User:Hucbald.SaintAmand/Tonality

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Tonality, in music theory, is a term with multiple meanings. In its most general sense, it describes a systematic organization of pitches in a composition, often with one tone acting as a referential centre: "tonal centricity" often is an essential aspect of tonality. In a more restricted meaning, "tonality" describes the major/minor organization of common practice music. Other recent styles that could be described as "atonal" may have a "tonality" of some sort, determined by internal symmetries instead of centricity.

The term itself was defined in the early 19th century to describe a characteristic of music of the common practice period, but it replaced related terms with more or less similar meanings. "Tonality", in the strict sense of the term, appears linked with harmony but, in a wider sense, it may be applied to melody ("melodic tonality") and to musical styles outside common practice. In a more restricted sense, it is synonymous with "key", denoting the particular category of a musical work within the general system of tonality. It is in this sense that J. S. Bach's Well tempered clavier is a collection of Preludes and Fugues in each of the 24 keys (or tonalities) forming the common-practice system of tonality.

History of the term

The French term tonalité appears for the first time in Alexandre-Étienne Choron’s Sommaire de l’histoire de la musique of 1810, in a variety of meanings including tonalité des Grecs (ancient Greek modes); tonalité ecclésiastique (plainchant); and "ours, which includes only two modes, namely the major and the minor […], utterly modern and one may assure that there is no more than a hundred to a hundred and fifty years that this system prevailed entirely" (Choron 1810, xxxvj-xxxviij).

Castil-Blaze’s Dictionnaire de musique moderne devotes an entry to the concept, which he defines as a "property of the musical mode that consists in the usage of its essential notes." He explains that the essential notes are the prime, fourth and fifth of the mode, and that for this reason only the major and minor modes have been retained (Castil-Blaze 1821, 2:329–30).

The word is given as "tonality" in Sainsbury’s translation of Choron (1810), in 1824; as tonalità in (Lichtenthal 1826, 2:250-51]); and as Tonalität in the German translation of (Jelensperger 1830), in 1833.

It is only with François-Joseph Fétis that tonalité gains its full significance. Fétis defines it as "the regulating principle of the relation between sounds, in the order of succession and of simultaneity" (Fétis 1844, vij). In Musikalische Syntaxis of 1877, Riemann writes: "Since Fétis, the relation of an harmonic structure to a principal chord is called Tonalität" (Riemann 1877, 14).

The term replaces other, more ancient expressions such as mode, key, tone, octave, modulation, etc., which at times denote tonality, particularly when they refer to the major/minor system (as in Masson 1694, Keller 1707, Mattheson 1713, Sulzer 1774), to the plurality of keys (as in Bemetzrieder 1771, Sulzer 1774), or to tonal centricity (Adelung 1801).

Further details on the history of the term can be found in Michael Beiche, "Tonalität", in the Handwörterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie.

Meanings of the term

Dahlhaus 1980 discussed seven meanings of the term:

"'Tonal' in the broadest sense refers to the relationship between pitches (as distinct from rhythmic or dynamic phenomena)."
It is sometimes used, in ethnomusicology, to denote associations of notes based on consonances (fifths or thirds).
"A generic term for the modes as well as the major-minor system."
"A system of tonal relationships and tonal functions, where the most important element is a tonic or central note (or chord)."
"Restricted to the major-minor system of the 17th to the 19th century, it is the counterpart to the term 'modality'".
"Even when restricted to the major-minor system, 'tonality' is not just a synonym for 'key' [...]. The decisive factor in the tonal effect is the fuctional association with the tonic chord. [...] A tonality is thus an expanded key."
"One can distinguish between tonality as the essence of tonal relationships – as 'form' in the Aristotelian sense – and note content as the mere 'material' of a tonal structure."

Hyer 2001 revised this list as follows:

As an adjective ("tonal"), "the term is often used to describe the systematic organization of pitch phenomena in both Western and non-Western music", a meaning that extends from various forms of modality, from medieval ecclesiastical modes, Indonesian sléndro and pélog, Arabic maqam, Indian rāga, etc., to transformations of the rows in Twelve-tone technique. As a noun ("tonality"), on the other hand, it denotes "a theoretical (and thus imaginative) abstraction from actual music", which "can thus be theorized and discussed apart from actual musical contexts."
"Within Western musical traditions, 'tonal' is often used in contrast with 'modal' and 'atonal'", implying a discontinuity on the one hand (around 1600) between modal and tonal music and on the other hand (around 1910) between tonal and atonal music. At the same time, "music historians sometimes describe pre-modern music as being tonal [...]. Here it is assumed that important historical continuities underlie music before and after the emergence of musical modernism around 1600, and that the crucial difference between tonalité ancienne and tonalité moderne is one of emphasis rather than kind."
A set of phenomena, perceived categories of tonal functions, cadences and chord progressions, formal organization, etc., producing a sensation of tonal centricity. As a result, tonal pitches may be understood in terms of a scale or a key rather than as mere acoustical frequencies.
A synonym for "key", the "keyness" of a piece of music.

Hyer concludes that

Perhaps the most common use of the term, then, in either its noun or adjective forms, is to designate the arrangement of musical phenomena around a referential tonic in European music from about 1600 to about 1910. ... Musicians agree that there are two basic modal genera, major and minor, with different but analogous musical and expressive properties. It gives rise, moreover, to abstract relations that control melodic motion and harmonic succession over long expanses of musical time. In its power to form musical goals and regulate the progress of the music towards these moments of arrival, tonality has become, in Western culture, the principal musical means with which to manage expectation and structure desire. It is thus understood to be essential to modern Western music: it determines the coordination of harmony with melody, metre with phrasing, and texture with register, thus encompassing – within its historical domain – the whole of music.Hyer 2001

According to Hyer 2002,

there has been considerable indecision about what musical domain the term covers: whether it applies to both Wstern and non-Western music, or whether, within Western musical traditions, the term can be restricted to the harmonic organization of the so-called common practice (1600-1910) or includes all music that evinces a basic difference between consonance and dissonance. (p. 726)

[To be continued, I am called elsewhere.]

History of tonality

[We probably cannot dispense from saying some words about the history of tonality, how it developed from medieval and Renaissance modality, the rise of the major/minor dichotomy, the rules of figured bass (the "rule of the mi, the rule of the octave) that slowly confirmed it, the change from solmisation to the alphabetic system of notating pitches, the rules for the preparation and resolution of dissonances, etc., and how it dissolved in atonality. Some of this may have to be displaced to more specific articles, which will then have to be reviewed together with this one.]

[To avoid confusion for the reader it is very important that we pay careful attention to keeping separate the discussion of tonality in music and the discussion of the development of the theory of tonality. It is very easy to start confusing ideas about what tonality is (or might be) with the data enshrined in scores. For example, here we are referring to "rules for the preparation and resolution of dissonances", which could easily end up being a discussion of (mutable) theory instead of the (immutable, or nearly so) notes in the scores of Bach or Beethoven.]

Theories of tonality

Dmitri Tymoczko considers and discusses "three theories that have been used to explain tonal harmony: root-motion theories, which emphasize the intervallic distance between successive chord-roots; scale-degree theories, which assert that the triads on each scale degree tend to move in characteristic ways; and function theories, which group chords into larger ('functional') categories" (Tymoczko 2003, 1). These three theories will be examined here in a putative chronological order. As Tymoczko stressed, the distinction between them may not be sharp. "Rameau in particular is an important progenitor of all of the theories considered" (Tymoczko 2003, 2). But the purpose here, as in his paper, is "to see how well we can explain the most elementary features of tonal harmony on the basis of a few simple principles. In doing so, we will hopefully come to appreciate how these various principles can be combined" (Tymoczko 2003, 3).

Scale degrees

[ Jean-Philippe Rameau, Traité (1722); Georg Joseph Vogler, Handbuch zur Harmonielehre (1802); Gottfried Weber, Versuch (1817-1824); (Robert Schumann); Simon Sechter, Grundsätze (1853-1854); Anton Bruckner, Vorlesungen (1950); Heinrich Schenker, Harmonielehre (1906); Arnold Schoenberg, Harmonielehre, 1911; Walter Piston, Harmony, 1941; etc.]

Tonal fuctions

[ Hugo Riemann; see Riemannian theory, very much in need of being completed; and Diatonic_function#Functional_harmony, apparently confusing the true Riemannian theory of functions with "functions" of the scale degrees...]

Root motions

[Tymoczko, p.3: "Figures such as Rameau, Schoenberg (1969) [Structural Functions], Sadai (1980) [Harmony], and Meeus (2000) [MTO 6.1; see also Meeus' own website], have all explored root-motion theories. In most cases, these writers have supplemented their theories with additional considerations foreign to the root-motion perspective. Meeus, however, comes close to articulating the sort of pure root-motion theory that we shall be considering here." Tymoczko himself, David Lewin and Erno Lendvai have also been mentioned in this context.]

Foundations of tonality

[These look like being all topics involving some dispute. It should make interesting reading, but will require attention to questions of balance.]

One area of disagreement going back to the origin of the term tonality is whether tonality is natural or inherent in acoustical phenomena, whether it is inherent in the human nervous system or a psychological construct, whether it is inborn or learned, and to what degree it is all these things (Meyer 1967, 236).

In nature

A viewpoint held by many theorists since the third quarter of the nineteenth century, following the publication in 1862 of the first edition of Hermann Helmholtz's On the Sensations of Tone (Helmholtz 1877), holds that diatonic scales and tonality arise from natural overtones (Riemann 1872; Riemann 1875; Riemann 1882; Riemann 1893; Riemann 1905; Riemann 1914–15; Schenker 1906–35; Hindemith 1937–70).

["Third quarter of the nineteenth century" could use some rethinking. Rameau and possibly even Mersenne need to be brought into the discussion as at least early precursors of the overtone hypothesis.]

[Needed: documentation of criticism of the theory of the chord of nature: difficulties posed by the minor mode, the importance of the subdominant scale degree, and the major-seventh leading tone. Counterproposal of an "undertone series" (Riemann 1875); criticism of this as contrary to nature.]

In physiology

In psychology

Tonality outside the common practice

Extra-European musics

The terms "tonality" and "tonal" are widely applied also in studies of non-Western traditional music (Arabic maqam, Indian raga, Indonesian slendro etc.), with reference to the "systematic arrangements of pitch phenomena and relations between them" (Hyer 2001; Hyer 2002). Felix Wörner, Ullrich Scheideler, and Philip Rupprecht in the introduction to a collection of essays dedicated to the concept and practice of tonality between 1900 and 1950 describe it generally as "the awareness of key in music" (Wörner, Scheideler, and Rupprecht 2012, 11).

Earlier European music

[Church modes and such goes here. Should the historical use of "tone"="mode" be mentioned, as well as the use of "tonality" by modern theorists like Powers?]

European traditional music

"Tonality" is also used to describe systems of harmonic arrangement that differ significantly from those of the common practice, but may nevertheless be explained by analogous structures. For example, "Flamenco tonality", in which dominant (V–I) function is largely replaced by subtonic (VII–I) function (Manuel 2006, ^{[page needed]}).

After the common-practice period

[This could get complicated, but is probably the best place to put the discussion of pop, jazz, and rock "tonalities" = "modal" melodic/harmonic structures, alongside similar practices in the music of composers such as Stravinsky and Bartók.]

Sources

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Castil-Blaze. 1821. Dictionnaire de musique moderne. Paris: Au magazin de musique de la Lyre moderne.
Choron, Alexandre. 1810. "Introduction: Sommaire de l'histoire de la musique." In Alexandre Choron and François Fayolle, Dictionnaire historique des musiciens artistes et amateurs, morts ou vivants: qui se sont illustrés en une partie quelconque de la musique et des arts qui y sont relatifs ... ; précédé d'un sommaire de l'histoire de la musique. 2 vols. 1:xi–xcii. Paris: Valade et Lenormant, 1810–11. English translation in Dictionary of Musicians [...] Together With [...] a Summary of the History of Music. London: Sainsbury and Co., 1824
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