Before analyzing a particular musical composition, the performer first of all draws attention to the key and key signs. Indeed, not only the correct reading of the notes depends on this, but also the integral character of the work. An interesting fact is that many composers have a color ear and represent each key in certain colors. Does this happen by chance? Or is it a subtle inner flair?
The concept and definition of tonality
The famous theorists B. L. Yavorsky and I. V. Methodin indicate that this is a high-altitude mode. So, for example, if the tonic is “C” and the mood is “C major”, then the key will be “C major”.
In a narrower (specific) sense, tonality in music is also a system of functionally delimited connections with a certain height. Only on the basis of the triad of consonant. It is characteristic of the harmony of the 17-19th centuries (classic-romantic). In a particular case, we can talk about the existence of several keys, their system of relationships. Such, for example, as a fourth-fifth circle, their related keys, parallel, eponymous and so on.
Another value. This is a hierarchically centralized system of high-altitude connections that are functionally delimited (differentiated). From its association with the fret, palatonicity is formed.
16th century tonality
The tone in 16th-century music is in a quandary. The term itself was introduced in 1821 by F.A. J. Castile-Blazle (a famous French theorist). Continued to develop and disseminate the concept of tonality since 1844 F. Zh. Fetis. In Russia, this term was not used at all until the end of the 19th century. In the works of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky on tonal harmony is not found anywhere. And only Taneyev’s book, The Mobile Counterpoint of Strict Writing, completed in 1906, sheds light on it.
The term "tonality" has several meanings. First of all, it is a palatonic harmonic-functional system. Secondly, this is a specific tonality in music. That is, some mode variety at a certain height. The modern concept of tonality is excellently disclosed in the work of Karl Dahlhaus. He interprets it in the broad sense of the word. Based on his definition, it becomes obvious that the ancient modal Gregorian melody is the first example of tonality. He notes that, in addition to the chord-harmonic, there is a melodic tonality.
The main signs of tonality
- The presence of a particular foundation or center. It can be a sound, some kind of chord or a completely different central element.
- The presence of a certain organization of sound relations, which directly integrates them into a hierarchically subordinate system.
- A single base, center or the whole system, which should be fixed at the same height. Proceeding from this, it follows that the tonality in music presupposes the existence of a kind of centralization located around an element.
- The fret (major, minor), which is given in the form of a chord system and a melody that follows their "outline".
- A number of characteristic dissonances: D with septima and S with sextus.
- Internal change of harmony.
- The fret structure, which is based on three main functions: tonic, subdominant and dominant.
- Large forms based on modulation.
The fret and tonality of Palestrina
In the classical tonality, the principle of gravitation toward the center (tonic) prevails. In the modal mode, on the contrary, there is no such thing. There is only subordination to the scale. Palestrina clearly identified the main features of the fret system in the presence of two layers. This is a choral (monodic) subbase and its structural reorganization. In the Palestinian mode, there is no obvious tendency to tonic. There is also no category as such. Palestrina has a holistic organization of sounds located in height. There are no cadences, respectively, and there is no attraction to the foundation. That is, the construction can belong to absolutely any fret. So, Palestrina has no tonality like the Viennese classics (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven).
Monodic frets and harmonic keys
Major and minor are on the same line with other frets: Aeolian, Ionian, Phrygian, everyday, Lokri, Dorian, Mixolid, and also pentatonic. There is a huge difference between harmonic keys and monodic frets. The keys of major and minor are characterized by internal tension, activity, dynamization and purposefulness of movement. They are also characterized by diverse functional relationships and extreme centralization. All this is absent in monodic modes. They also do not have a clear tendency to tonicity, its dominance. The pronounced dynamism of the tonal system is in close contact with the character of European thinking of the era of the new time. E. Lovinsky successfully noted that modality, in fact, is a stable outlook on the world, while the tonality, on the contrary, is dynamic.
What colors of the rainbow do composers “color” tonality?
Each key, being in the system, has a certain function not only in dynamic-harmonic relations, but also in coloristic terms. In this regard, ideas about the nature and color (literal coloring) are extremely widespread.
So, for example, the key “C major” is central in the overall system and is considered the simplest, so it is painted white. Many musicians, including the
great composers, often show color hearing. An explicit representative of such a rumor is Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov.
So, for example, the key of "E major" was associated with several: bright green, the color of spring birches and pastoral shades. “E flat major” for him is mainly a dark and gloomy tonality, which he painted in his imagination in a gray-bluish tone, characteristic of cities and fortresses. Ludwig van Beethoven considered Sea B to be black. This color is not surprising, because works written in this key always sound mournful and tragic. As you can see, the colors do not arise by chance, they fully correspond to the expressive nature of the music. If you change the tone, it will acquire completely different colors. A vivid example of this is the arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's motet (Ave verum corpus, K.-V. 618) by Franz Liszt. From "D major" he transposed it into "C major", in connection with which the style of music changed, there were lines of romanticism.
What role and place does tonality play in music?
Starting from the 17th century, various keys of chords, mainly with complex structures, have become an important musical expressive means. Sometimes tonal dramaturgy competes with thematic, stage and textual. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky believed that the essence of musical thought directly depends on harmony and modulation, rather than on a melodic drawing. The huge role of tonality is undeniable in the construction of musical forms. This is especially true for large forms: sonata, cyclic, opera, rondo, etc. Among the tools that give convexity and relief, the following are especially distinguished: a gradual or sudden transition from one tonality to another, a quick change of modulations, a comparison of contrasting episodes. All this happens against the background of a stable stay in the main key.
Affinity of keys
Related keys are first, second and third degree. Group one includes all the chords of the diatonic system of the selected or given key. Finding them is extremely simple. For this, it is required from the tonic to find subdominant and dominant chords. These are the fourth and fifth steps. They also have their kindred chords, which are identical in sound composition to them. The second degree of kinship is tonality with the same tonic, but different frets (like the ones of the same name). So, for example, “C major” and “C minor”. Signs of keys, respectively, will be different. In C major there are none, and in the minor of the same name there are three flat.
Chords of the third group have a common level (3). The third degree of kinship also includes two chords, identical in structure and standing at a distance of three tones. So, for example, it is "C major" and "F Sharp Major". All this knowledge is very useful if you need to change the tonality of a song using modulation or rejection.
Conclusion
Thus, tonality has a set of main features that determine its essence. Theorists interpret it differently. Scientists also disagree about its revival and fading. If researchers and musicians of Western European countries discovered it early (back in the 14th century), then in Russia they began to use it much later. That is why the tonality in the music of Viennese classics and romantics is significantly different from that which Palestrina had and will have with Shostakovich, Hindemith, Shchedrin and other composers of the 20th and 21st centuries.