Tonality
Tonality ensures a melody’s wholeness, completeness.
What does
tonality mean?
It
means, that each note of the melody belongs to “a certain note”,
the base note, and they have a really close connection. This connection is
so strong, that no matter where a certain note of the melody is, we feel it is
connected to the base note.
With a comparison: Tonality is a force similar to what the Sun emits towards
the other planets in the Solar System.
The base note is always the
initial note of a major or minor scale; tonality is only valid in these note
systems.
simply expressed: tonality = pursuit of
the base note.
A more professional
explanation: Tonality means all notes of a specific melody, the notes attraction
towards each other (their belonging into the same class), and their
organization around a common base note (This is tonic!) THIS IS TONALITY!
53/ As proof let us listen to
the first line of the previously heard folk song!
“Hová
hullott le a hó?” (Where did the snow fall?) – For
the base note, and the tonic!
Exceptionally there is only
one example, but according to what has been said before, it is true for every
melody!
The question of tonality can
be understood even better if we listen to two more examples from today’s modern
music, where the opposite of tonality, “atonality” characterizes
music. 54/ A sample of a string
quartet from a contemporary Hungarian composer.
55/ This wind instrument music is also the work of a
Hungarian composer.
Listenning to the music we can
instantly hear that there is no connecting force between the notes. We cannot
recognize neither a melody, nor rhythm. This is a completely different world,
now the ideals, aims, and the structuring are different. Modern composer replace the
word atonality with the following
expressions:: floating tonality, free tonality, ambiguous
tonality, neutral tonality, expanded tonality. In this filed I found it
essential to set forth the opinion of composer Hindemith, Paul (1895 – 1963), who stated the following: “There are two kinds of music. Good, in which the composer uses the relation of notes to each other
intelligently. Bad, in which the composer knows nothing about these, thus he tosses them
on top of each other indiscriminately. Consonance, dissonance When listening to music we
often feel that some sounds and notes are pleasant, while some our unpleasant
for our ears. The former are the consonant sounds, which mean the
notes’ simultaneous sounding, but at different pitches, and their intertwining
sounding together. So the word consonant means sounding together. Dissonant sounding is the
opposite, the notes sound wrong and have a unsettling effect; the tension in
the sounding requires necessary soothing, so what comes after is the consonant
sounding, which gives relief. We can state that the two
different soundings is in contrast, however they cannot exist without each
other, just like light and shadow. Nature also creates pairs of contrast, for
example by the shifts of day and night or ebb and flow. Our emotions also
include joy and sadness; we can list many more examples. Returning to music, if a piece
of music would only consist of either consonant or dissonant sounding, it
simple would not be enjoyable; while the alternation of those is what provides
the flow and diversity of music. 56/
VIII. symphony I. movement elaboration section. In this example a motif
reaches a dissonant climax after
continuous repetitions, which is then followed by the entry of the first theme,
which is of course consonant.
57/
II. symphony II. movement: similarly the dissonant sounding appears at
the climax of the elaboration section; This is extremely dissonant, it even
“hurts your ear”.
58/
IV. symphony IV. movement, coda. The section that follows the dissonant
chord is a relief after the “broken sounding”. The contrast of course is not
without purpose, it has an effect on us; just as we can hardly wait sunshine
and warm weather after a cold, rainy day. What else can be said? The battle and
unity of contrasts.
The theme and its development Most melodies – also including
the examples listened before – meet the following requirements: it has a
beginning, middle, and an end, and it has tonality. In this case we can say
that the melody is full; it gives a feeling of closure in the listener. In classical music melodies
are somewhat different. These melodies are sometimes less melodious, and they
don’t always provide a feeling of closure. Here this is neither a requirement
nor an aim. Why? What is the aim? What are the requirements? Mainly that the
melody – most often the motif – has to be
developable. Here I have to note, that in music
melodies are called themes, most
often: first theme, second theme, third- or closing theme. To put it more
elaborately: musical sentence, or
the phrase musical thought is even
more beautiful. We are listening to two
examples! 59/ V. symphony
I. movement, first theme, which is none other than the fate-motif; in fact it is
not qualified as a real melody.
60/ VI.
symphony V. movement, first theme. Significantly longer, a real melody /theme, musical
thought!/
In the following let us
observe, how the theme is further developed. On this question, I quote the
thoughts of L. Bernstein, /1935-1996/,
world famous American conductor and pianist, naturally not word by word. This is the so called. 1-2-3 method,
where 1 – the introduction of the
theme, 2 – always the repetition of 1,
and 3 – advancement or momentum. L. Bernstein uses the
signaling words of a race to express the previous thoughts:: 1. Ready! 2. Set! 3. Go! (or firing
a pistol), And the racers start running. 61/ The fate-motif continues almost unstoppably, despite
that the motifs fourth note is held longer during its first and second sounding.
62/ In the second example the development is more dignified. The
theme’s third version is the so called complete or finished version.
This analysis is of course
relevant within the musical structure of the sonata
form! Index atonality, gr-lat – without tone, the opposite of tonality;
the denial and dissolving of music’s traditional key structure, <back