Editing Tonic (music) (section)

==Importance and function==
In music of the [[common practice period]], the tonic center was the most important of all the different tone centers which a composer used in a piece of music, with most pieces beginning and ending on the tonic, usually modulating to the dominant (the fifth scale degree above the tonic, or the fourth below it) in between.

Two [[parallel key]]s have the same tonic. For example, in both C major and C minor, the tonic is C. However, [[relative key]]s (two different scales that share a [[key signature]]) have different tonics. For example, C major and A minor share a key signature that feature no sharps or flats, despite having different tonic pitches (C and A, respectively).

{{Listen|type=music|filename=Claude debussy faune.mid|title=Opening of ''Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune'' (MIDI)}}
{{anchor|Tone center|Tonal center|Pitch center|Center|Centric}}The term ''tonic'' may be reserved exclusively for use in tonal contexts while '''''tonal center''''' or '''''pitch center''''' may be used in [[Post tonal|post-tonal]] and [[Atonality|atonal]] music: "For purposes of non-tonal centric music, it might be a good idea to have the term 'tone center' refer to the more general class of which 'tonics' (or tone centers in tonal contexts) could be regarded as a subclass."<ref>[[Arthur Berger (composer)|Berger]] (1963), p. 12. cited in {{cite journal|last=Swift|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Swift (composer)|title=A Tonal Analog: The Tone-Centered Music of [[George Perle]]|journal=[[Perspectives of New Music]]|volume=21|number=1/2|date=Autumn 1982 – Summer 1983|pages=257–284 (258)|doi=10.2307/832876 |jstor=832876}}</ref> Thus, a pitch center may function referentially or contextually in an atonal context, often acting as an [[Axis system|axis]] or line of symmetry in an [[interval cycle]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Samson |first=Jim|author-link=Jim Samson|title=Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900–1920|publisher=W. W. Norton|location=New York City|year=1977|isbn=0-393-02193-9|oclc=3240273}}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> The term ''pitch centricity'' was coined by [[Arthur Victor Berger|Arthur Berger]] in his "Problems of Pitch Organization in Stravinsky".<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/832252 |last=Berger |first=Arthur |author-link=Arthur Berger (composer)|date=Fall–Winter 1963 |title=Problems of Pitch Organization in Stravinsky |journal=[[Perspectives of New Music]] |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=11–42|jstor=832252}}</ref> According to [[Walter Piston]], "the idea of a unified classical tonality replaced by nonclassical (in this case nondominant) centricity in a composition is perfectly demonstrated by Debussy's ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]''".<ref>[[Walter Piston|Piston, Walter]] (1987/1941). ''Harmony'', p. 529. 5th edition revised by Mark DeVoto. W. W. Norton, New York/London. {{ISBN|0-393-95480-3}}.</ref>

The tonic includes four separate activities or roles as the principal goal tone, initiating event, generator of other tones, and the stable center neutralizing the tension between dominant and subdominant.