Harmony and Tonality Flashcards
Tonality
The key of the music. The piece will be built mainly from a particular scale e.g. major
Major
A happy uplifting sound
Minor
A sad, more serious sound
Modal
Came before scales
Atonal
Music with no sense of fixed tonality/key. May sound rather random
Tonal
Will have a sense of key/tonal centre
Pentatonic
A five note scale
Whole tone
A scale made up of only whole notes. It has a spooky and unsettling effect
Whole tone
A scale made up of only whole notes. It has a spooky and unsettling effect
Consonance
Music/harmonies that sound nice
Drone
Long held note, usually in the base. Often two noted held together
Modulation
To change key/tonality. The most common modulations are to go to the dominant, subdominant or relative minor keys
Tierce de Picardie
When a piece in a minor key finishes in a major chord
Cadences
A cadence is formed by the two chords that come at the end of a musical phrase
Perfect cadence
V-I Sounds final and complete
Plagal cadence
IV-I Also sounds complete, but not as strong. Used for the Amen at the end of hymns
Imperfect cadence
I-V Unfinished feel to the music
Interrupted cadence
V-VI Your ears expect it to go to the tonic as in a perfect cadence, but instead it goes to the VI chord. So it is a surprise cadence
Harmony
Two or more notes of different pitches create harmony
Chromatic
Scale made up of semitones. A note is classed as being chromatic within a piece when it is not part of the key signature
Diatonic
Harmony uses only the notes that belong to the major or minor keys
Diatonic
Harmony uses only the notes that belong to the major or minor keys
Dissonance
Clashing music/harmonies
Discords
Harsh, dissonant sounding combination of notes
Close harmony
Where the notes are close together within the separate parts
