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Tonality, in music theory, is a term with multiple meanings. In its most general sense, it describes a systematic organization of pitches in a composition, often with one tone acting as a referential centre: "tonal centricity" often is an essential aspect of tonality. In a more restricted meaning, "tonality" describes the major/minor organization of common practice music. Other recent styles that could be described as "atonal" may have a "tonality" of some sort, determined by internal symmetries instead of centricity.
The term itself was defined in the early 19th century to describe a characteristic of music of the common practice period, but it replaced related terms with more or less similar meanings. "Tonality", in the strict sense of the term, appears linked with harmony but, in a wider sense, it may be applied to melody ("melodic tonality") and to musical styles outside common practice. In a more restricted sense, it is synonymous with "key", denoting the particular category of a musical work within the general system of tonality. It is in this sense that J. S. Bach's Well tempered clavier is a collection of Preludes and Fugues in each of the 24 keys (or tonalities) forming the common-practice system of tonality.