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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.
Major and minor third in a major chord: major third 'M' on bottom, minor third 'm' on top. Major and minor may also refer to scales and chords that contain a major third or a minor third, respectively. A major scale is a scale in which the third scale degree (the mediant) is a major third above the tonic note.
Major/minor compositions are musical compositions that begin in a major key and end in a minor key (generally the parallel minor), specifying the keynote (as C major/minor). This is a very unusual form in tonal music, [ 1 ] [ 2 ] although examples became more common in the nineteenth century. [ 3 ]
C-major and G-major are keys whose 1st scale degrees are separated by a musical fifth (the pattern of relations is represented in the circle of fifths" for major keys). A-minor and C-major share the same notes of the scale but with a different tonic (so-called relative minor key, i.e. C-major and A-minor). And C-major and C-minor have the same ...
The key may be in the major or minor mode, though musicians assume major when this is not specified; for example "This piece is in C" implies that the key of the piece is C major. Popular songs and classical music from the common practice period are usually in one key. Longer pieces in the classical repertoire may have sections in contrasting keys.
In the key of C major, these would be: D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, and C minor. Despite being three sharps or flats away from the original key in the circle of fifths, parallel keys are also considered as closely related keys as the tonal center is the same, and this makes this key have an affinity with the original key.
In European art music, the common practice period was the period of about 250 years during which the tonal system was regarded as the only basis for composition. It began when composers' use of the tonal system had clearly superseded earlier systems, and ended when some composers began using significantly modified versions of the tonal system, and began developing other systems as well.
The Aeolian mode is identical with the natural minor scale. Thus, it is ubiquitous in minor-key music. The following is a list of some examples that are distinguishable from ordinary minor tonality, which also uses the melodic minor scale and the harmonic minor scale as required. Traditional – "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen"