Music Sound

In music, a mode is an ordered series of musical intervals, which, along with the key or tonic, define the pitches. However, mode is usually used in the sense of scale applied only to the specific diatonic scales found below. The use of more than one mode is polymodal, such as with polymodal chromaticism. While all tonal music may technically be described as modal, music that is called modal often has less diatonic functionality and changes key less often than other music.

Contents 1 Greek modes 2 Church modes 2.1 Use of the modes 3 Modern modes 3.1 Use of the modes 3.2 Chords with the modes 4 Other types of modes 5 Analogues in different musical traditions 6 References 7 Further reading 8 Video

Greek modes

The early music of Greek antiquity referred to scales in the context of scalar modes. The modes are named after cities that preferred a given mode in times past.

The Greek modes were:

Ionian
Aeolian and Locrian
Dorian and Hypodorian
Phrygian and Hypophrygian
Lydian, Hypolydian and Mixolydian

The Greek philosopher Plato felt that playing music in a particular mode would incline one towards specific behavior associated with that mode, and suggested that soldiers should listen to music in dorian or phrygian modes to help make them stronger, but avoid music in lydian or ionian modes, for fear of being softened.

Church modes

There is a common misconception that the Church modes of medieval European music were directly descended from the Greek notion of modality directly above. In fact, the church modes originated in the 9th century. Authors from that period misinterpreted a text by Boethius, a scholar from the 6th century who had translated the Greek musical theory into Latin. In the 16th century, the Swiss theorist Henricus Glareanus published Dodekachordon, in which he solidified the concept of the church modes, and added four additional modes: the Aeolian, Hypoaeolian, Ionian, and Hypoionian. Thus, the names of the modes used today do not actually reflect those used by the Greeks.

The eight Church modes, or Gregorian modes, can be divided into four pairs, where each pair shares the "final note" or tonic. Most chants in a particular mode will begin on the mode's final note, and all are expected to end on that note. The pair also shares the central five notes of the scale. If the "scale" is completed by adding the three upper notes, the mode is termed "authentic", while if the scale is completed by adding the three lower notes, the mode is called "plagal" (serious).

The pairs are organized so that the modes sharing a final note are numbered together, with the odd numbers used for the authentic modes and the even numbers for the plagal modes.

In addition, each mode has a "dominant" or "reciting tone" which is the tenor of the psalm tone. The reciting tones of all authentic modes began a fifth above the final, with those of the plagal modes a third above. However, the reciting tones of modes 3, 4, and 8 rose one step during the tenth and eleventh centuries with 3 and 8 moving from b to c' (half step) and that of 4 moving from g to a (whole step). (Hoppin 1978, p.67)

Only one accidental is permitted in classical Gregorian chant -- si (B) may be lowered by a half-step. This usually (but not always) occurs in modes V and VI, and is optional in other modes.

Mode	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII
Name	Dorian	Hypodorian	Phrygian	Hypophrygian	Lydian	Hypolydian	Mixolydian	Hypomixolydian
Final (note)	D	D	E	E	F	F	G	G
Final (solfege)	re	re	mi	mi	fa	fa	sol	sol
Dominant (note)	A	F	B-C	A	C	A	D	C
Dominant (solfege)	la	fa	si-do	la	do	la	re	do

Given the confusion between ancient, Early, and modern terminology, "today it is more consistent and practical to use the traditional designation of the modes with numbers one to eight," (Curtis 1998) using Roman numeral (I-VIII), rather than using the pseudo-Greek naming system.

The eight musical modes. f indicates "final" (Curtis, 1998).

Use of the modes

Early music made heavy use of the Church modes. A mode indicated a primary pitch (a final); the organization of pitches in relation to the final; suggested range; melodic formulas associated with different modes; location and importance of cadences; and affect (ie, emotional affect). As Liane Curtis (1998) explains, "Modes should not be equated with scales: principles of melodic organization, placement of cadences, and emotional affect are essential parts of modal content," in Medieval and Renaissance music.

Carl Dahlhaus (1990, p.192) lists "three factors that form the respective starting points for the modal theories of Aurelian of Réôme, Hermannus Contractus, and Guido of Arezzo:

1. the relation of modal formulas to the comprehensive system of tonal relationships embodied in the diatonic scale;
2. the partitioning of the octave into a modal framework; and
3. the function of the modal final as a relational center."

The oldest medieval treatise regarding modes is Musica disciplina by Aurelian of Réôme while Hermannus Contractus was the first to define modes as partitionings of the octave (ibid, p.192-191).

Various interpretations of the "character" imparted by the different modes have been suggested. Three such interpretations, from Guido D'Arezzo (995-1050), Adam of Fulda (1445-1505), and Juan de Espinoza Medrano (1632-1688), follow:

Name	Mode	D'Arezzo	Fulda	Espinoza	Example chant
Dorian	I	serious	any feeling	happy, taming the passions	Veni sancte spiritus (listen)
Hypodorian	II	sad	sad	serious and tearful	Iesu dulcis amor meus (listen)
Phrygian	III	mystic	vehement	inciting anger	Kyrie, fons bonitatis (listen)
Hypophrygian	IV	harmonious	tender	inciting delights, tempering fierceness	Conditor alme siderum (listen)
Lydian	V	happy	happy	happy	Salve Regina (listen)
Hypolydian	VI	devout	pious	tearful and pious	Ubi caritas (listen)
Mixolydian	VII	angelical	of youth	uniting pleasure and sadness	Introibo (listen)
Hypomixolydian	VIII	perfect	of knowledge	very happy	Ad cenam agni providi (listen)

Most of the theoretical writings on Gregorian chant modes postdate the composition of the early Gregorian chant repertoire, which was not composed with the intention of conforming to particular modes. As a result, for these chants, the application of a mode number can be only approximate. Later chants, however, were written with a conscious eye on the eight modes.

Modern modes

The modern conception of modal scales describes a system where each mode is the usual diatonic scale, but with a different root. The modes can be arranged in the following sequence, where each next mode has one more shortened interval in its scale.

Intervals in the modal scales
mode	prime	second	third	fourth	fifth	sixth	seventh
Lydian	perfect	major	major	augmented	perfect	major	major
Ionian	perfect	major	major	perfect	perfect	major	major
Mixolydian	perfect	major	major	perfect	perfect	major	minor
Dorian	perfect	major	minor	perfect	perfect	major	minor
Aeolian	perfect	major	minor	perfect	perfect	minor	minor
Phrygian	perfect	minor	minor	perfect	perfect	minor	minor
Locrian	perfect	minor	minor	perfect	diminished	minor	minor

Three of the modes are termed major, while four of them are minor. The Locrian is considered theoretical rather than practical. A mode is said to be minor if the 3rd scale degree is flattened; that is, if the third scale degree is three semitones above the root, instead of the four semitones in a major mode.

Major modes

• Lydian (IV) (listen)
• Ionian (I) (listen)
• Mixolydian (V) (listen)

Minor modes

• Dorian (II) (listen)
• Aeolian (VI) (listen)
• Phrygian (III) (listen)
• Locrian (VII) (listen)

Use of the modes

Modes came back into favour some time later in the development of jazz (modal jazz) and more contemporary 20th century music.

The use and conception of modes or modality today is different from their use and conception in Early music. Jim Samson (1977, p.148) describes: "Clearly any comparison of medieval and modern modality would recognize that the latter takes place against a background of some three centuries of harmonic tonality, permitting, and in the nineteenth century requiring, a dialogue between modal and diatonic procedure."

The Ionian mode is another name for the major mode, in which much western music is composed. The Aeolian forms the base of the most common western minor scale; however, a true Aeolian mode composition will use only the seven notes of the Aeolian scale, while nearly every minor mode composition will have some accidentals on the sixth and seventh scale degrees in order to make the melodies and harmonies work better.

Besides the Ionian major and modern (harmonic/melodic) minor modes, the other modes have limited use in music today. Folk music is often best analysed in terms of modes. For example, in Irish traditional music the Ionian, Dorian, Aeolian and Mixolydian modes occur (in roughly decreasing order of frequency); the Phrygian mode is an important part of the flamenco sound. Dorian mode is also found in folk music, particularly Latin and Laotian music, while Phrygian is found in some Central European or stylized Arabic music, whether as natural Phrygian or harmonic Phrygian, which has a raised third (the so-called "gypsy" scale). Mixolydian mode is quite common in jazz and most other forms of popular music. Because of its dream-like sound, the Lydian mode is most often heard in soundtrack and video game music.

Some works by Beethoven contain modal inflections, and Chopin, Berlioz, and Liszt made extensive use of modes. They influenced nineteenth century Russian composers, including Mussorgsky and Borodin; many twentieth century composers drew on this earlier work in their incorporation of modal elements, including Claude Debussy, Leos Janacek, Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan-Williams and others. Zoltán Kodály, Gustav Holst, Manuel de Falla use modal elements as modifications of a diatonic background, while in the music of Debussy and Béla Bartók modality replaces diatonic tonality. (Samson 1977)

Chords with the modes

In jazz, the modes of the major scale are commonly played over specific chords. The chord examples below are shown for the modes of the key of C. For example, over an Fmaj7♯11 chord, musicians typically play notes from the F Lydian scale in the key of C.

Mode	Ionian	Dorian	Phrygian	Lydian	Mixolydian	Aeolian	Locrian
Chord	Cmaj7	Dm7	Esus♭9	Fmaj7♯11	G7	Am7	Bø (Bm7♭5)

Although both Dorian and Aeolian can be played over a minor seventh (m7) chord, Dorian mode is most commonly used in straightahead jazz because of the consonant natural 6th (e.g. B over Dm7), as opposed to the ♭6 in Aeolian. Similarly, instead of Locrian, many jazz musicians play the 6th mode of the melodic minor over a half-diminished (ø or m7♭5) chord, because the natural 9th in that mode (e.g. C♯ over Bø) is more consonant with the m7♭5 chord than the ♭9 in Locrian (e.g. C over Bø). The "sus♭9" chord is also often played using the 2nd mode of melodic minor instead of Phrygian because of the natural 6th. See #Other types of modes below for jazz chords built from melodic minor modes.

Other types of modes

In modern music theory, scales other than the major scale sometimes have the term "modes" applied to the scales which begin with their degrees. This is seen, for example, in "Melodic Minor" scale harmony (see Minor scale for a brief description of the melodic minor), which is based on the seven modes of the melodic minor scale, yielding some interesting scales as shown below. The "Chord" row lists chords that can be built from the given mode.

Mode	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII
Name	minor-major	Dorian ♭2	Lydian augmented	Lydian dominant	Mixolydian ♭6 or "Hindu"	half-diminished (or) Locrian ♯2	altered (or) diminished whole-tone
Chord	C-maj7	Dsus♭9	E♭maj♯5	F7♯11	G♭6♭7	Aø (or) A-7♭5	B7alt

Most of these chords and modes are commonly used in jazz; the min/maj chord, 7♯11 and alt were in common use in the bebop era (indeed, the Lydian dominant scale and 7♯11 chord practically defined the bebop sound), while Coltrane-era and later jazz made extensive use of sus♭9 chords. maj♯5 is less common, but appears in Wayne Shorter's compositions. The ♭6♭7 is rarely seen as such.

Though the term "mode" is still used in this case (and is useful in recognizing that these scales all have a common root, that is the melodic minor scale); it is more common for musicians to understand the term "mode" to refer to Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, or Locrian scales. In everyday speech, this is the most common understanding.

Analogues in different musical traditions

• Echos
  Makam
  Maqam
  Pentatonic scale
• Raga

See also: Melody type

References

• Dahlhaus, Carl. Gjerdingen, Robert O. trans. (1990). Studies in the Origin of Harmonic Tonality. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691091358.

• Hoppin, Richard H. (1978). Medieval Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0393090906.
• Judd, Cristle Collins (ed.) (1998). Tonal Structures of Early Music. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0815323883.
  • Curtis, Liane. "Mode".

Further reading

• Apel, Willi: Harvard Dictionary of Music. Belknap Press; 2nd edition (January, 1968)
• Grout, Donald and Palisca, Claude: A History of Western Music. ISBN 0393975274.
• Levine, Mark (1989): The Jazz Piano Book. Sher Music Co. ISBN 0961470151.
• New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
• Powers, Harold S. "Mode." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1980. (The classic treatment of mode in the English language.)
• Miller, Ron (1996). 'Modal Jazz Composition and Harmony, Vol. 1'. Advance Musicm Rottenburg, Germany.

Video

• Guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen plays his song Heavy E Phrygian http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5789643979090107390&pl=true