tonalities

Tonality is the organization of pitch content around a central pitch, the tonic, which functions as a point of rest and gravity. In tonal music, melodies, chords, and harmonic progressions are designed to lead toward and away from the tonic, creating a sense of direction and closure. The most common tonal system in Western music uses major and minor scales; a piece is typically understood in a key, defined by its tonic and the scale associated with it. Different tonalities, including modes and keys based on different scales, are possible within this framework.

Key elements include the tonic, dominant, and subdominant; chords built from scale degrees, especially triads on these degrees, establish a hierarchy known as functional harmony. Cadences—progressions that establish or confirm the key—provide punctuation and closure. Modulation is the process of moving from one key to another, often through pivot chords or chromatic chords.

Historically, Western tonal harmony emerged in the Baroque era and became the prevailing system through the Classical and Romantic eras, enabling long-range modulation and expressive contrast. In the 20th century, composers explored atonality, polytonality, and other approaches that de-emphasized a central key; however, tonality remains a reference point in much of Western music and persists in many contemporary works.

Tonality also appears in forms beyond major/minor, including modal tonality, where different modes emphasize different scales and tonal centers, and in non-Western traditions with their own tuning and harmonic practices. In discussing tonality, terms such as key, scale, tonic, dominant, cadence, modulation, and harmony are commonly used.