Renaissance music (16th century), by lutenist
composers like John Dowland, Luis de Milan, Francis Cutting, and Hans Neusidler
is some of the earliest music found in the modern classical guitar repertoire.
This music is beautiful and its place in the history of the guitar and the
history of music is very significant.
Since this music is modal and
utilizes compositional practices quite different than the music of the Diatonic Common Practice Period (1750 –
1900), I believe that for lovers of
early music, and especially the musicians who play this music, it is important
to know something about the modes and compositional practices of those earlier
times. A working knowledge of the modes and their evolution is also of great
importance to lovers of jazz and classical music of the 20th
Century.
First some background: Beginning around 1600, the modal compositional practices
of the Renaissance began a transition towards what we now call Diatonic Common Practice
Music. By 1750, this trend reached fruition in the music of the High Baroque Period,
(as represented by the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel,
Domenico Scarlatti, and Antonio Vivaldi).
But from the time of Bach, the state of the music did not remain static as
composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and Wagner, pushed the boundaries of diatonic
music further and further. Mozart pushed Bach; Beethoven pushed Mozart, Wagner
pushed Beethoven, until by the end of the 19th Century, the
compositional practices of diatonic music system had been pushed and stretched
to such an extreme that the two pillars that supported it—the use of clearly
defined major and minor tonalities and the hierarchy of tonic/dominant
thinking—began to crumble under the weight of more and more extensive
chromaticism.
We can hear and feel this in much of Wagner’s music when it begins to soar, as
it were, into a space beyond major and minor tonalities, beyond keys, and
beyond the tyranny of the tonic/dominant
relationship, into the abyss of freedom—the
space that lay beyond diatonic common practice techniques, its sensibilities,
and all that it represented. The music soars over the abyss, but like a kite
whose string is held by the hand of a man who is safely standing on the rim of
the abyss, we hear that time and time again it is reeled in from the abyss to
the familiar footing of Diatonic Common Practice Music.
Claude Debussy’s music, however, is a different story, for Debussy not only
gazed into the abyss of freedom, but leapt right into it. In the abyss of
freedom there are no rules or procedures, except for those that the composer
imposes on himself. Debussy, like many composers of the 20th century who joined
him and followed him, had to invent the rules and procedures as he went along,
often changing these same rules and procedures when they did not fit a given
musical situation, or context, or evolution in the composer’s musical thinking.
The music of the early 20th Centuries was a time of experimentation,
upheaval, and novelty. The question of what lay beyond diatonic common practice
music had been asked and numerous answers were advanced—some of which took root
and some of which had a more passing influence on the ongoing stream of musical
thinking and practice. But one thing that was fairly consistent among these
early 20th century composers and the jazz musicians who emerged near
the middle of the 20th Century was their strong reaction against the
rules and techniques of diatonic common practice music leading to new,
self-imposed, practices that had less to do with how music should be written
and more to do with how music should not be written.
Claude Debussy used pentatonic, whole-tone scales, and exotic oriental modes to create music that broke from the
tradition of clearly defined major and minor tonalities. Arnold Schoenberg
devised tone rows constructed from
the twelve tones of the chromatic scale and created music that explored the
realm of atonality. Béla Bartók used
the ancient modes as well as Eastern European folk melodies that led to
melodies and harmonies beyond the reach of diatonic major and minor tonalities
and the tyranny of the tonic/dominant
relationship.
Modal Jazz emerged in the mid- 20th Century with the music of Miles
Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and others. In this music, the modes were
used to create non-functional harmonies
free from diatonic associations and enabled the musicians to create melodies
that were free from the restrictions of particular chords and the chord
progressions of functional harmony.
In the latter half of the 20th Century and now, in the early part of
the 21st Century, the use of modal
terminology is popularly used to codify tonal
regions within diatonic tonalities in order to create new possibilities in
the realm of melodic improvisation in jazz, popular, and even country music.
Modal music has been around for a long, long time—counting from the Greeks, at
least two thousand years! During that time, modal music has gone through many
transformations and many systems, yet at its core have always been the modes
themselves with all of their various codifications and practices.
Western music traces its origins to ancient Greece and the time of Pythagoras,
approximately 650 B.C., but the history of Greece and the rise and fall of its
various societies stretch back thousands of years before then, into the second
main division of ancient history named the Bronze Age by the modern historian
C.J.Thomsen.
In Europe, the Bronze Age began around 2300 BC. Entwined with this
history are the even more remote histories and influences of the cultures of
the ancient Near East and Middle East (approximately 3700 BC). Of significance
is the fact that the arts, sciences, and philosophies, of these cultures were
based upon sophisticated mathematical systems and calculations that later
inspired and informed the arts, sciences, and philosophies of the Greek
civilization during the time of Pythagoras.
Pythagoras based his system on the mathematical ratio of 3:2 (the interval of a
perfect fifth). These modes were constructed from various combinations of tetrachords. A tetrachord is a series of
notes that descend an interval of a fourth by stepwise motion, e.g.,
(E, d, c, B,) or (E,
d flat, c, B,) etc.
By combining the notes of two tetrachords, the original Greek modes were
created. In the following examples, the notes that begin and end each
tetrachord are shown in uppercase letters:
Dorian: E, d, c, B, A, g, f, E
Phrygian:
F#, e, d, C#, B, a, g, F#
Lydian:
G#, f#, e, D#, C#, b, a, G#
Mixolydian
A, G, f, E, D, c, b-flat, A
Hypodorian
B, a, g, F#, E, d, c, B
Hypophrygian
C#, b, a, G#, F#, e, d, C#
Hypolydian
D#, c#, b, A#, G#, f#, e, D#
In practice, all of these modes would be transposed between E & E, for
example, the Phrygian mode would become e, d, C#, B, a, g, f#, e, the Lydian
would become e, D#, C#, b, a, G#, f#, etc.
Greek civilization gave way to the power of Rome that brought with new musical
influences, codifications, and systems. Hebrew and Byzantine melodies
(approximately 330 AD – 1400 AD) were derived from melodic types based upon melodic
motives that were salvaged from the Greeks and earlier Middle and Near
Eastern musical fragments. By the 12th & 13th
Centuries (Medieval Music), research
into these earlier forms and practices was codified into a system of modes and
practices called Plainsong or Gregorian Chant.
300 or so years later, Ptolemy again re-codified the modes. Notice that all of
the modes in Ptolemy’s codification follow the same pattern of descending steps
beginning on a different tone, (half, whole, whole, whole , half, whole, whole)
and that the starting notes follow the pattern of a modern-day major scale—in
this case an E major scale.
These modes transposed to the same tone become:
Dorian:
E, d, c, B, A, g, f, e, (our modern Phrygian mode)
Phrygian:
e, d, C#, B, a, g, F#, e, (Dorian)
Lydian:
e, D#, C#, b, a, G#, f#, e, (Ionian)
Mixolydian:
E, D, c, b-flat, A, g, f, e, (Locrian)
Hypodorian:
E, d, c, B, a, g, F#, e, (Aeolian)
Hypophrygian:
e, d, C#, b, a, G#, F#, e, (Mixolydian)
Hypolydian:
e, D#, c#, b, A#, G#, f#, e, (Lydian)
Almost 900 years later, the modes were again codified with credit given to Pope
Gregory the Great and this codification reached a final form by about the 11th
century. Notice that this codification bears a closer resemblance to the modes
as taught in the later 20th & 21st centuries.
In the following examples, modes I, III, V, & VII are classified as Authentic Modes and modes II, IV, VI,
and VII are classified as Plagal Modes. Bold-face
upper-case letters are used to designate the final. (The final is similar to the tonic in Diatonic Common
Practice Music, though it is important to keep in mind that a final and a
tonic or a dominant and a co-final do not have exactly the same significance with regard to resolution and all that
it implies to the modern musician). Upper-case
letters in regular type face are used to designate the co-final. Notice, that in both the authentic and its corresponding
plagal form the final is always the same, but the co-final in the authentic
mode is a fifth up from the tonal while the co-final in the plagal mode is
always a third down from the co-final of the authentic mode. Additionally, the
common practice of the time would be to move any final or a co-final that was a
half-step below the following degree of the mode to that following note. For
example, in the Phrygian mode, the co-final is placed on C rather than B.
(Finals are designated by bold uppercase
letters, co-final by light uppercase letters).
I.
Dorian:
D, e, f, g, A, b, c, d
II.
Hypodorian:
a, b, c, D, e F, g,
a
III.
Phrygian:
E, f, g, a, b, C, d, e,
IV.
Hypophrygian:
b, c, d, E, f, g, A, b
V.
Lydian:
F, g, a, b, C, d, e, f
VI.
Hypolydian:
c, d, e, F, g, A, b, c
VII.
Mixolydian:
G, a, b, c, D, e, f, g
VIII.
Hypomixolydian:
d, e, f, G, a, b, C, d
In 1547 Glareanus added four new modes to the system—two additional authentic
modes corresponding to our modern major
and natural minor scales and their
two plagal variations. These were called Ionian,
Aeolian, Hypoionian, and Hypoaeolian,
respectively.
IX.
Aeolian:
A, b, c, d, E, f, g, a
X.
Hypoaeolian:
e, f, g, A, b, C, d, e
XI.
Ionian:
C, d, e, f, G, a, b
XII.
Hypoionian:
g, a, b, C, d, E, f
The most modern classification of the modes based on the key of C Major is as
follows:
I. Ionian: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C
II. Dorian: D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D
III. Phrygian: E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E
IV. Lydian: F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F
V. Mixolydian: g, a, b, c, d, e, f, g
VI. Aeolian: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, a
VII. Locrian: b, c, d, e, f, g, a, b
Of practical importance is the need to identify and construct the modes from
various starting points—keys—finals. Towards that end the following techniques
are offered.
1. The first to the last note of any major scale creates the Ionian mode in that key or on that final; beginning with the second note of any major scale creates the Dorian mode in that key or on that final; beginning with the third note of any major scale creates the Phrygian mode in that key or on that final, and so forth with all the remaining modes. This is particularly useful because of our present usage of ‘key signatures’ in the notation of modal music. For example, a key signature of F#, would not indicate G major or E minor, but the possibility of the music being in any of the modes derived from the Ionian mode, i.e. G Ionian, A Dorian, B Phrygian, etc. To find which mode it is, one only needs to determine the final—which is usually the last (the final) note or harmony of the piece.
2. Because of the contemporary musician's familiarity with major and minor scales, modes can be identified as essentially ‘major’ or ‘minor’.
Ionian is the same as a major scale.
Lydian is the same as a major scale with raised 4th.
Mixolydian is the same as a major scale with a lowered 7th.
Aeolian is the same as a natural minor scale.
Dorian is the same as a natural minor scale with a raised 6th.
Phrygian is the same as a natural minor scale with a lowered 2nd.
Locrian is the same as a natural minor scale with lowered 2nd and 5th.
3. Modes in any key will have all the notes of a major scale in that key. For example, the
B Dorian mode, built upon the second note of the A major scale, has sharps on C, F, and G, as does the C# Phrygian, the D Lydian, etc.
Identifying the modes in Renaissance music can be more difficult because pieces
of music often contain notes that are not in the mode, like accidentals in diatonic common practice
music. Therefore, the following observations are offered with the hope that
they may lead the thoughtful musician not so much to answers, but to deeper
questions regarding the nature of the music they are playing:
Since the time of Pythagoras, composers have regularly raised the 7th
note of any mode by a ½ step to create an interval of a ½ step between the 7th
note and the final or key tone of that mode.
Additionally, important cadences are also altered to allow for a ½ step
movement to any cadential note.
Instances are easily found in which the 6th note of a mode is raised
as well.
Mostly, these allowances are found in
the upper voice, while the lower voice is often more consistent with the notes
of the underlying mode of the piece, therefore, when trying to discern the mode
of a particular piece of music, conflicts should be resolved by giving more
evidentiary weight to the notes of the lower voice.
And finally, simply put, within any domain
of possibilities vast differences occur between theory and practice and, as it has been observed; rules of
composition enable the less gifted
composer to write competent music, while the greatest of composers have shown
the ability to transcend existing rules and create new possibilities within
their musical domains.
© Copyright, Michael
Kovitz, 2017
