What is tonality in music. The tone of the song. Major, minor

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Before analyzing a particular musical composition, the performer first of all pays attention to the key and key signs. After all, not only the correct reading of the notes depends on this, but also the holistic nature of the work. An interesting fact is that many composers have a color ear and represent each key in certain colors. Does it happen by chance? Or is it a subtle inner flair?

The concept and definition of tonality

Famous theorists B. L. Yavorsky and I. V. Sposobin indicate that this is a high- altitude modal position. So, for example, if the tonic is "C" and the mode is "Major", then the key will be "C Major".

In a narrower (specific) sense, tonality in music is also a system of functionally delimited connections, with a certain height. Only already on the basis of the consonant triad. It is typical for the harmony of the 17th-19th centuries (classical-romantic). In a particular case, we can talk about the existence of several tonalities, their system of relationships. Such as, for example, quarto-fifthcircle, their related keys, parallel, eponymous, etc.

One more meaning. This is a hierarchically centralized system of high-rise connections that are functionally delimited (differentiated). From its combination with the fret, a frettonality is formed.

Pitch in the 16th century

Pitch in 16th century music is in a quandary. The term itself was introduced in 1821 by F. A. J. Castile-Blazzle (a famous French theorist). Continued to develop and disseminate the concept of tonality since 1844 F. J. Fetis. In Russia, this term was not used at all until the end of the 19th century. In the works of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky about tonal harmony is not found anywhere. And only Taneyev's book "The Mobile Counterpoint of Strict Writing", completed in 1906, sheds light on it.

The term "tonality" has several meanings. First, it is a ladotonal harmonic-functional system. Secondly, it is a specific tonality in music. That is, some kind of modal variety at a certain height. The modern concept of tonality is excellently revealed in the work of Karl Dahlhaus. He interprets it in the broadest sense of the word. Based on his definition, it becomes obvious that the ancient modal Gregorian melody is the first example of tonality. He notes that, in addition to the chord-harmonic, there is a melodic tonality.

Main signs of tonality

1. The presence of a certain foundation or center. It could be a sound, a chord, or a completely different centerpiece.
2. Availabilitysome organization of sound relations, which directly combines them into a hierarchically subordinate system.
3. A single abutment, center or whole system that must be fixed at the same height. Based on this, it follows that the tonality in music implies the presence of a kind of centralization around this or that element.
4. Frame (major, minor), which is given in the form of a chord system and a melody that follows their "canvas".
5. A number of characteristic dissonances: D with a seventh and S with a sixth.
6. Internal change of harmony.
7. Modal structure based on three main functions: tonic, subdominant and dominant.
8. Major shapes based on modulation.

Palestrina's mode and tone

In classical tonality, the principle of attraction to the center (tonic) prevails. In the modal mode, on the contrary, this is not the case. There is only subordination to the scale. In Palestrina, the main features of the fret system are clearly identified in the presence of two layers. This is a choral (monodic) sub-base and its structural reorganization. In the Palestrian mode, there is no obvious inclination towards the tonic. There is also no category as such. Palestrina has a holistic organization of sounds located in height. There are no cadences, respectively, there is no inclination to the foundation. That is, constructions can belong to absolutely any fret. So, Palestrina does not have the tonality of the Viennese classics (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven).

Monodic modes and harmonic keys

Major and minor are on a par with other modes: Aeolian, Ionian, Phrygian, everyday, Locrian, Dorian, Mixolydian, and also pentatonic. There is a huge difference between harmonic keys and monodic modes. Major and minor keys are characterized by internal tension, activity, dynamization and purposefulness of movement. They are also characterized by diverse functional relationships and extreme centralization. All this is absent in monodic modes. They also do not have a distinct attraction to the tonic, its dominance. The pronounced dynamism of the tonal system is in close contact with the nature of European thinking in the era of modern times. E. Lovinsky successfully noted that modality, in fact, is a stable view of the world, while tonality, on the contrary, is dynamic.

What colors of the rainbow do composers color the keys with?

Each tonality, being in the system, has a certain function not only in dynamic-harmonic relations, but also in terms of color. In this regard, ideas about character and color (color in the literal sense) are extremely common.

So, for example, the key "C major" is central in the overall system and is considered the simplest, so it is painted white. Many musicians, including great composers, often have color hearing. Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov is considered a clear representative of such a rumor.

So, for example, the key"E major" he associated with several: bright green, the color of spring birch trees and pastoral shades. "E flat major" for him is a predominantly dark and gloomy tonality, which he painted in his imagination in a gray-bluish tone, characteristic of cities and fortresses. Ludwig van Beethoven considered B minor to be black. This color is not surprising, because works written in this key always sound mournful and tragic. As you can see, the colors do not appear by chance, they are fully consistent with the expressive nature of the music. If you change the tonality, then it will acquire completely different colors. A vivid example of this is the arrangement of the motet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Ave verum corpus, K.-V. 618) by Franz Liszt. From "D major" he transposed it into "B major", in connection with which the style of music changed, features of romanticism appeared.

What is the role and place of tonality in music?

From the 17th century onwards, various tonalities of chords, mostly with complex structures, became an important musical expression. Sometimes tonal dramaturgy also competes with thematic, stage and text. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky believed that the essence of musical thought directly depends on harmony and modulation, rather than on melodic pattern. In the construction of musical forms, the enormous role of tonality is undeniable. This is especially true of large forms: sonata, cyclic, opera, rondo, and so on. Among the means that give bulge and relief, especiallythe following stand out: a gradual or sudden transition from one key to another, a quick change of modulations, a comparison of contrasting episodes. All this happens against the backdrop of a steady stay in the main key.

Kinship of keys

Related keys are first, second and third degree. Group number one includes all chords of the diatonic system of the chosen or given key. Finding them is extremely easy. This requires the tonic to find subdominant and dominant chords. These are the fourth and fifth steps. They also have their own related chords that are identical in sound composition to them. The second degree of kinship is keys with the same tonic, but different modes (as well as those of the same name). So, for example, "C major" and "C minor". Signs of tonality, respectively, will be different. In "C major" they are not, but in the minor of the same name there are three flats.

Chords of the third group have a common step (3). The third degree of kinship also includes two chords, identical in structure and standing at a distance of three tones. So, for example, these are "C major" and "F sharp major". All this knowledge will be very useful if you need to change the key of a song using modulation or deflection.

Conclusion

Thus, tonality has a set of main features that determine its essence. Theorists interpret it differently. Also, scientists disagree about its revival and extinction. If researchers and musicians of Western European countriesdiscovered it early (as early as the 14th century), then in Russia it began to be used much later. That is why the tonality in the music of the Viennese classics and romantics differs significantly from that of Palestrina and will be of Shostakovich, Hindemith, Shchedrin and other composers of the 20th-21st century.