Defining Tonality

Tonality

Over the years there have been many ideas of tonality and how it shaped Western Music culture. According to an article over tonality by Danlee Mitchell and Jack Logan, tonality is a term used to describe the arrangement of the dominant and subdominant above and below the tonic. Another definition for tonality is that it refers to systematic arrangements of pitch phenomena and relations between them. With all the technical terms and confusions it is no wonder why many students have a hard time understanding the meaning of tonality.

What is Tonality?

There are many different aspects of tonality that one must know before they can fully start to comprehend the meaning. The first would be the relationship between the different pitches. Every pitch can be considered tonal when it is placed at the tonal center, otherwise known as the key of the music. For example, if you were playing a piece in the key of C you will most likely begin and end on the note C because it would be considered tonal. Now just because it ends on C doesn’t necessarily mean it is tonal, but when you factor in the relationships of the dominant and subdominant it gives tonality a better definition. The dominant is the fifth note of the scale which has the most pull back to the tonic or the base note such at G to C. This phenomenon is governed by the overtone series and can be found anywhere including nature. It has been discovered that male mosquitoes fly at a frequency higher than a female causing them to vibrate at a perfect fifth.

The overtone series is a complex measurement of pitches that helps musicians understand how they are related to each other.

Above you will see a picture of the overtone series and the relation of pitches.

All to...

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... at the piece below you can see how he uses the relationship of the dominant and tonic to create that inevitable drive.

I I I viio7/V V I I

I IV V7 I V I

Above you will see a small excerpt from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Spring movement.

If you notice the music follows the same pattern of I-IV-V but there is one major difference in this piece than the one previously discussed. This piece takes the leading tone of the dominant and creates an unresolved motion that can only be solved by the dominant. Normally the minor II chord would be used in this situation but Vivaldi thought it would be more effective using a viio7/V to strengthen the relationship of the dominant. This gives listeners an idea of all the possibilities tonality can emerge from and how it is present in a wide variety of Western music.