C major in the context of "Flat (music)"

In music, the tonic is the first note scale degree () of the diatonic scale (the first note of a scale) and the tonal center or final resolution tone that is commonly used in the final cadence in tonal (musical key-based) classical music, popular music, and traditional music. In the movable do solfège system, the tonic note is sung as do. More generally, the tonic is the note upon which all other notes of a piece are hierarchically referenced. Scales are named after their tonics: for instance, the tonic of the C major scale is the note C.

The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord in these styles of music. In Roman numeral analysis, the tonic chord is typically symbolized by the Roman numeral "I" if it is major and by "i" if it is minor.

In mathematics, the Fourier transform (FT) is an integral transform that takes a function as input, and outputs another function that describes the extent to which various frequencies are present in the original function. The output of the transform is a complex valued function of frequency. The term Fourier transform refers to both the mathematical operation and to this complex-valued function. When a distinction needs to be made, the output of the operation is sometimes called the frequency domain representation of the original function. The Fourier transform is analogous to decomposing the sound of a musical chord into the intensities of its constituent pitches.

Functions that are localized in the time domain have Fourier transforms that are spread out across the frequency domain and vice versa, a phenomenon known as the uncertainty principle. The critical case for this principle is the Gaussian function, of substantial importance in probability theory and statistics as well as in the study of physical phenomena exhibiting normal distribution (e.g., diffusion). The Fourier transform of a Gaussian function is another Gaussian function. Joseph Fourier introduced sine and cosine transforms (which correspond to the imaginary and real components of the modern Fourier transform) in his study of heat transfer, where Gaussian functions appear as solutions of the heat equation.

In music, a common tone is a pitch class that is a member of, or common to (shared by) two or more chords or sets. Typically, it refers to a note shared between two chords in a chord progression. According to H.E. Woodruff:

The example below shows the seven diatonic triads of C major. The common tones between the tonic triad and the other six triads are highlighted in blue. As Woodruff describes, the tonic triad shares no common tones with either II and VII (consecutive to I), one common tone with IV and V (four and five degrees from I) each, and two common tones with III and VI (three and six degrees from I) each.

C or Do is the first note of the C major scale, the third note of the A minor scale (the relative minor of C major), and the fourth note (G, A, B, C) of the Guidonian hand, commonly pitched around 261.63 Hz. The actual frequency has depended on historical pitch standards, and for transposing instruments a distinction is made between written and sounding or concert pitch. It has enharmonic equivalents of B♯ and D.

In English the term Do is used interchangeably with C only in the context of fixed Do solfège; in the movable Do system Do refers to the tonic of the prevailing key.

The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at double its frequency so that it is called a higher octave of the same note (from Latin "octavus", the eighth).

The simplest major scale to write is C major, the only major scale not requiring sharps or flats:

The Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra in C major, K. 299/297c, is a concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for flute, harp, and orchestra. It is one of only two true double concertos that he wrote (the other being his Piano Concerto No. 10; though his Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra could just as well be considered a "double concerto"), as well as the only piece of music by Mozart for the harp. The piece is one of the most popular such concertos in the repertoire, as well as often being found on recordings dedicated to either one of its featured instruments.

E is the third note and the fifth semitone of the C major scale, and mi in fixed-do solfège. It has enharmonic equivalents of F♭ [(F-flat) which is by definition a diatonic semitone above E♭] and D (D-double sharp), amongst others.

When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of Middle E (E₄) is approximately 329.628 Hz. See pitch (music) for a discussion of historical variations in frequency.

The Super Mario Bros. theme, officially known as the "Ground Theme", is a musical theme originally heard in the first stage of the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game Super Mario Bros. It was one of six themes composed for the game by Nintendo sound designer Koji Kondo, who found it to be the most difficult track to compose for it.

The theme is set in the key of C major with a tempo of 100 beats per minute and features a swing rhythm with prominent use of syncopation. While the original theme is composed within the sound limitations of the NES's 8-bit hardware, in later installments with more powerful sound hardware, it is often scored as a calypso song led by steel drums. It went on to become the theme of the series, and has been a fixture in most of its titles. It has been reused and remixed in other Nintendo-published games. The theme was included in the American National Recording Registry in 2023 for its cultural significance, becoming the first piece of music from a video game to do so.

Brouillards ("Mists" or "Fog") is the first piece of Claude Debussy's second set of piano préludes. It can be considered as the most harmonically complex of the entire series of preludes, hinting at polytonality. The left hand mainly employs the C diatonic collection, modulating shortly in the second theme and reverting in the coda, while the right hand uses the A♭ minor diatonic collection on E♭, like the left hand modulating briefly before returning.

In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval spanning three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three adjacent whole tones F–G, G–A, and A–B.

Narrowly defined, each of these whole tones must be a step in the scale, so by this definition, within a diatonic scale there is only one tritone for each octave. For instance, the above-mentioned interval F–B is the only tritone formed from the notes of the C major scale. More broadly, a tritone is also commonly defined as any interval with a width of three whole tones (spanning six semitones in the chromatic scale), regardless of scale degrees. According to this definition, a diatonic scale contains two tritones for each octave. For instance, the above-mentioned C major scale contains the tritones F–B (from F to the B above it, also called augmented fourth) and B–F (from B to the F above it, also called diminished fifth, semidiapente, or semitritonus); the latter is decomposed as a semitone B–C, a whole tone C–D, a whole tone D–E, and a semitone E–F, for a total width of three whole tones, but composed as four steps in the scale. In twelve-equal temperament, the tritone divides the octave exactly in half as 6 of 12 semitones or 600 of 1,200 cents.