Tonality

Tonality, broadly, the organization of music around a given note, the tonic note, that serves as a focal point. More specifically, tonality also refers to the harmonic system that dominated Western music of about 1650-1900. Also known as functional harmony and as major-minor tonality, Western tonality is a complex set of strong and weak relationships within and among keys. A key consists of the relationships among the notes of a major or minor scale and among the chords built either on these notes or on sharp or flat alterations of these notes. (Some writers refer to keys as tonalities.) When the music moves away from the tonic note, chord, and key, tension is created; when it returns to the tonic, a sense of repose is created.

See Harmony; See also Atonality.



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