · atmosphere
Mandarin
High-ranking government official
- CantoneseSouthern Chinese dialect
- VietnameseOf Southeast Asian nation
- ThaiOf Bangkok's nation
- music cognitionpitch recognition, consonance, dissonance, absolute pitch, perfect pitch
- harmonyharmony, chord, chords, triad, triads
- rhythm and melodybeat, tempo, pitch, harmony, notes
- music theorynote, notes, chord, chords, harmony
- aestheticsaesthetics, aesthetic, beauty, beautiful, ugly
- classical musicBach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms
tonalityatonality
Absence of key signature
atonalism · atonal music · serialism · noise music · chromaticism
tonalityflatness
Absence of slope
tunelessness · atonality · dullness · colorlessness · monotony