Glossary
Tonality
Glossary
Used narrowly, the term tonality refers to tonal music written in the tonal system of the common practice period (roughly 1650 to 1900), or any music that uses the same restrictive harmonic conventions, generally employing triads and a major tonic or minor tonic. Used more broadly, tonal music could be considered anything not atonal.
Tymoczko wrote an entire book (2011) laying out principles to discuss “music that is neither classically tonal nor completely atonal.” Harmonious follows this broader definition of tonality to include the music of Chopin, Wagner, and Debussy, as well as jazz, underscoring the case Tymoczko makes that a scalar approach underlies six centuries of Western musical composition, where composers explored the inherent structure of the chromatic scale and extended harmony beyond the diatonic, major-minor system, exhausting the chromatic scale’s underlying possibilities without abandoning the tonal possibilities of previous centuries. (See References.)
Used narrowly, the term tonality refers to tonal music written in the tonal system of the common practice period (roughly 1650 to 1900), or any music that uses the same restrictive harmonic conventions, generally employing triads and a major tonic or minor tonic. Used more broadly, tonal music could be considered anything not atonal.
Tymoczko wrote an entire book (2011) laying out principles to discuss “music that is neither classically tonal nor completely atonal.” Harmonious follows this broader definition of tonality to include the music of Chopin, Wagner, and Debussy, as well as jazz, underscoring the case Tymoczko makes that a scalar approach underlies six centuries of Western musical composition, where composers explored the inherent structure of the chromatic scale and extended harmony beyond the diatonic, major-minor system, exhausting the chromatic scale’s underlying possibilities without abandoning the tonal possibilities of previous centuries. (See References.)