BASIC TONAL MATERIALS

TONALITY

What is and what creates tonality? How can C major and A minor share the same pitches and what makes one hear C as the tonic of C major and A as the tonic of A minor? Tonality is created when one pitch sounds more important and more stable than all the surrounding pitches. This pitch is called tonic. It is the center of the musical organization and the other pitches often seem to progress towards this pitch. The tonic is not always the first pitch sounded in the musical setting, but is often the last. It may not be the pitch that occurs with the most frequency, but it will occur at significant rhythmic and structural points, which not only establishes its importance, but also facilitates the establishment of me-ter.

A second pitch, a perfect fifth above or perfect fourth below the tonic pitch is often used to establish the tonic as the primary center. This pitch, called the dominant, may occur more often in the piece than the tonic, but often occurs in a rhythmic position which points to the tonic pitch. This dominant pitch is the second overtone or the third note of the harmonic series, and its relationship to acoustics may be why the dominant–tonic relationship is universal and not limited to the European major/minor system.

The dominant is the third pitch of the harmonic series and the first pitch of the series that is not the fundamental pitch, and within the series, is bordered above and below by the fundamental pitch.

3.1 Harmonic series

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˙ ˙ ˙ b œ ˙ ˙ ˙ # œ ˙ œ b œ n ˙ ˙

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

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1 2 3

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The tonic is established in the example below, by the repeated B rising and falling to the E. The rhyth-mic placement suggests a three beat meter. The B, the dominant pitch, occurs more often than the E, but the E has a sense of finality and stability. The meter is not determined by what is written on the staff, but rather, how we experience the placement of the important notes determines how it is written on the staff. Here the two important notes occur every three beats, and the music—the aural experience, not just the notation, suggests the meter.

3.2 Tonic established using Dominant pitch

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Ex. 3.2 established E as tonic, but is it E major or E minor? Most people tend to identify it as being in E major even though no pitch that would determine either major or minor has been sounded. The reason may be related to the overtone series in that the fifth note of the series is a major third and is often heard even when absent. This example needs a third pitch to definitively establish the modality as ei-ther major or minor. The pitch that determines the modality is the mediant, the middle note between dominant and tonic.

Tonality, by definition, indicates a hierarchy of pitches, where one pitch is more stable than all the oth-ers. This means that not all pitches have the same importance in a tonal musical setting. What are the three most important pitches? Students with some training in European harmonic theory are quick to inaccurately respond I, IV, and V, referring to the triads on the first, fourth and fifth degrees of a major scale. Some wrongly list a leading tone pitch, but a leading tone pitch is not present in all modes. Tonal music existed long before any system of harmonic progression was developed. The three most impor-tant pitches are the tonic (the home pitch), the dominant (a perfect fifth above the tonic), and the me-diant (which determines modality, either major or minor). A piece may be tonal and not necessarily in the major/minor system. There are pieces that may be in other major and minor modes or highly chromatic implying major or minor, but still imply one pitch as the center of the musical structure.

Tonality is established in the selection below by the initial dominant to tonic statement. E sounds like the home pitch because it is preceded by its dominant and it is held for a longer duration. The E occurs two more times in the first full measure and begins the second measure. B, the dominant pitch, occurs three times in the second measure and begins the third. The mediant is heard for the first time in the third measure establishing the modality as minor and not major. The line ends tonic-dominant-tonic, reinforcing E as the primary pitch. The meter (not shown) is clearly audible due to the placement of the tonic and dominant and their relative durations. A glance at this melody with no sharps or flats might suggest C major or its relative minor A. The melody itself suggests E as the tonal center. No chords needed to hear E as the tonic. This melody is in the key of E phrygian, one of the minor modes that will be discussed in chapter 12.

3.3 E as Tonic of a phrygian melody

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C would not be heard as tonic in the first phrase of Amazing Grace, shown below, even though it begins and ends with C. The first C sounds like a pickup note to the F. C to F is the dominant to tonic relation-ship and makes the F sound like the home pitch. The establishment of F as tonic is reinforced by hold-ing the F for two counts. The A in the second measure indicates this melody is in a major mode. The four half notes in the example are the tonic, dominant and mediant. The G and D occur on weaker beats and for shorter durations. This melody is in an F major mode, not because of key signatures or har-monic progressions, but because of placement of the three important pitches.

3.4 Amazing Grace: first phrase

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The three important pitches were placed in rhythmically significant places in these two examples from Charlie Parker. In both, the underlying structure implied T-M-D-M-T, 1-3-5-3-1, or Do-Mi-So-Mi-Do. In the first example, a G major tonality was clearly indicated using strictly melodic principles. G was estab-lished without depending on a harmonic progression, chordal instrument, or a written key signature. The first one used only diatonic notes the second included some chromatic passing tones. Below each melody are letters indicating the tonic, dominant and mediant pitches.

3.5 Diatonic notes

3.6 Diatonic and Chromatic tones

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Here are two examples from Bach and one from Mozart to further illustrate how the rhythmic place-ment of the tonic, dominant and mediant pitches aid the establishplace-ment of tonality and meter.

3.7 J. S. Bach: Sonata VI, Preludio, for solo violin

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3.9 Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K.525, First Movement

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c œ ‰ j œ œ ‰ j

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