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In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in Western classical music, art music, and pop music. Tonality (from "Tonic") or key: Music which uses the notes of a particular scale is said to be "in the key of" that scale or in the tonality of that scale.
A piece in a major key might modulate up a fifth to the dominant (a common occurrence in Western music), resulting in a new key signature with an additional sharp. If the original key was C-sharp, such a modulation would lead to the theoretical key of G-sharp major (with eight sharps) requiring an F in place of the F ♯. This section could be ...
Musical symbols are marks and symbols in musical notation that indicate various aspects of how a piece of music is to be performed. There are symbols to communicate information about many musical elements, including pitch, duration, dynamics, or articulation of musical notes; tempo, metre, form (e.g., whether sections are repeated), and details about specific playing techniques (e.g., which ...
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and / or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions, and directionality.. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or the root of a triad with the greatest stability in a melody or in its harmony is called the tonic.
Moreover, the key signature of the piece of music (or section) will generally reflect the accidentals in the corresponding major scale. For instance, if a piece of music is in E ♭ major, then the seven pitches in the E ♭ major scale (E ♭ , F, G, A ♭ , B ♭ , C and D) are considered diatonic pitches, and the other five pitches (E ...
The concept of "mode" in Western music theory has three successive stages: in Gregorian chant theory, in Renaissance polyphonic theory, and in tonal harmonic music of the common practice period. In all three contexts, "mode" incorporates the idea of the diatonic scale , but differs from it by also involving an element of melody type .
"E-flat was the key Haydn chose most often for [string] quartets, ten times in all, and in every other case he wrote the slow movement in the dominant, B-flat major." [ 2 ] Or "when composing church music and operatic music in E-flat major, [Joseph] Haydn often substituted cors anglais for oboes in this period", and also in Symphony No. 22 .
[1] This alteration in the third degree "greatly changes" the mood of the music, and "music based on minor scales tends to" be considered to "sound serious or melancholic," [1] at least to contemporary Western ears. Minor keys are sometimes said to have a more interesting, possibly darker sound than plain major scales. [2]