Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Tonality
To-nal′i-ty
,Noun.
[Cf. F.
tonalité
.] (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
. Helmholtz.
Definition 2024
tonality
tonality
English
Noun
tonality (plural tonalities)
- (music) The system of seven tones built on a tonic key; the 24 major and minor scales.
- (music) A sound of specific pitch and quality; timbre.
- (music) The quality of all the tones in a composition heard in relation to the tonic.
- The interrelation of the tones in a painting.