In
music a melodic mode (van der Merwe 1989,
p.102-103) or modal frame is one of "a number of
types permeating and unifying
African,
European, and
American
song" and
melody (Middleton 1990, p.203) including
parlour music. "Mode" and "frame" are used in this context
interchangeably. Melodic modes allow melodies which are not
chord-based or determined by the
harmony but instead by melodic features. A note frame
is a melodic mode that is
atonic (without a tonic) or has an unstable tonic. Examples include:
- floor note: the bottom of the frame, felt to be the lowest note though isolated notes may go lower
- ceiling note: the top of the frame
- central note: the center of mode, around which other notes cluster or gravitate
- chant tunes (Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues")
- axial tunes ("A Hard Day's Night", "Peggy Sue", Marvin Gaye's "Can I Get A Witness", and Roy Milton's "Do the Hucklebuck")
- oscillating (Rolling Stone's "Jumpin' Jack Flash")
- open/closed ("Hey Bo Diddley")
- terrace
- shout-and-fall
- ladder of thirds
- Upper or lower focus (adapted from Ekueme, Lazarus): portion of the mode on which the melody temporarily dwells
- Melodic dissonance: the quality of a note which is modally unstable and attracted to other more important tones in a non-harmonic way
- Melodic traid: arpeggiated triads which appear in a melody but not in the harmony, see non-harmonic arpeggio
- Level: a temporary modal frame contrasted with another built on a different foundation note. A "change" (as in chord change) in levels is called a shift.
- Co-tonic: a melodic tonic different from and as important as the harmonic tonic
- Secondary tonic: a melodic tonic, though different form and subordinate to the harmonic tonic
- Pendular third (adapted from Nketia, J.H.): Alternating notes a third apart, most often a neutral, see double tonic
Other songs with modal frames indicated are "A Day in the Life" and "My Generation".
See also
Example
The modal frame of The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night features a ladder of thirds axially centered on G with a ceiling note of Bb and floor note of Eb (the low C being a passing tone): (ibid)
Source
- Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.
- Van der Merwe, P. (1989). Origins of Popular Style. Oxford.