The Modern Modes

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music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush modern? wait, isn’t this stuff, like, The Modern Modes 100 years old? yes, but we only call them “modern” because we need to differentiate between a bunch of unrelated things across music history that, ever so inconveniently, use the same names! the modern which were, in and those modes’ names turn, named in used the same came from the honor of the names as scale various “keys” lute ranges used tunings discussed used in medieval in later ancient by plato in church music greek music 380 bc! v. wil hilde aris pl liams gard toxenus ato and, to make matters worse, each of these things use the names to represent different concepts! fortunately, right now, we’re only worried about the modern modes. these modes are used a lot... one of the primary characteristics of especially in folk music. as for these english modalists is that they standard western repertoire, tended to avoid the strong tensions they are first prominently featured of the common practice period... in the post-romantic music britain! for example, they avoided chords of the early twentieth century that used a tritone... and avoided british isles. raising the leading tone in minor keys! so what are they? well, remember when we created the natural minor scale by starting with a major scale, but using the sixth note of the scale as the tonic? it gave us a new pattern of whole steps and half steps... a new scale. keeping the same key signature, we use this note as our new tonic! major œ minorœ œ œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ in fact, these are two of the seven modern modes: major is the ionian mode, and natural minor is the aeolian mode. by starting on the other notes of the major scale, we get the other five modes. because it has B to B: the locrian mode a diminished tonic, locrian is a theoretical G to G: the mixolydian mode mode... it’s not used in actual practice. F to F: the lydian mode œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ the modes here all share œ œ E to E: the phrygian mode the same key signature... œ œ they are related, like D to D: the dorian mode c major and a minor! c ionian a more effective œ œ œ œ œ method of keeping œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ the modes straight & œ a aeolian œ œ involves memorizing minor + raised 6th c mixolydian each mode’s œ œ œ color tone: œ œ œ #œ œ bœ the scale degree œ œ a dorian & œ majorœ œ + lowered 7th & œ œ that makes it minor + lowered 2nd c lydian unique from the major or minor œ œ œ œ œ œ scale with the bœ œ œ a phrygian & #œ majorœ œ+ raised 4th & œ œ œ œ same tonic. licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more.

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4. Non-Heptatonic Modes
Tagg: Everyday Tonality II — 4. Non‐heptatonic modes 151 4. Non‐heptatonic modes If modes containing seven different scale degrees are heptatonic, eight‐note modes are octatonic, six‐note modes hexatonic, those with five pentatonic, while four‐ and three‐note modes are tetratonic and tritonic. Now, even though the most popular pentatonic modes are sometimes called ‘gapped’ because they contain two scale steps larger than those of the ‘church’ modes of Chapter 3 —doh ré mi sol la and la doh ré mi sol, for example— they are no more incomplete FFBk04Modes2.fm. 2014-09-14,13:57 or empty than the octatonic start to example 70 can be considered cluttered or crowded.1 Ex. 70. Vigneault/Rochon (1973): Je chante pour (octatonic opening phrase) The point is that the most widespread convention for numbering scale degrees (in Europe, the Arab world, India, Java, China, etc.) is, as we’ve seen, heptatonic. So, when expressions like ‘thirdless hexatonic’ occur in this chapter it does not imply that the mode is in any sense deficient: it’s just a matter of using a quasi‐global con‐ vention to designate a particular trait of the mode. Tritonic and tetratonic Tritonic and tetratonic tunes are common in many parts of the world, not least in traditional music from Micronesia and Poly‐ nesia, as well as among the Māori, the Inuit, the Saami and Native Americans of the great plains.2 Tetratonic modes are also found in Christian psalm and response chanting (ex. 71), while the sound of children chanting tritonic taunts can still be heard in playgrounds in many parts of the world (ex.
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