# Monotonality

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Monotonality
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Monotonality.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotonality
> Source revision: 1303880540
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Theoretical concept}}
'''Monotonality''' is a [theoretical](/source/Music_theory) concept, principally deriving from the theoretical writings of [Arnold Schoenberg](/source/Arnold_Schoenberg) and [Heinrich Schenker](/source/Heinrich_Schenker), that in any piece of tonal music only one [tonic](/source/tonic_(music)) is ever present, [modulations](/source/modulation_(music)) being only regions or [prolongation](/source/prolongation)s within, or extensions of the basic [tonality](/source/tonality).

==History==
Schoenberg laid out his concept of monotonality in his book ''Structural Functions of Harmony'', writing that: "According to this principle, every digression from the tonic is considered to be still within the tonality, whether directly or indirectly, closely or remotely related. In other words, there is only ''one tonality'' in a piece, and every segment formerly considered as another tonality is only a region, a harmonic contrast within that tonality...subordinate to the central power of [its] tonic. Thus comprehension of the harmonic unity within a piece is achieved."<ref name="Structural">{{cite book|last=Schoenberg|first=Arnold|title=Structural Functions of Harmony|year=1969|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|location=New York|isbn=0-393-00478-3|edition=rev.|editor=Leonard Stein|editor-link=Leonard Stein (musicologist)|page=[https://archive.org/details/structuralfuncti0000scho/page/19 19]|url=https://archive.org/details/structuralfuncti0000scho/page/19}}</ref>

==See also==
*[Homotonal](/source/Homotonal)ity
*[Progressive tonality](/source/Progressive_tonality)
*[Prolongation](/source/Prolongation)
*[Schenkerian analysis](/source/Schenkerian_analysis)

==References==
<!--- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to create references using <ref></ref> tags which will then appear here automatically -->
{{Reflist}}

<!--- Categories --->
Category:Tonality

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Monotonality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotonality) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotonality?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.