non-tonal
adjective
(alsonontonal)uk/ˌnɒnˈtəʊ.nəl/us/ˌnɑːnˈtoʊ.nəl/musicspecialized
Non-tonalmusicis written in a way that is notbasedon anyparticularmusicalkey:
There are some non-tonalpassagesin thepiecethat aretrickyfor thesingers.
Thecomposerwould onlyworkwithclassicalpiecesandeschewedanything non-tonal.
languagespecialized
A non-tonallanguageis one that does not usetones(=changesin how high orlowthevoiceis that canchangethemeaningof a word):
Although some of thedialectsaretonal, most are non-tonal.
If you are anativespeakerof a non-tonallanguagelikeEnglish,Chineseisparticularlyhard tolearn.
- In anoverallnontonalpiece, there are ahandfuloftonalpassages.
- Although theworkis non-tonal, itneverthelesshas aserenefeelto it.
Technical music terms
- accidental
- aleatory
- andante
- antiphonal
- arpeggio
- arr.
- discord
- dissonance
- harmonic
- harmony
- key signature
- longa
- mike check
- slur
- stepwise
- syncopate
- syncopated
- syncopation
- tempo
- trill
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Types of music
Linguistic terms & linguistic style