Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not tonal.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

non- +‎ tonal

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Examples

  • Therefore, it is actually rather inaccurate to use the word conservative here; if we compare for example Standard Cantonese (SC) with Standard Mandarin (SM), then the number of tones in each would be, starting from the first attested protolanguage, Old Chinese (as far as we know, nontonal):

    Fun with Old Chinese rhymes 2007

  • His compositional palette incorporates atonal and nontonal elements, but within a primarily tonal framework.

    NYT > Home Page By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER 2010

  • His compositional palette incorporates atonal and nontonal elements, but within a primarily tonal framework.

    NYT > Home Page By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER 2010

  • At the time, as he writes in a program note for "Kraft," he was soaking up the new-music scene in Berlin, then hopping with postpunk and nontonal pop.

    NYT > Home Page By ANTHONY TOMMASINI 2010

  • Contemporary British composer Nicolas Maw, no slouch at doing gnarly himself, was represented by "Music of Memory," a suite of mostly nontonal meditations built around a lyrical theme from a Mendelssohn string quartet that made several calming appearances during the piece.

    news | SH | http://www.heraldtribune.com 2009

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