TONALITY, in Music (Ital, tonalita, Fr. tonalite), a modern term, introduced to designate the existence of differences among various musical modes, ancient and modern, and among the elements of melodies and harmonies founded upon these modes. See M usic , pp. 611, 612, and pp. 61-68 of Appendix to Graham’s Essay on Musical Composition. Peculiarities of tonality among different nations may be accounted for by particularities in the construction of musical instruments (see M usic and Trumpet), or by particularities in intonation adopted by vocal performers, and consecrated by that mighty power, custom, which rules and moulds so many of human feelings, opinions, and actions. G. A. Villoteau, a professional musician, appointed by Napoleon to collect musical information in the expedition to Egypt, states that our modern scale of C major was a complete stumbling-block to the oriental musicians. He says,“J’ai eu l’occasion de m'en convaincre moi-même en Egypte, en essayant de la faire chanter à des musiciens Grecs, Egyptiens ou Arabes, Ethiopiens, Persans, Arméniens et Syriens; et vraiment les grimaces et les contortions qu’étoient obligés de faire ces bonnes gens pour atteindre avec la voix jusqu’à notre Si naturel (B naturaD, qu’ils s’efforçoient cependant, et de la meilleure foi du monde, d’entonner, mais toujours sans succès, me paroissoient si singulièrement risibles, que je crois qu’il m’auroit été impossible de les regarder de sang-froid, si le motif qui me déterminoit à faire cette expérience n’efit occupé alors toute mon attention.” See also his paper on the state of music in Egypt, in the great French work, Description de l’Eggpts, where he gives a curious account of his studies under an Arabian musician at Cairo, and the great disagreement between the European and oriental tonalities. In the same work be gives some remarkable specimens of oriental music. The establishment of one major and one minor scale in Europe may be dated about two centuries ago. Before that time, the system of tonality was founded upon the church tones or modee; and the harmony employed consisted of common chords with an occasional chord of 6 / 3 . About the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, Claudio Monteverde, a musician of the Venetian school, began to employ a system of harmony different from the old. He used the minor 5th, the major 4th, the minor 7th, the 9th, and also even double dissonances, unprepared; but his application of the chord of 7 5 3 to the dominant of the key, was the most important of his innovations, as it led to the abandonment of the old ecclesiastical tonalities and harmonies, and the rapid establishment of the modern European tonality and harmony. From Monteverde’s discoveries arose diminished and augmented intervals and chords, what is called chromatic music, and melodic and harmonic modulation. The majority of modem musicians who have attempted to harmonize ancient European melodies, seem to have been ignorant of the marked distinctions between ancient and modern tonalities in Europe, and of the fact that most of these airs are constructed upon tonalities to which modern harmony, which depends upon a newer system of tonality, cannot be continuously applied. See the Essay on Composition above cited, pp. 68, 69 of Appendix. (g. f. g. )