Music

The character of a piece of music is related to its key centre or tonality.

• tonal music is in a major or minor key
• atonal music is not related to a tonic note and therefore has no sense of key
• modal music is in a mode

Two common modes are the Dorian mode and the Mixolydian mode. Modes are often found in folk music, pop music and jazz.

• A concord is a chord where all the notes seem to 'agree' with each other, it feels at rest and complete in itself.
• A discord is a chord where some notes seem to 'disagree' or clash giving an unsettled feel.
• Diatonic harmony uses notes which belong to the key.
• Chromatic harmony uses notes from outside the key to give the chords more 'colour'.

Perfect cadences sound as though the music has come to an end. Interrupted cadences are 'surprise' cadences. You think you're going to hear a perfect cadence, but you get a minor chord instead. Imperfect cadences sound unfinished.                                        Plagal cadences sound finished. Plagal cadences are often used at the end of hymns and sung to A-men.                                              Tierce de Picardie is when  the final cadence of a piece in a minor key ends with a major chord instead of the expected minor.

• A drone is a held (or repeated) chord, (usually a bare 5th) throughout a passage of music.
• A pedal is a single note that is held on, or repeated in, the bass. An inverted pedal note is a sustained or repeated note in a high register.

Ground bass is the term used in Baroque music where a bass part is repeated throughout the piece.Whereas an ostinato pattern might be very short, a ground bass can last many bars before it is repeated.