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The home pitch and chord (I) of a key — the point of rest and resolution toward which all other harmonies gravitate.
The tonic is your gravitational center. Everything in tonal music moves away from and returns to the tonic. Establish it clearly at the beginning, leave it to create tension (development, modulation), and return to it for resolution. The power of a tonic arrival depends on how long and how far you've been away.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 — the entire four-movement arc is a journey from C minor tonic to the triumphant C major tonic of the finale.
Tonic is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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