One very general feature of music i

One very general feature of music is that one particular pitch is established as a central reference pitch. This pitch is called the tonic, or tonal center. The means of emphasizing the tonic and organizing the other elements around it vary considerably across musical styles. In most cases, the tonic is emphasized both melodically and rhythmically; it is sounded with relative frequency and with longer duration; and it tends to appear near the beginning and end of major phrase boundaries and at points of rhythmic stress. Other mechanisms for establishing the tonal center may also be used. For example, in classical Indian music the tonic appears in the form of a drone that is sounded continuously throughout the rag, often accompanied by another tone, called the secondary drone. In Indonesian music, the gong tone (the most important pitch) is sounded at the end of major melodic sections together with the gong. In traditional Western mu sic, tonality is associated with a system of harmony, with certain chords and chord sequences acting as important indicators of the tonal center.