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Chapter Five Modality CHAPTER FIVE MODALITY Over the course of music history, the term, modality has been understood in a variety of ways.1 In the context of Irish traditional music, its modern definition appears to be most appropriate. Taking the term in the modern, twofold sense, mode can be defined as either a ‘particularized scale’ or a ‘generalized tune’, or both, depending on the particular musical and cultural context. If one thinks of scale and tune as representing the poles of a continuum of melodic predetermination, then most of the area between can be designated one way or another as being in the domain of mode. To attribute mode to a musical item implies some hierarchy of pitch relationships, or some restriction on pitch successions; it is more than merely a scale. At the same time, what can be called the mode of a musical item is never so restricted as what is implied by referring to its ‘tune’; a mode is always at least a melody type or melody model, never just a fixed melody.2 From informal conversation with musicians from within the tradition, it is apparent that the terms modality and tonality are sometimes confused. According to Harold Powers, the term ‘tonality’ was first used: by Choron in 1810 to describe the arrangement of the dominant and subdominant above and below the tonic and thus to differentiate the harmonic organization of modern music (tonalité moderne) from that of earlier music (tonalité antique).3 As can be seen, the term modality recalls an earlier system (tonalité antique), that was displaced by tonal music, which in turn was followed by atonality in twentieth and twenty-first-century music. Here, the term modality is used to encompass the various ‘particularized scales’ that are found in Irish traditional instrumental music and this includes both the traditional pseudo-Greek modes and the gapped scales. 1 See: Powers, Harold S.: ‘Mode’, Grove Music Online. http://0- www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ditlib.dit.ie/subscriber/article/grove/music/43718pg1 (Accessed 15 March 2013). 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 176 5.1 Historiography Some of the earliest discussions on modality are characterised by the idea that the age of a tune can be determined from its mode. In Ireland, this may have begun with Edward Bunting. Although he did not comment on the idea in his publications, a recent study by Dr Colette Moloney has found that in a margin note in one of his manuscripts he ‘indicates various harp scales from different centuries […]. He does not, however, state the source of these scales’.4 In the Ancient Music of Ireland (1840), under the title ‘Of The Characteristics of Irish Melody’, Bunting considers two classes of Irish melody: ‘[…] those, namely, which are marked by the omission of the fourth and seventh tones of the diatonic scale, or one of them, […]’.5 He insists that this absence of the fourth and seventh degrees of the mode is a characteristically Irish trait,6 a statement that, as will be discussed, has been the source of much debate until the mid-twentieth century.7 Petrie does not give much space to the discussion of modes in his published collections but instead reserves commentary for the discussion of individual pieces. Perhaps his most notable reference to the modes can be found in his discussion of ‘The Magic Mist’, found in Volume Two of The Ancient Music of Ireland. Published posthumously in 1882, here he notes that the presence of the tune’s ‘antique tonalities’ ‘[…] will, no doubt, be somewhat startling and unpleasant to ears accustomed only to modern music; though, to those familiarised to such tonalities, they will, I am persuaded, add to the racy and impressive character of the air’.8 He continues: I will not assert that the tonalities of this melody are exactly those found in either of the so- called Dorian or Eolian modes [sic], nor even of that Phrygian, to which Selden tells us "the Irish were wholly included"; but I may venture to say that their affinity with the tones of the Canto Fermo or old modes of the church – and particularly with those which have a minor character – must be at once apparent to, and arrest the attention of, all those who have made themselves acquainted with the peculiar characteristics of the old ecclesiastical or 4 These are from MS12/1, to be found as marginalia and do not appear in his published works. Therefore, while they are relevant to the discussion, they are best viewed in: Moloney, Colette: The Irish Music Manuscripts of Edward Bunting (1773–1843): An Introduction and Catalogue, (Dublin: Irish Traditional Music Archive, 2000), 69,70. 5 Bunting, Edward: The Ancient Music of Ireland, (Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1840), 13. 6 Ibid., 14. 7 While the debate on this matter ceases to be found from the mid-twentieth century onwards, in my opinion, this argument was most convincingly overturned by James Travis, who provided numerous exceptions to the rule. See: Travis, James: ‘Irish National Music’, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 24, (Oxford: The Oxford University Press, 1938), 465-473. 8 Petrie, George: The Ancient Music of Ireland, Vol. 2, (Dublin: Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland, 1882), 42. 177 Gregorian mode. Interestingly, Bunting’s idea concerning the omission of the fourth and seventh degrees of the mode is one of the few things that Petrie does not challenge.9 Perhaps one of the first authors to critically consider Bunting’s statement is Frederick St. John Lacy who in 1890 wrote: Well and good. Many airs can be produced in support of both of these assertions, but what of the multitude of those, unmistakably Irish, which have the fourth and seventh from the key- note, or which omit the submediant? How are we to explain away the fact of the exceptions to these rules outnumbering the examples that can be adduced in support of them?10 Lacy goes on to introduce a theory to demonstrate how modality has evolved in Irish traditional music.11 Not unlike the opinion held by Bunting, Lacy’s thesis is that the pentatonic modes are the oldest, and that heptatonic and diatonic modes later evolved.12 From the pentatonic mode – given as C, D, E, G, and A – and which might be thought of as an Ionian pentatonic mode, Lacy derives a further four pentatonic modes by beginning on each of the letters of the initial mode whilst retaining the interval relationships. This can be thought of as correlating with the Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian and Aeolian modes.13 Then, the process repeats with five hexatonic and a further five heptatonic modal scales, yielding a total of fifteen examples in all.14 While in earlier accounts authors had discussed the ‘omissions’ that they had observed in the modes, and therefore they had at least implicitly discussed gapped modes, Lacy appears to be the first writer to explicitly investigate the music’s pentatonic, hexatonic and heptatonic modal characteristics.15 In 1903, the Rev. Dr Richard Henebry published Irish Music: being a matter of the 9 See: Ibid., 43 where it is apparent that indeed, Petrie has the evidence to challenge Bunting on this aspect. To take one example, he draws attention to the omission of the second degree of the mode in the case of ‘The Magic Mist’. 10 Lacy, F. St. John: ‘Notes on Irish Music’ Proceedings of the Musical Association, 16th Session, (1889–1890), (Dublin: Taylor & Francis, and the Royal Musical Association), 184. 11 Ibid., 184-192. 12 The author himself uses the term ‘periods’ rather than modes to avoid confusion with the church modes. 13 This gives 1. C, D, E, G, A, 2. D, E, G, A, C, 3. E, G, A, C, D, 4. G, A, C, D, E and 5. A, C, D, E, G. 14 Ibid., 185-186. 15 This type of commentary decreases significantly from here on in but resurfaces to great effect in the work of Lacy’s pupil, Aloys Fleischmann, about a century later. 178 examination of scales, modes, and keys, with practical instructions and examples for players.16 This document is significant in that it is possibly the only one to attempt a detailed discussion on temperament in Irish traditional music and his thoughts on this appear to have been influential in his time.17 Henebry identifies two temperaments, a first and a second ‘Irish scale’ and provides a fiddle fingerboard diagram so that the positions of these modes can be located.18 However, since it is not possible to check these examples against his sources, it is difficult to comment on their accuracy. Nevertheless, the text does raise the point that while the tonal period has inclined towards twelve tone equal temperament, it is almost without doubt that there was a much more colourful spectrum at play within the modal system of Irish traditional music. For the time, James Travis’s 1938 paper Irish National Music is refreshing in its objectivity.19 Even before Travis’s time, there was a claim that the inclusion of the raised seventh in minor tunes was an affront to authenticity.20 Travis argues against the absolutism of this stance noting that although the major seventh is rarely used in minor tunes, it is by no means unknown.21 With the benefit of the array of recordings that exist today, Travis would have had his point even further supported based on his basic thesis that individual creativity will always provide an exception to the rule.22 Similar to Lacy, Travis is critical of the ‘blind following’ of Bunting regarding the omission of the fourth and seventh degrees.23 However, unlike Lacy, he refutes the idea of a Darwinian-type 16 Henebry, Richard: Irish Music: Being an Examination of the Matter of Scales, Modes, and Keys, with Practical Instructions and Examples for Players, (Dublin: An Cló Cumann, Straid Mór na Trága, 1903).
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