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In
music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the " rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (k ...
, the term mode or ''modus'' is used in a number of distinct senses, depending on context. Its most common use may be described as a type of
musical scale In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale. Often, especially in th ...
coupled with a set of characteristic melodic and harmonic behaviors. It is applied to
major and minor In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe a chord, scale, or key. As such, composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor. Intervals Some intervals ...
keys as well as the seven diatonic modes (including the former as Ionian and Aeolian) which are defined by their starting note or tonic. (
Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...
's modes of limited transposition are strictly a scale type.) Related to the diatonic modes are the eight church modes or Gregorian modes, in which authentic and plagal forms of scales are distinguished by
ambitus In ancient Roman law, ''ambitus'' was a crime of political corruption, mainly a candidate's attempt to influence the outcome (or direction) of an election through bribery or other forms of soft power. The Latin word ''ambitus'' is the origin of ...
and
tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wi ...
or
reciting tone In chant, a reciting tone (also called a recitation tone) can refer to either a repeated musical pitch or to the entire melodic formula for which that pitch is a structural note. In Gregorian chant, the first is also called tenor, dominant or tuba, ...
. Although both diatonic and gregorian modes borrow terminology from
ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
, the Greek ''tonoi'' do not otherwise resemble their mediaeval/modern counterparts. In the Middle Ages the term modus was used to describe both intervals and rhythm.
Modal rhythm In medieval music, the rhythmic modes were set patterns of long and short durations (or rhythms). The value of each note is not determined by the form of the written note (as is the case with more recent European musical notation), but rather by ...
was an essential feature of the modal notation system of the
Notre-Dame school The Notre-Dame school or the Notre-Dame school of polyphony refers to the group of composers working at or near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced. The only composers whose names ha ...
at the turn of the 12th century. In the
mensural notation Mensural notation is the musical notation system used for European vocal polyphony, polyphonic music from the later part of the 13th century until about 1600. The term "mensural" refers to the ability of this system to describe precisely measu ...
that emerged later, modus specifies the subdivision of the ''longa''. Outside of
Western classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
, "mode" is sometimes used to embrace similar concepts such as ''
Octoechos Oktōēchos (here transcribed "Octoechos"; Greek: ;The feminine form exists as well, but means the book octoechos. from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́см ...
'', '' maqam'', '' pathet'' etc. (see #Analogues in different musical traditions below).


Mode as a general concept

Regarding the concept of mode as applied to pitch relationships generally, Harold S. Powers proposed that "mode" has "a twofold sense", denoting either a "particularized scale" or a "generalized tune", or both. "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 the other as being in the domain of mode". In 1792, Sir Willam Jones applied the term "mode" to the music of "the
Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...
and the Hindoos". As early as 1271, Amerus applied the concept to ''cantilenis organicis'', i.e. most probably polyphony. It is still heavily used with regard to Western
polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, ...
before the onset of the
common practice period In European art music, the common-practice period is the era of the tonal system. Most of its features persisted from the mid-Baroque period through the Classical and Romantic periods, roughly from 1650 to 1900. There was much stylistic evoluti ...
, as for example "modale Mehrstimmigkeit" by
Carl Dahlhaus Carl Dahlhaus (10 June 1928 – 13 March 1989) was a German musicologist who was among the leading postwar musicologists of the mid to late 20th-century. A prolific scholar, he had broad interests though his research focused on 19th- and 20th ...
or "Tonarten" of the 16th and 17th centuries found by Bernhard Meier. The word encompasses several additional meanings. Authors from the 9th century until the early 18th century (e.g.,
Guido of Arezzo Guido of Arezzo ( it, Guido d'Arezzo; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a ma ...
) sometimes employed the Latin ''modus'' for interval, or for qualities of individual notes. In the theory of late-medieval mensural polyphony (e.g.,
Franco of Cologne Franco of Cologne (; also Franco of Paris) was a German music theorist and possibly a composer. He was one of the most influential theorists of the Late Middle Ages, and was the first to propose an idea which was to transform musical notation p ...
), ''modus'' is a rhythmic relationship between long and short values or a pattern made from them; in mensural music most often theorists applied it to division of longa into 3 or 2 breves.


Modes and scales

A
musical scale In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale. Often, especially in th ...
is a series of pitches in a distinct order. The concept of "mode" in Western music theory has three successive stages: in
Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe du ...
theory, in Renaissance polyphonic theory, and in tonal harmonic music of the common practice period. In all three contexts, "mode" incorporates the idea of the
diatonic scale In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps ...
, but differs from it by also involving an element of
melody type Melody type or type-melody is a set of melodic formulas, figures, and patterns. Term and typical meanings "Melody type" is a fundamental notion for understanding a nature of Western and non-Western musical modes, according to Harold Powers' ...
. This concerns particular repertories of short musical figures or groups of tones within a certain scale so that, depending on the point of view, mode takes on the meaning of either a "particularized scale" or a "generalized tune". Modern musicological practice has extended the concept of mode to earlier musical systems, such as those of
Ancient Greek music Music was almost universally present in ancient Greek society, from marriages, funerals, and religious ceremonies to theatre, folk music, and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Gre ...
, Jewish cantillation, and the
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantino ...
system of '' octoechoi'', as well as to other non-Western types of music. By the early 19th century, the word "mode" had taken on an additional meaning, in reference to the difference between major and minor keys, specified as "
major mode The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at double i ...
" and " minor mode". At the same time, composers were beginning to conceive "modality" as something outside of the major/minor system that could be used to evoke religious feelings or to suggest folk-music idioms.


Greek modes

Early Greek treatises describe three interrelated concepts that are related to the later, medieval idea of "mode": (1)
scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...
(or "systems"), (2) ''tonos'' – pl. ''tonoi'' – (the more usual term used in medieval theory for what later came to be called "mode"), and (3) ''harmonia'' (harmony) – pl. ''harmoniai'' – this third term subsuming the corresponding ''tonoi'' but not necessarily the converse.


Greek scales

The Greek scales in the Aristoxenian tradition were: *
Mixolydian Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' or ''tonoi'', based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; or a modern musical mode or diatonic sc ...
: ''hypate hypaton–paramese'' (b–b′) * Lydian: ''parhypate hypaton–trite diezeugmenon'' (c′–c″) * Phrygian: ''lichanos hypaton–paranete diezeugmenon'' (d′–d″) * Dorian: ''hypate meson–nete diezeugmenon'' (e′–e″) * Hypolydian: ''parhypate meson–trite hyperbolaion'' (f′–f″) * Hypophrygian: ''lichanos meson–paranete hyperbolaion'' (g′–g″) * Common, Locrian, or Hypodorian: ''mese–nete hyperbolaion'' or ''proslambnomenos–mese'' (a′–a″ or a–a′) These names are derived from an ancient Greek subgroup (
Dorians The Dorians (; el, Δωριεῖς, ''Dōrieîs'', singular , ''Dōrieús'') were one of the four major ethnic groups into which the Hellenes (or Greeks) of Classical Greece divided themselves (along with the Aeolians, Achaeans, and Ionians ...
), a small region in central Greece (
Locris Locris (; el, label=Modern Greek, Λοκρίδα, Lokrída; grc, Λοκρίς, Lokrís) was a region of ancient Greece, the homeland of the Locrians, made up of three distinct districts. Locrian tribe The city of Locri in Calabria (Italy), ...
), and certain neighboring peoples (non-Greek but related to them) from
Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
(
Lydia Lydia ( Lydian: ‎𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish prov ...
, Phrygia). The association of these ethnic names with the
octave species In the musical system of ancient Greece, an octave species (εἶδος τοῦ διὰ πασῶν, or σχῆμα τοῦ διὰ πασῶν) is a specific sequence of intervals within an octave. In ''Elementa harmonica'', Aristoxenus classifi ...
appears to precede
Aristoxenus Aristoxenus of Tarentum ( el, Ἀριστόξενος ὁ Ταραντῖνος; born 375, fl. 335 BC) was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle. Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have be ...
, who criticized their application to the ''tonoi'' by the earlier theorists whom he called the "Harmonicists." According to Bélis (2001), he felt that their diagrams, which exhibit 28 consecutive dieses, were "... devoid of any musical reality since more than two quarter-tones are never heard in succession." Depending on the positioning (spacing) of the interposed tones in the tetrachords, three ''genera'' of the seven octave species can be recognized. The diatonic genus (composed of tones and semitones), the chromatic genus (semitones and a minor third), and the
enharmonic genus In the musical system of ancient Greece, genus (Greek: γένος 'genos'' pl. γένη 'genē'' Latin: ''genus'', pl. ''genera'' "type, kind") is a term used to describe certain classes of intonations of the two movable notes within a tetracho ...
(with a major third and two
quarter tone A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each, ...
s or dieses). The framing interval of the perfect fourth is fixed, while the two internal pitches are movable. Within the basic forms, the intervals of the chromatic and diatonic genera were varied further by three and two "shades" (''chroai''), respectively. In contrast to the medieval modal system, these scales and their related ''tonoi'' and ''harmoniai'' appear to have had no hierarchical relationships amongst the notes that could establish contrasting points of tension and rest, although the ''mese'' ("middle note") may have had some sort of gravitational function.


''Tonoi''

The term ''tonos'' (pl. ''tonoi'') was used in four senses: "as note, interval, region of the voice, and pitch. We use it of the region of the voice whenever we speak of Dorian, or Phrygian, or Lydian, or any of the other tones". Cleonides attributes thirteen ''tonoi'' to Aristoxenus, which represent a progressive transposition of the entire system (or scale) by semitone over the range of an octave between the Hypodorian and the Hypermixolydian. According to Cleonides, Aristoxenus's transpositional ''tonoi'' were named analogously to the octave species, supplemented with new terms to raise the number of degrees from seven to thirteen. However, according to the interpretation of at least three modern authorities, in these transpositional ''tonoi'' the Hypodorian is the lowest, and the Mixolydian next-to-highest – the reverse of the case of the octave species, with nominal base pitches as follows (descending order): * F: Hypermixolydian (or Hyperphrygian) * E: High Mixolydian or Hyperiastian * E: Low Mixolydian or Hyperdorian * D: Lydian * C: Low Lydian or Aeolian * C: Phrygian * B: Low Phrygian or Iastian * B: Dorian * A: Hypolydian * G: Low Hypolydian or Hypoaelion * G: Hypophrygian * F: Low Hypophrygian or Hypoiastian * F: Hypodorian
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
, in his ''Harmonics'', ii.3–11, construed the ''tonoi'' differently, presenting all seven octave species within a fixed octave, through chromatic inflection of the scale degrees (comparable to the modern conception of building all seven modal scales on a single tonic). In Ptolemy's system, therefore there are only seven ''tonoi''.
Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politi ...
also construed the intervals arithmetically (if somewhat more rigorously, initially allowing for 1:1 = Unison, 2:1 = Octave, 3:2 = Fifth, 4:3 = Fourth and 5:4 = Major Third within the octave). In their diatonic genus, these ''tonoi'' and corresponding ''harmoniai'' correspond with the intervals of the familiar modern major and minor scales. See Pythagorean tuning and
Pythagorean interval In musical tuning theory, a Pythagorean interval is a musical interval with frequency ratio equal to a power of two divided by a power of three, or vice versa.Benson, Donald C. (2003). ''A Smoother Pebble: Mathematical Explorations'', p.56. . " ...
.


''Harmoniai''

In music theory the Greek word ''harmonia'' can signify the enharmonic genus of tetrachord, the seven octave species, or a style of music associated with one of the ethnic types or the ''tonoi'' named by them. Particularly in the earliest surviving writings, ''harmonia'' is regarded not as a scale, but as the epitome of the stylised singing of a particular district or people or occupation. When the late-6th-century poet Lasus of Hermione referred to the Aeolian ''harmonia'', for example, he was more likely thinking of a melodic style characteristic of Greeks speaking the Aeolic dialect than of a scale pattern. By the late 5th century BC, these regional types are being described in terms of differences in what is called ''harmonia'' – a word with several senses, but here referring to the pattern of intervals between the notes sounded by the strings of a
lyra Lyra (; Latin for lyre, from Greek ''λύρα'') is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra was ...
or a
kithara The kithara (or Latinized cithara) ( el, κιθάρα, translit=kithāra, lat, cithara) was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. In modern Greek the word ''kithara'' has come to mean "guitar", a word which etymologi ...
. However, there is no reason to suppose that, at this time, these tuning patterns stood in any straightforward and organised relations to one another. It was only around the year 400 that attempts were made by a group of theorists known as the harmonicists to bring these ''harmoniai'' into a single system and to express them as orderly transformations of a single structure. Eratocles was the most prominent of the harmonicists, though his ideas are known only at second hand, through Aristoxenus, from whom we learn they represented the ''harmoniai'' as cyclic reorderings of a given series of intervals within the octave, producing seven
octave species In the musical system of ancient Greece, an octave species (εἶδος τοῦ διὰ πασῶν, or σχῆμα τοῦ διὰ πασῶν) is a specific sequence of intervals within an octave. In ''Elementa harmonica'', Aristoxenus classifi ...
. We also learn that Eratocles confined his descriptions to the enharmonic genus. In the ''
Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
'',
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
uses the term inclusively to encompass a particular type of scale, range and register, characteristic rhythmic pattern, textual subject, etc. He held that playing music in a particular ''harmonia'' would incline one towards specific behaviors associated with it, and suggested that soldiers should listen to music in Dorian or Phrygian ''harmoniai'' to help make them stronger but avoid music in Lydian, Mixolydian or Ionian ''harmoniai'', for fear of being softened. Plato believed that a change in the musical modes of the state would cause a wide-scale social revolution. The philosophical writings of Plato and
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
(c. 350 BC) include sections that describe the effect of different ''harmoniai'' on mood and character formation. For example, Aristotle stated in his ''
Politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studie ...
'': Aristotle continues by describing the effects of rhythm, and concludes about the combined effect of rhythm and ''harmonia'' (viii:1340b:10–13): The word ''
ethos Ethos ( or ) is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution, and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to ...
'' (ἦθος) in this context means "moral character", and Greek ethos theory concerns the ways that music can convey, foster, and even generate ethical states.


''Melos''

Some treatises also describe "melic" composition (μελοποιΐα), "the employment of the materials subject to harmonic practice with due regard to the requirements of each of the subjects under consideration" – which, together with the scales, ''tonoi'', and ''harmoniai'' resemble elements found in medieval modal theory. According to
Aristides Quintilianus Aristides Quintilianus (Greek: Ἀριστείδης Κοϊντιλιανός) was the Greek author of an ancient musical treatise, ''Perì musikês'' (Περὶ Μουσικῆς, i.e. ''On Music''; Latin: ''De Musica'') According to Theodore Kar ...
, melic composition is subdivided into three classes: dithyrambic, nomic, and tragic. These parallel his three classes of rhythmic composition: systaltic, diastaltic and hesychastic. Each of these broad classes of melic composition may contain various subclasses, such as erotic, comic and panegyric, and any composition might be elevating (diastaltic), depressing (systaltic), or soothing (hesychastic). According to Thomas J. Mathiesen, music as a performing art was called ''melos'', which in its perfect form (μέλος τέλειον) comprised not only the melody and the text (including its elements of rhythm and diction) but also stylized dance movement. Melic and rhythmic composition (respectively, μελοποιΐα and ῥυθμοποιΐα) were the processes of selecting and applying the various components of melos and rhythm to create a complete work. According to Aristides Quintilianus:


Western Church

Tonaries, lists of chant titles grouped by mode, appear in western sources around the turn of the 9th century. The influence of developments in Byzantium, from Jerusalem and Damascus, for instance the works of Saints John of Damascus (d. 749) and Cosmas of Maiouma, are still not fully understood. The eight-fold division of the Latin modal system, in a four-by-two matrix, was certainly of Eastern provenance, originating probably in Syria or even in Jerusalem, and was transmitted from Byzantine sources to Carolingian practice and theory during the 8th century. However, the earlier Greek model for the Carolingian system was probably ordered like the later Byzantine '' oktōēchos'', that is, with the four principal ( authentic) modes first, then the four plagals, whereas the Latin modes were always grouped the other way, with the authentics and plagals paired. The 6th-century scholar
Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, '' magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the ...
had translated Greek music theory treatises by
Nicomachus Nicomachus of Gerasa ( grc-gre, Νικόμαχος; c. 60 – c. 120 AD) was an important ancient mathematician and music theorist, best known for his works ''Introduction to Arithmetic'' and '' Manual of Harmonics'' in Greek. He was born i ...
and
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
into Latin. Later authors created confusion by applying mode as described by Boethius to explain plainchant modes, which were a wholly different system. In his ''De institutione musica'', book 4 chapter 15, Boethius, like his Hellenistic sources, twice used the term ''harmonia'' to describe what would likely correspond to the later notion of "mode", but also used the word "modus" – probably translating the Greek word τρόπος (''tropos''), which he also rendered as Latin ''tropus'' – in connection with the system of transpositions required to produce seven diatonic octave species, so the term was simply a means of describing transposition and had nothing to do with the church modes. Later, 9th-century theorists applied Boethius's terms ''tropus'' and ''modus'' (along with "tonus") to the system of church modes. The treatise ''De Musica'' (or ''De harmonica institutione'') of
Hucbald Hucbald ( – 20 June 930; also Hucbaldus or Hubaldus) was a Benedictine monk active as a music theorist, poet, composer, teacher, and hagiographer. He was long associated with Saint-Amand Abbey, so is often known as Hucbald of St Amand. Deepl ...
synthesized the three previously disparate strands of modal theory: chant theory, the Byzantine ''oktōēchos'' and Boethius's account of Hellenistic theory. The late-9th- and early 10th-century compilation known as the ''Alia musica'' imposed the seven octave transpositions, known as ''tropus'' and described by Boethius, onto the eight church modes, but its compilator also mentions the Greek (Byzantine) echoi translated by the Latin term ''sonus''. Thus, the names of the modes became associated with the eight church tones and their modal formulas – but this medieval interpretation does not fit the concept of the ancient Greek harmonics treatises. The modern understanding of mode does not reflect that it is made of different concepts that do not all fit. According to Carolingian theorists the eight church modes, or
Gregorian mode A Gregorian mode (or church mode) is one of the eight systems of pitch organization used in Gregorian chant. History The name of Pope Gregory I was attached to the variety of chant that was to become the dominant variety in medieval western and ...
s, can be divided into four pairs, where each pair shares the "
final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
" note and the four notes above the final, but they have different intervals concerning the species of the fifth. If the octave is completed by adding three notes above the fifth, the mode is termed ''authentic'', but if the octave is completed by adding three notes below, it is called ''plagal'' (from Greek πλάγιος, "oblique, sideways"). Otherwise explained: if the melody moves mostly above the final, with an occasional cadence to the sub-final, the mode is authentic. Plagal modes shift range and also explore the fourth below the final as well as the fifth above. In both cases, the strict
ambitus In ancient Roman law, ''ambitus'' was a crime of political corruption, mainly a candidate's attempt to influence the outcome (or direction) of an election through bribery or other forms of soft power. The Latin word ''ambitus'' is the origin of ...
of the mode is one octave. A melody that remains confined to the mode's ambitus is called "perfect"; if it falls short of it, "imperfect"; if it exceeds it, "superfluous"; and a melody that combines the ambituses of both the plagal and authentic is said to be in a "mixed mode". Although the earlier (Greek) model for the Carolingian system was probably ordered like the Byzantine ''oktōēchos'', with the four authentic modes first, followed by the four plagals, the earliest extant sources for the Latin system are organized in four pairs of authentic and plagal modes sharing the same final: protus authentic/plagal, deuterus authentic/plagal, tritus authentic/plagal, and tetrardus authentic/plagal. Each mode has, in addition to its final, a "
reciting tone In chant, a reciting tone (also called a recitation tone) can refer to either a repeated musical pitch or to the entire melodic formula for which that pitch is a structural note. In Gregorian chant, the first is also called tenor, dominant or tuba, ...
", sometimes called the "dominant". It is also sometimes called the "tenor", from Latin ''tenere'' "to hold", meaning the tone around which the melody principally centres. 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 10th and 11th centuries with 3 and 8 moving from B to C (
half step A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent n ...
) and that of 4 moving from G to A (
whole step In Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (). A second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions (see Interval number for more deta ...
). After the reciting tone, every mode is distinguished by scale degrees called "mediant" and "participant". The mediant is named from its position between the final and reciting tone. In the authentic modes it is the third of the scale, unless that note should happen to be B, in which case C substitutes for it. In the plagal modes, its position is somewhat irregular. The participant is an auxiliary note, generally adjacent to the mediant in authentic modes and, in the plagal forms, coincident with the reciting tone of the corresponding authentic mode (some modes have a second participant). Only one accidental is used commonly in
Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe du ...
– B may be lowered by a half-step to B. This usually (but not always) occurs in modes V and VI, as well as in the upper tetrachord of IV, and is optional in other modes except III, VII and VIII. In 1547, the Swiss theorist
Henricus Glareanus Heinrich Glarean also styled Glareanus (born as Heinrich Loriti on 28 February or 3 June 1488 – 28 March 1563) was a Swiss music theorist, poet and humanist. He was born in Mollis (in the canton of Glarus, hence his name) and died in Freiburg im ...
published the ''Dodecachordon'', in which he solidified the concept of the church modes, and added four additional modes: the Aeolian (mode 9),
Hypoaeolian The Hypoaeolian mode, literally meaning "below Aeolian", is the name assigned by Henricus Glareanus in his ''Dodecachordon'' (1547) to the musical plagal mode on A, which uses the diatonic octave species from E to the E an octave above, divide ...
(mode 10), Ionian (mode 11), and Hypoionian (mode 12). A little later in the century, the Italian
Gioseffo Zarlino Gioseffo Zarlino (31 January or 22 March 1517 – 4 February 1590) was an Italian music theorist and composer of the Renaissance. He made a large contribution to the theory of counterpoint as well as to musical tuning. Life and career Zarlino w ...
at first adopted Glarean's system in 1558, but later (1571 and 1573) revised the numbering and naming conventions in a manner he deemed more logical, resulting in the widespread promulgation of two conflicting systems. Zarlino's system reassigned the six pairs of authentic–plagal mode numbers to finals in the order of the natural hexachord, C–D–E–F–G–A, and transferred the Greek names as well, so that modes 1 through 8 now became C-authentic to F-plagal, and were now called by the names Dorian to Hypomixolydian. The pair of G modes were numbered 9 and 10 and were named Ionian and Hypoionian, while the pair of A modes retained both the numbers and names (11, Aeolian, and 12 Hypoaeolian) of Glarean's system. While Zarlino's system became popular in France, Italian composers preferred Glarean's scheme because it retained the traditional eight modes, while expanding them.
Luzzasco Luzzaschi Luzzasco Luzzaschi (c. 1545 – 10 September 1607) was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was born and died in Ferrara, and despite evidence of travels to Rome it is assumed that Luzzaschi spent the majority o ...
was an exception in Italy, in that he used Zarlino's new system. In the late-18th and 19th centuries, some chant reformers (notably the editors of the Mechlin,
Pustet Friedrich Pustet GmbH & Co. KG is a German publishing firm, located in Regensburg. The original home of the Pustets was the Republic of Venice, where the name Bustetto is common. Probably in the seventeenth century, the founder of the Ratisbon ...
-Ratisbon (
Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is t ...
), and
Rheims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...
-
Cambrai Cambrai (, ; pcd, Kimbré; nl, Kamerijk), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord department and in the Hauts-de-France region of France on the Scheldt river, which is known locally as the Es ...
Office-Books, collectively referred to as the
Cecilian Movement The Cecilian Movement for church music reform began in Germany in the second half of the 1800s as a reaction to the liberalization of the Enlightenment. The Cecilian Movement received great impetus from Regensburg, where Franz Xaver Haberl had ...
) renumbered the modes once again, this time retaining the original eight mode numbers and Glareanus's modes 9 and 10, but assigning numbers 11 and 12 to the modes on the final B, which they named Locrian and Hypolocrian (even while rejecting their use in chant). The Ionian and Hypoionian modes (on C) become in this system modes 13 and 14. Given the confusion between ancient, medieval, and modern terminology, "today it is more consistent and practical to use the traditional designation of the modes with numbers one to eight", using
Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...
(I–VIII), rather than using the pseudo-Greek naming system. Medieval terms, first used in Carolingian treatises, later in Aquitanian tonaries, are still used by scholars today: the Greek ordinals ("first", "second", etc.) transliterated into the Latin alphabet protus (πρῶτος), deuterus (δεύτερος), tritus (τρίτος), and tetrardus (τέταρτος). In practice they can be specified as authentic or as plagal like "protus authentus / plagalis".


Use

A mode indicated a primary pitch (a final), the organization of pitches in relation to the final, the suggested range, the
melodic formula Melody type or type-melody is a set of melodic formulas, figures, and patterns. Term and typical meanings "Melody type" is a fundamental notion for understanding a nature of Western and non-Western musical modes, according to Harold Powers' ...
s associated with different modes, the location and importance of
cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. Don Michael Randel (1 ...
s, and the affect (i.e., emotional effect/character). Liane Curtis writes that "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. Dahlhaus lists "three factors that form the respective starting points for the modal theories of
Aurelian of Réôme Aurelian of Réôme (Aurelianus Reomensis) (fl. c. 840 – 850) was a Frankish writer and music theorist. He is the author of the ''Musica disciplina'', the earliest extant treatise on music from medieval Europe. Life Next to nothing is k ...
,
Hermannus Contractus Blessed Hermann of Reichenau (18 July 1013– 24 September 1054), also known by other names, was an 11th-century Benedictine monk and scholar. He composed works on history, music theory, mathematics, and astronomy, as well as many hymns. ...
, and
Guido of Arezzo Guido of Arezzo ( it, Guido d'Arezzo; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a ma ...
": * the relation of modal formulas to the comprehensive system of tonal relationships embodied in the diatonic scale * the partitioning of the octave into a modal framework * the function of the modal final as a relational center. The oldest medieval treatise regarding modes is ''Musica disciplina'' by
Aurelian of Réôme Aurelian of Réôme (Aurelianus Reomensis) (fl. c. 840 – 850) was a Frankish writer and music theorist. He is the author of the ''Musica disciplina'', the earliest extant treatise on music from medieval Europe. Life Next to nothing is k ...
(dating from around 850) while Hermannus Contractus was the first to define modes as partitionings of the octave. However, the earliest Western source using the system of eight modes is the Tonary of St Riquier, dated between about 795 and 800. Various interpretations of the "character" imparted by the different modes have been suggested. Three such interpretations, from
Guido of Arezzo Guido of Arezzo ( it, Guido d'Arezzo; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a ma ...
(995–1050), Adam of Fulda (1445–1505), and Juan de Espinosa Medrano (1632–1688), follow:


Modern modes

Modern Western modes use the same set of notes as the major scale, in the same order, but starting from one of its seven degrees in turn as a tonic, and so present a different sequence of whole and
half step A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent n ...
s. With the interval sequence of the major scale being W–W–H–W–W–W–H, where "W" means a whole tone (whole step) and "H" means a semitone (half step), it is thus possible to generate the following modes: For the sake of simplicity, the examples shown above are formed by
natural note In music theory, a natural (♮) is an accidental which cancels previous accidentals and represents the unaltered pitch of a note. A note is natural when it is neither flat () nor sharp () (nor double-flat nor double-sharp ) (nor triple-flat ...
s (also called "white notes", as they can be played using the white keys of a
piano keyboard A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, sho ...
). However, any transposition of each of these scales is a valid example of the corresponding mode. In other words, transposition preserves mode. Although the names of the modern modes are Greek and some have names used in ancient Greek theory for some of the ''harmoniai'', the names of the modern modes are conventional and do not refer to the sequences of intervals found even in the diatonic genus of the Greek
octave species In the musical system of ancient Greece, an octave species (εἶδος τοῦ διὰ πασῶν, or σχῆμα τοῦ διὰ πασῶν) is a specific sequence of intervals within an octave. In ''Elementa harmonica'', Aristoxenus classifi ...
sharing the same name.


Analysis

Each mode has characteristic intervals and chords that give it its distinctive sound. The following is an analysis of each of the seven modern modes. The examples are provided in a key signature with no sharps or flats (scales composed of
natural note In music theory, a natural (♮) is an accidental which cancels previous accidentals and represents the unaltered pitch of a note. A note is natural when it is neither flat () nor sharp () (nor double-flat nor double-sharp ) (nor triple-flat ...
s).


Ionian (I)

The
Ionian mode Ionian mode is a musical mode or, in modern usage, a diatonic scale also called the major scale. It is the name assigned by Heinrich Glarean in 1547 to his new authentic mode on C (mode 11 in his numbering scheme), which uses the diatonic octav ...
is the modern major scale. The example composed of natural notes begins on C, and is also known as the C-major scale: *Tonic triad: C major *Tonic
seventh chord A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chord's root. When not otherwise specified, a "seventh chord" usually means a dominant seventh chord: a major triad together with a minor ...
: CM7 *Dominant triad: G (in modern tonal thinking, the fifth or dominant
scale degree In music theory, the scale degree is the position of a particular note on a scale relative to the tonic, the first and main note of the scale from which each octave is assumed to begin. Degrees are useful for indicating the size of intervals and ...
, which in this case is G, is the next-most important chord root after the tonic) *Seventh chord on the dominant: G7 (a
dominant seventh chord In music theory, a dominant seventh chord, or major minor seventh chord, is a seventh chord, usually built on the fifth degree of the major scale, and composed of a root, major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh. Thus it is a major triad t ...
, so-called because of its position in this – and only this – modal scale)


Dorian (II)

The
Dorian mode Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different but interrelated subjects: one of the Ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' (characteristic melodic behaviour, or the scale structure associated with it); one of the medieval musical modes; or—mos ...
is the second mode. The example composed of natural notes begins on D: The Dorian mode is very similar to the modern
natural minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which als ...
(see Aeolian mode below). The only difference with respect to the natural minor scale is in the sixth
scale degree In music theory, the scale degree is the position of a particular note on a scale relative to the tonic, the first and main note of the scale from which each octave is assumed to begin. Degrees are useful for indicating the size of intervals and ...
, which is a major sixth (M6) above the tonic, rather than a minor sixth (m6). *Tonic triad: Dm *Tonic seventh chord: Dm7 *Dominant triad: Am *Seventh chord on the dominant: Am7 (a
minor seventh chord In music, a minor seventh chord is a seventh chord composed of a root note, together with a minor third, a perfect fifth, and a minor seventh (1, 3, 5, 7). For example, the minor seventh chord built on C, commonly written as C–7, ...
)


Phrygian (III)

The
Phrygian mode The Phrygian mode (pronounced ) can refer to three different Mode (music), musical modes: the ancient Greek ''tonos'' or ''harmonia,'' sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set of octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, a ...
is the third mode. The example composed of natural notes starts on E: The Phrygian mode is very similar to the modern
natural minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which als ...
(see Aeolian mode below). The only difference with respect to the natural minor scale is in the second
scale degree In music theory, the scale degree is the position of a particular note on a scale relative to the tonic, the first and main note of the scale from which each octave is assumed to begin. Degrees are useful for indicating the size of intervals and ...
, which is a minor second (m2) above the tonic, rather than a major second (M2). *Tonic triad: Em *Tonic seventh chord: Em7 *Dominant triad: Bdim *Seventh chord on the dominant: Bø7 (a
half-diminished seventh chord In music theory, the half-diminished seventh chord (also known as a half-diminished chord or a minor seventh flat five chord) is a seventh chord composed of a root note, together with a minor third, a diminished fifth, and a minor seventh (1,&nbs ...
)


Lydian (IV)

The Lydian mode is the fourth mode. The example composed of natural notes starts on F: The single tone that differentiates this scale from the major scale (Ionian mode) is its fourth degree, which is an augmented fourth (A4) above the tonic (F), rather than a perfect fourth (P4). *Tonic triad: F *Tonic seventh chord: FM7 *Dominant triad: C *Seventh chord on the dominant: CM7 (a major seventh chord)


Mixolydian (V)

The Mixolydian mode is the fifth mode. The example composed of natural notes begins on G: The single tone that differentiates this scale from the major scale (Ionian mode) is its seventh degree, which is a minor seventh (m7) above the tonic (G), rather than a major seventh (M7). Therefore, the seventh scale degree becomes a
subtonic In music, the subtonic is the degree of a musical scale which is a whole step below the tonic note. In a major key, it is a lowered, or flattened, seventh scale degree (). It appears as the seventh scale degree in the natural minor and descen ...
to the tonic because it is now a whole tone lower than the tonic, in contrast to the seventh degree in the major scale, which is a semitone tone lower than the tonic ( leading-tone). *Tonic triad: G *Tonic seventh chord: G7 (the dominant seventh chord in this mode is the seventh chord built on the tonic degree) *Dominant triad: Dm *Seventh chord on the dominant: Dm7 (a minor seventh chord)


Aeolian (VI)

The
Aeolian mode The Aeolian mode is a musical mode or, in modern usage, a diatonic scale also called the natural minor scale. On the white piano keys, it is the scale that starts with A. Its ascending interval form consists of a ''key note, whole step, half step ...
is the sixth mode. It is also called the
natural minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which als ...
. The example composed of natural notes begins on A, and is also known as the A natural-minor scale: *Tonic triad: Am *Tonic seventh chord: Am7 *Dominant triad: Em *Seventh chord on the dominant: Em7 (a minor seventh chord)


Locrian (VII)

The
Locrian mode The Locrian mode is the seventh mode of the major scale. It is either a musical mode or simply a diatonic scale. On the piano, it is the scale that starts with B and only uses the white keys from there. Its ascending form consists of the key note, t ...
is the seventh mode. The example composed of natural notes begins on B: The distinctive
scale degree In music theory, the scale degree is the position of a particular note on a scale relative to the tonic, the first and main note of the scale from which each octave is assumed to begin. Degrees are useful for indicating the size of intervals and ...
here is the diminished fifth (d5). This makes the tonic triad diminished, so this mode is the only one in which the chords built on the tonic and dominant scale degrees have their roots separated by a diminished, rather than perfect, fifth. Similarly the tonic seventh chord is half-diminished. *Tonic triad: Bdim or B° *Tonic seventh chord: Bm75 or Bø7 *Dominant triad: F *Seventh chord on the dominant: FM7 (a major seventh chord)


Summary

The modes can be arranged in the following sequence, which follows the
circle of fifths In music theory, the circle of fifths is a way of organizing the 12 chromatic pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths. (This is strictly true in the standard 12-tone equal temperament system — using a different system requires one interval of ...
. In this sequence, each mode has one more lowered interval relative to the tonic than the mode preceding it. Thus, taking Lydian as reference, Ionian (major) has a lowered fourth; Mixolydian, a lowered fourth and seventh; Dorian, a lowered fourth, seventh, and third; Aeolian (natural minor), a lowered fourth, seventh, third, and sixth; Phrygian, a lowered fourth, seventh, third, sixth, and second; and Locrian, a lowered fourth, seventh, third, sixth, second, and fifth. Put another way, the augmented fourth of the Lydian mode has been reduced to a perfect fourth in Ionian, the major seventh in Ionian to a minor seventh in Mixolydian, etc. The first three modes are sometimes called major, the next three minor, and the last one diminished (Locrian), according to the quality of their tonic triads. The Locrian mode is traditionally considered theoretical rather than practical because the triad built on the first scale degree is diminished. Because
diminished triad In music theory, a diminished triad (also known as the minor flatted fifth) is a triad consisting of two minor thirds above the root. It is a minor triad with a lowered ( flattened) fifth. When using chord symbols, it may be indicated by the s ...
s are not consonant they do not lend themselves to cadential endings and cannot be tonicized according to traditional practice. * The Ionian mode corresponds to the major scale. Scales in the Lydian mode are major scales with an
augmented fourth Augment or augmentation may refer to: Language *Augment (Indo-European), a syllable added to the beginning of the word in certain Indo-European languages * Augment (Bantu languages), a morpheme that is prefixed to the noun class prefix of nouns ...
. The Mixolydian mode corresponds to the major scale with a
minor seventh In music theory, a minor seventh is one of two musical intervals that span seven staff positions. It is ''minor'' because it is the smaller of the two sevenths, spanning ten semitones. The major seventh spans eleven. For example, the interval ...
. * The Aeolian mode is identical to the
natural minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which als ...
. The Dorian mode corresponds to the natural minor scale with a
major sixth In music from Western culture, a sixth is a musical interval encompassing six note letter names or staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major sixth is one of two commonly occurring sixths. It is qualified as ''major ...
. The Phrygian mode corresponds to the natural minor scale with a
minor second A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent n ...
. * The Locrian is neither a major nor a minor mode because, although its third scale degree is minor, the fifth degree is diminished instead of perfect. For this reason it is sometimes called a "diminished" scale, though in jazz theory this term is also applied to the
octatonic scale An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetrica ...
. This interval is
enharmonic In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note, interval, or key signature that is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature but "spelled", or named differently. The enharmonic spelling of a writt ...
ally equivalent to the augmented fourth found between scale degrees 1 and 4 in the Lydian mode and is also referred to as the
tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three a ...
.


Use

Use and conception of modes or modality today is different from that in early music. As Jim Samson explains, "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 19th century requiring, a dialogue between modal and diatonic procedure". Indeed, when 19th-century composers revived the modes, they rendered them more strictly than Renaissance composers had, to make their qualities distinct from the prevailing major-minor system. Renaissance composers routinely sharped leading tones at cadences and lowered the fourth in the Lydian mode. The Ionian, or Iastian, mode is another name for the major scale used in much Western music. The Aeolian forms the base of the most common Western minor scale; in modern practice the Aeolian mode is differentiated from the minor by using only the seven notes of the Aeolian mode. By contrast, minor mode compositions of the
common practice period In European art music, the common-practice period is the era of the tonal system. Most of its features persisted from the mid-Baroque period through the Classical and Romantic periods, roughly from 1650 to 1900. There was much stylistic evoluti ...
frequently raise the seventh scale degree by a semitone to strengthen the
cadences In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. Don Michael Randel (1 ...
, and in conjunction also raise the sixth scale degree by a semitone to avoid the awkward interval of an augmented second. This is particularly true of vocal music. Traditional folk music provides countless examples of modal melodies. For example, Irish traditional music makes extensive usage not only of the major mode, but also the Mixolydian, Dorian, and Aeolian modes. Much
Flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...
music is in the Phrygian mode, though frequently with the third and seventh degrees raised by a semitone.
Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (; hu, Kodály Zoltán, ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music ed ...
,
Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...
, and
Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first hal ...
use modal elements as modifications of a
diatonic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair ...
background, while modality replaces diatonic
tonality Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is ca ...
in the music of
Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
and
Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hu ...
.


Other types

While the term "mode" is still most commonly understood to refer to Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, or Locrian modes, in modern music theory the word is often applied to scales other than the diatonic. This is seen, for example, in
melodic minor In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which als ...
scale harmony, which is based on the seven rotations of the ascending melodic minor scale, yielding some interesting scales as shown below. The "chord" row lists tetrads that can be built from the pitches in the given mode (in jazz notation, the symbol Δ is for a
major seventh In music from Western culture, a seventh is a musical interval encompassing seven staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major seventh is one of two commonly occurring sevenths. It is qualified as ''major'' because it i ...
). The number of possible modes for any intervallic set is dictated by the pattern of intervals in the scale. For scales built of a pattern of intervals that only repeats at the octave (like the diatonic set), the number of modes is equal to the number of notes in the scale. Scales with a recurring interval pattern smaller than an octave, however, have only as many modes as notes within that subdivision: e.g., the
diminished scale An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetrica ...
, which is built of alternating whole and half steps, has only two distinct modes, since all odd-numbered modes are equivalent to the first (starting with a whole step) and all even-numbered modes are equivalent to the second (starting with a half step). The
chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pa ...
and
whole-tone scale In music, a whole-tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole tone. In twelve-tone equal temperament, there are only two complementary whole-tone scales, both six-note or ''hexatonic'' sc ...
s, each containing only steps of uniform size, have only a single mode each, as any rotation of the sequence results in the same sequence. Another general definition excludes these equal-division scales, and defines modal scales as subsets of them: according to
Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...
, "If we leave out certain steps of a equal-stepscale we get a modal construction". In " Messiaen's narrow sense, ''a mode is any scale'' made up from the 'chromatic total,' the twelve tones of the tempered system".


Analogues in different musical traditions

*
Echos Echos (Greek: "sound", pl. echoi ; Old Church Slavonic: "voice, sound") is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight-mode system ( oktoechos), each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and r ...
( Byzantine music) *
Dastgah Dastgāh ( fa, دستگاه) is the standard musical system in Persian art music, standardised in the 19th century following the transition of Persian music from the Maqam modal system. A consists of a collection of musical melodies, . In a so ...
(
Persian traditional music Persian traditional music or Iranian traditional music, also known as Persian classical music or Iranian classical music, refers to the classical music of Iran (also known as ''Persia''). It consists of characteristics developed through the coun ...
) * Maqam (
Arabic music Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also man ...
) *
Makam The Turkish makam ( Turkish: ''makam'' pl. ''makamlar''; from the Arabic word ) is a system of melody types used in Turkish classical music and Turkish folk music. It provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance. Each makam spe ...
(Arabic, Persian and Turkish classical music) *
Raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradition, and as ...
(
Indian classical music Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were not ...
) *
Thaat A Thaat () is a "Parent scale" in North Indian or Hindustani music. It is the Hindustani equivalent of the term ''Melakartha raga'' of Carnatic Music. The concept of the ''thaat'' is not exactly equivalent to the western musical scale because ...
(North Indian or
Hindustani music Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, sita ...
) * Melakarta (South Indian or
Carnatic music Carnatic music, known as or in the South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and Sri Lanka. It is o ...
) *
Pann ''Pann'' ( ta, பண்) is the melodic mode used by the Tamil people in their music since the ancient times. The ancient ''pans'' over centuries evolved first into a pentatonic scale. But from the earliest times, Tamil Music is heptatonic a ...
(
Ancient Tamil music The ancient Tamil music is the historical predecessor of the Carnatic music during the Sangam period spanning from 500 BCE to 200 CE. Many poems of the classical Sangam literature were set to music. There are various references to this anc ...
) * Pathet (Javanese music for
gamelan Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...
) *
Pentatonic scale A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many anc ...


See also

*
Gamut (music) Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pa ...
* Jewish prayer modes * List of musical scales and modes *
Modal jazz Modal jazz is jazz that makes use of musical modes, often modulating among them to accompany the chords instead of relying on one tonal center used across the piece. Although precedents exist, modal jazz was crystallized as a theory by composer ...
*
Znamenny chant Znamenny Chant (russian: знаменное пение, знаменный распев) is a singing tradition used by some in the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church. Znamenny Chant is a unison, melismatic liturgical singing that has its own speci ...


References


Bibliography

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Further reading

* Brent, Jeff, with Schell Barkley (2011). ''Modalogy: Scales, Modes & Chords: The Primordial Building Blocks of Music''. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corporation. * Chalmers, John H. (1993).
Divisions of the Tetrachord / Peri ton tou tetrakhordou katatomon / Sectiones tetrachordi: A Prolegomenon to the Construction of Musical Scales
', edited by Larry Polansky and Carter Scholz, foreword by Lou Harrison. Hanover, New Hampshire: Frog Peak Music. . * Fellerer, Karl Gustav (1982). "Kirchenmusikalische Reformbestrebungen um 1800". ''Analecta Musicologica: Veröffentlichungen der Musikgeschichtlichen Abteilung des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Rom'' 21:393–408. * Grout, Donald, Claude V. Palisca, and J. Peter Burkholder (2006). ''A History of Western Music''. New York: W. W. Norton. 7th edition. . * Jowett, Benjamin (1937). ''The Dialogues of Plato'', translated by Benjamin Jowett, third edition, 2 vols. New York: Random House. * Jowett, Benjamin (1943). ''Aristotle's Politics'', translated by Benjamin Jowett. New York: Modern Library. * Judd, Cristle (ed) (1998). ''Tonal Structures in Early Music: Criticism and Analysis of Early Music'', 1st ed. New York: Garland. . * Levine, Mark (1989). ''The Jazz Piano Book.'' Petaluma, California: Sher Music Co. . * Lonnendonker, Hans. 1980. "Deutsch-französische Beziehungen in Choralfragen. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des gregorianischen Chorals in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts". In ''Ut mens concordet voci: Festschrift Eugène Cardine zum 75. Geburtstag'', edited by Johannes Berchmans Göschl, 280–295. St. Ottilien: EOS-Verlag. * Mathiesen, Thomas J. (1999)
''Apollo's Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages''
Publications of the Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature 2. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. . *McAlpine, Fiona (2004). "Beginnings and Endings: Defining the Mode in a Medieval Chant". ''Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'' 45, nos. 1 & 2 (17th International Congress of the International Musicological Society IMS Study Group Cantus Planus): 165–177. * (1997). "Mode et système. Conceptions ancienne et moderne de la modalité". ''Musurgia'' 4, no. 3:67–80. * Meeùs, Nicolas (2000). "Fonctions modales et qualités systémiques". ''Musicae Scientiae, Forum de discussion'' 1:55–63. * Meier, Bernhard (1974). ''Die Tonarten der klassischen Vokalpolyphonie: nach den Quellen dargestellt''. Utrecht. * Meier, Bernhard (1988). ''The Modes of Classical Vocal Polyphony: Described According to the Sources,'' translated from the German by Ellen S. Beebe, with revisions by the author. New York: Broude Brothers. * Meier, Bernhard (1992). ''Alte Tonarten: dargestellt an der Instrumentalmusik des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts.'' Kassel * Miller, Ron (1996). ''Modal Jazz Composition and Harmony'', Vol. 1. Rottenburg, Germany: Advance Music. * Ordoulidis, Nikos. (2011).
The Greek Popular Modes
. ''British Postgraduate Musicology'' 11 (December). (Online journal, accessed 24 December 2011) * Pfaff, Maurus (1974). "Die Regensburger Kirchenmusikschule und der cantus gregorianus im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert". ''Gloria Deo-pax hominibus. Festschrift zum hundertjährigen Bestehen der Kirchenmusikschule Regensburg'', Schriftenreihe des Allgemeinen Cäcilien-Verbandes für die Länder der Deutschen Sprache 9, edited by Franz Fleckenstein, 221–252. Bonn: Allgemeiner Cäcilien-Verband, 1974. * Powers, Harold (1998). "From Psalmody to Tonality". In ''Tonal Structures in Early Music'', edited by Cristle Collins Judd, 275–340. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1998; Criticism and Analysis of Early Music 1. New York: Garland Publishing. . * Ruff, Anthony, and Raphael Molitor (2008).
Beyond Medici: The Struggle for Progress in Chant
. ''Sacred Music'' 135, no. 2 (Summer): 26–44. * Scharnagl, August (1994). " Carl Proske (1794–1861)". In ''Musica divina: Ausstellung zum 400. Todesjahr von Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina und Orlando di Lasso und zum 200. Geburtsjahr von Carl Proske. Ausstellung in der Bischöflichen Zentralbibliothek Regensburg, 4. November 1994 bis 3. Februar 1995'', Bischöfliches Zentralarchiv und Bischöfliche Zentralbibliothek Regensburg: Kataloge und Schriften, no. 11, edited by Paul Mai, 12–52. Regensburg: Schnell und Steiner, 1994. * Schnorr, Klemens (2004). "El cambio de la edición oficial del canto gregoriano de la editorial Pustet/Ratisbona a la de Solesmes en la época del Motu proprio". In ''El Motu proprio de San Pío X y la Música (1903–2003). Barcelona, 2003'', edited by Mariano Lambea, introduction by María Rosario Álvarez Martínez and José Sierra Pérez. ''Revista de musicología'' 27, no. 1 (June) 197–209. * Street, Donald (1976). "The Modes of Limited Transposition". ''
The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainze ...
'' 117, no. 1604 (October): 819–823. * Vieru, Anatol (1980). ''Cartea modurilor''. Bucharest: Editura Muzicală. English edition, as ''The Book of Modes'', translated by Yvonne Petrescu and Magda Morait. Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1993. * Vieru, Anatol (1992). "Generating Modal Sequences (A Remote Approach to Minimal Music)]". ''
Perspectives of New Music ''Perspectives of New Music'' (PNM) is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in music theory and analysis. It was established in 1962 by Arthur Berger and Benjamin Boretz (who were its initial editors-in-chief). ''Perspectives'' was firs ...
'' 30, no. 2 (Summer): 178–200. * Vincent, John (1974). ''The Diatonic Modes in Modern Music'', revised edition. Hollywood: Curlew Music. * Wellesz, Egon (1954). "Music of the Eastern Churches". '' The New Oxford History of Music'', vol. 2:14–57. Oxford University Press. *Wiering, Frans (1998). "Internal and External Views of the Modes". In ''Tonal Structures in Early Music'', edited by Cristle Collins Judd, 87–107. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1998; Criticism and Analysis of Early Music 1. New York: Garland Publishing. .


External links


All modes mapped out in all positions for 6, 7 and 8 string guitarThe use of guitar modes in jazz music




John Chalmers



Eric Friedlander MD
An interactive demonstration of many scales and modes


an approach to the original singing of the Homeric epics and early Greek epic and lyrical poetry by Ioannidis Nikolaos *
Ἀριστοξενου ἁρμονικα στοιχεια: The Harmonics of Aristoxenus
', edited with translation notes introduction and index of words by Henry S. Macran. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902. * Monzo, Joe. 2004.
The Measurement of Aristoxenus's Divisions of the Tetrachord
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musical Mode Melody types Ancient Greek music theory Catholic music