TONALITY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Tonality

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noun

Tonality n. (Mus.) The principle of key in music; the character which a composition has by virtue of the key in which it is written, or through the family relationship of all its tones and chords to the keynote, or tonic, of the whole. "The predominance of the tonic as the link which connects all the tones of a piece, we may, with Fétis, term the principle of tonality."

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Etymology of 'Tonality'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tonality" Quotes from Famous Books

... in Grieg-ton Smith has seized the fascinating looseness of the Griegorian tonality and its whimsicality. The "Humoresque" is a bit of titanic merriment; the "Mazurka" is most deftly built and is full of dance-fire; the "Arietta" is highly original, and the "Capricietto" shows such ingenious management of triplets, and has altogether such a crisp, brisk flavor, that it reminds ...

— Contemporary American Composers • Rupert Hughes

... one of MacDowell's most impressive creations. It is full of deep feeling and gravity, contrasted with passages of tender contemplation and the impassioned poetry of despair. The whole aspect of the movement is lofty in thought, vast in tonality and altogether indicative of power and of genius. MacDowell was harassed by drudgery and care when he wrote it and the tragic note is sounded from its first bars. After exhausting itself in intense expression, the opening theme makes way for a mood of quiet, although still despairing, contemplation. ...

— Edward MacDowell • John F. Porte

Words linked to "Tonality" : musical notation, tonal, major key, major mode, minor key, minor mode, atonality