High-key is a value term that means lighter. This can refer to a portion of the work or the entire work. The opposite of high-key is low-key Here is a painting by Bartolomeo della Gatta. Although there are aspects that are low-key, the work has a dominant high key value. High-key best correlates to a musical piece in a major tonality. However, it would be inappropriate to say that a painting is in major or that music is high-key. If a work features both high-key and low-key values, such as the Bartolomeo della Gatta, then the work has contrast