[f. TONAL a. + -ITY: So mod.F. tonalité (1866 in Littré).] Tonal quality.
1. Mus. The relation, or sum of relations, between the tones or notes of a scale or musical system; spec. in modern music, = KEY sb. 7 c; hence transf. a particular scale or system of tones; in modern music = KEY sb. 7 b.
1838. G. F. Graham, Mus. Comp., App. 68. The peculiar tonalities of many old national airs.
1855. Fraser’s Mag., LI. 568. Grafting … more elegant melodic forms, improved rhythm, and the modern ‘tonality’ on the sustained grandeur of the old masters.
1867. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sc., etc., Tonality … is used generally to denote that peculiarity which modern music possesses, in consequence of its being written in definite keys, thereby, conforming to certain defined arrangements of tones and semitones in the diatonic scale.
1875. Ouseley, Mus. Form, ii. 5. A Melody, if it is to produce a pleasing effect … must be written in some definite tonality.
2. Painting. The quality of a painting in respect of tone; the general tone or color-scheme of a picture: see quots.
1866. Sat. Rev., 27 Jan., 117/1. Much of the value of a painting depends on the completeness of its tonality,… The tonalité of a picture is the proportionate arrangement, and especially the accurate subdivision of tones, both with regard to colour and to relative lightness and darkness.
1884. Athenæum, 24 May, 668. The tonality of the picture is very good, although the illumination is in a low key.
1890. Talbot Archer, in Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., III. 218. By ‘tone’ or ‘tonality’ is here meant the correct rendering, in black and white, of any natural object—as a landscape, a portrait, etc.
