WHAT, EXACTLY, IS “TONALITY”?

Chapter:

CHAPTER 5 The Italian Concerto Style and the Rise of Tonality-driven Form

Source:

MUSIC IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

Author(s):

Richard Taruskin

ex. 5-3 Arcangelo Corelli, Sonata da chiesa, Op. 3, no. 11, second movement (Presto)

And yet this description has so far omitted the most potent factor in the movement’s extraordinary momentum. That factor is the harmony—the “tonal” harmony, as we now call it. The standardizing of harmonic functions, something going on in all music at the time but particularly foregrounded and made an “issue” in the Italian string music of which Corelli was the foremost exponent, was his most transforming and enduring legacy.

Citation (MLA):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 5 The Italian Concerto Style and the Rise of Tonality-driven Form." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2024. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-05002.xml>.

Citation (APA):

Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 5 The Italian Concerto Style and the Rise of Tonality-driven Form. In Oxford University Press, Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries. New York, USA. Retrieved 8 Dec. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-05002.xml

Citation (Chicago):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 5 The Italian Concerto Style and the Rise of Tonality-driven Form." In Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 8 Dec. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-05002.xml