home key
- noun
- Specialized
:
tonalidad principal
- The symphony begins in C major, which remains the home key throughout most of the first movement.
Examples
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Musicians often feel a sense of resolution when a melody returns to its home key.
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The song is written in the home key of C major.
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After a contrasting section in G minor, the music returns triumphantly to the home key.
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Can you tell me the home key of this piece?
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After a contrasting section in G minor, the music returns triumphantly to the home key.
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Musicians often feel a sense of resolution when a melody returns to its home key.
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The symphony begins in C major, which remains the home key throughout most of the first movement.
Synonyms
38
6.0
A set of notes that forms the main sound of a song
1
6.0
The main tone of a musical scale that other tones return to
The main note and scale that a piece of music returns to
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built: 'key' denotes musical tonality and 'home' signals the central or principal place, so together they naturally indicate the principal/tonal center of a piece. Although somewhat technical, the meaning is directly derivable from the constituents and follows a transparent modifier+noun pattern that a B1 learner who knows both words can infer.
Etymology
Home key comes from the image of home as a safe place. When music moves to other notes and then comes back to the main key, listeners feel a sense of 'resolution' like returning 'home'.