Tonality is the principle of key in music; the character that a composition has by virtue of the key in which it is written, or through the family relationship of all its tones and chordss to the keynote, or tonic, of the whole.

Tonality also refers to the entire system of compositional techniques, procedures, and materials used in the common era and most popular music. Tonal music can be contrasted with atonal music, which does not feel as if it has a tonal center or key. Musical sensations associated with tonality include dissonance and resolution. Almost all tonal music begins and ends in the overall key of the piece.

Hermann von Helmholtz wrote, "The predominance of the tonic as the link which connects all the tones of a piece, we may, with F['e]tis, term the principle of tonality."

External link

• Tonal Harmony Reference Materials for the Undergraduate Theory Student

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