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'TONALITY', in music, principle of organizing musical compositions around a central note, the tonic. Generally, any Western or non-Western music periodically returning to a central, or focal, tone exhibits tonality. More specifically, tonality refers to the particular system of relationships between notes, chords, and keys (sets of notes and chords) that dominated most Western music from c. 1650 to c. 1900 and that continues to regulate much music.
Definitions taken from Britannica.com at https://www.britannica.com/art/tonality (15th October 2019)
Please note that tonality and harmony are always linked together as musical elements...one cannot be described without looking at the other.
To remember tonality and harmony, we remember:
Key Modulations (make) Functional Modes Change Cadences Chromatically
Pedals Circle Dissonance Augmenting Dim Dom Nea
This involves the majority of music analysis points that you will need.
Key
Modes
Pedals
Dim
Modulations
Change
Circle
Dom
Functional Tonality
Cadences
Dissonance
Nea
Functional Harmony
Chromatically
Augmenting
Other Points
Working Out Keys:
A way to remember the order of # and b's in a key is to learn this phrase:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
# = Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle
to figure out the key with #'s count how many you have in your key and raise the last # by 1 semitone.
e.g 3 #'s = F#, C# & G# -> G# + 1 semitone = A major
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
b = Battle Ends And Down Goes Father Charles
to figure out the key with b's count how many you have in your key and go back by 1 in your order.
e.g 5 b's = Bb, Eb, Ab, Db & Gb -> second to last note in the phrase is Db = Db Major
Modulations:
A modulation is were we shift from one tonality to another. This is most commonly done by following the Circle of Fifths (see below) moving by the dominant degree within your key. This is known as related modulation.
You can modulate by other means such as:
Tertiary Modulation -> moving by a 3rd
Half Step/Tone - raising or lower your key by a semitone or tone
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