United States or Senegal ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
That entire group of harmonies which, intimately related to a foundation or "tonic" chord, may be considered as clustered around and drawn to it. Major Tonality. That tonality in which the upper two of the three tones constituting its tonic chord, when ranged upward from its foundation tone, are found at distances of four and seven semitones respectively from it. Minor Tonality.
The Three Ages, from its analogies of type and manner with the Baptism of the Capitol, would appear to be the earlier of the two imaginative works here grouped together, but to date later than that picture. The tonality of the picture is of an exquisite silveriness that of clear, moderate daylight, though this relative paleness may have been somewhat increased by time.
If the tone C is played in the lower octave of the piano, no less than sixteen overtones vibrate with it. A few of these are audible to the ordinary listener, but very keen ears will hear more of them. In Claude Debussy's compositions, his system of harmony and tonality is intimately connected with these laws of natural harmonics.
Thus if the day be one in which a warm mellow haze pervades the air, those tones of the sky repeated upon the backs of cattle, a roadway, clothing, or what not, may effect a more positive tonality than the lesser items would give which also reflect it. Herein then is the principle of Tonality: That all parts of the picture should be bound together by the dominating color or colors of the picture.
It is an art of peculiar sensitiveness, more delicately expressive than that of Wagner; not satisfying itself with the modern tonality, but going back to old modes a rebel, as M. Saint-Saëns remarks, to the polyphony which had governed music since Bach's day, and which is perhaps, after all, "a heresy destined to disappear."
Word Of The Day