Sentence examples for tonic key from inspiring English sources

A composition should move from the original, or tonic, key through a series of keys.

In binary form, the music of the first half moves from the tonic key to a closely related key.

In Mozart the return of the tonic key and subject is managed with understated punctuality, the actual moment of recapitulation gliding in almost unnoticed.

Thus, in the sonata form of the concerto's first movement, the exposition often remains in the tonic key while played by the entire orchestra the first time through.

The second theme, against which the first persists as a counterpoint, is stated "on" rather than "in" the dominant; that is, its harmonies suggest the dominant key, but remain part of the home, or tonic, key.

In essence it consists of an exposition in which one or more themes are presented, the first (often forceful in character) in the tonic key and the second (often lyric) in the dominant.

By the 1740s, Italian symphonists had learned to sustain interest by these means and to obtain contrast by dramatically apposing tunes of different character in different keys (usually the tonic, or home key, and the dominant, located five tones above the tonic, or related major or minor keys).

Any of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale can serve as the tonic of a key.

Usually the opening of the exposition is firmly rooted in the tonic, or "home," key of the work.

For the RP task ("tonal classification"), musicians were presented with an arpeggiated dominant chord followed by a tone that was either 1) the tonic of the key, or 2) a semitone higher than the tonic (Fig. 1 b ).

In the sonata forms that emerged as the primary musical forms of the mid-18th century, modulation from the tonic to other keys as a means of obtaining contrast became of prime importance.