bitonality

[ bahy-toh-nal-i-tee ]

noun

, Music.

, plural bi·to·nal·i·ties.

1. the simultaneous occurrence of two tonalities in a composition.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bitonality¹

First recorded in 1925–30; bi- ¹ + tonality

Example Sentences

Stravinsky dominated, most obviously in the merciless barrage of 5/4 time in “Mars,” and the bristling bitonality of “Mercury.”

From New York Times

The score shifts constantly between the wonderful songs–the sassy “New York, New York,” the wistful “Lonely Town,” the beguiling, tender “Some Other Time”–and stenches of wondrous orchestral music for the dance sequences, in which Bernstein spins musical motifs and riffs into music of brilliant inventive and contemporary touches, with whiffs of bitonality and hints of Stravinsky and Copland.

From New York Times

The forceful first movement is constructed exclusively from a seven-note mode, the Rachmaninov-like piano writing in the central slow one surrounded by slithering, woozy quarter-tones in the strings, while the finale flirts inconclusively with bitonality.

From The Guardian