Modality: Same Place, New Beginning
A Quick Note:
Only four blogs in, and I'm realizing a bit of a pitfall with my planning. When I was putting together the list of topics I was mostly thinking in the order of highest level thinking to lowest. The problem being that I may initially be referring to concepts that the reader doesn't yet understand, and will have to wait for a later blog to get the details. However, if topics were covered in reverse order there wouldn't be a structure for the reader to organize ideas around. That being said, I'll continue on with the assumption that the reader will be able to sort out how to approach this material, and trust that if they've made it this far that they're curious enough to put in the effort while also having the patience to work through this process.
Intro:
Last week I covered the topic of motifs and melodies, and for the next few weeks we'll be working through the components that make up their anatomy. However, we'll be breaking from the convention of typical theory texts in that we won't be discussing scales and chords just yet. Instead, the initial focus will be on modality, intervals, and voice leading. The main reason for this is that modality existed long before chords, functional harmony, and other Common Practice techniques; a lot of these concepts simply do not apply or translate well to modes anyway. Rather than expecting the reader to forget everything they've read, or risk the misapplication and over generalization of concepts we'll start from the actual beginning.
Modal Mindset:
There used to be a time (starting around 500AD) when composers never considered chords when writing, and to the degree they happened at all they were simply a by-product of writing practices of the time. It's worth keeping in mind that much of what has made it's way into modern music theory has been based on discoveries over hundreds of years, and discoveries in music were subject to the scientific process; particularly when it came to tuning systems (i.e. Pythagoras). Musical instruments were much simpler during the time when modality was common, and even if chromaticism was a thought there wasn't any real way to meaningfully execute it. The human voice was the primary instrument of the time(especially in the church), and lot of the guidelines mentioned in the previous blog are rooted in limitation of the human voice at the time. All that to basically say there weren't as many notes, and the methods for performing them weren't that well developed yet. Thus, composers came up with ways to use what they had
Simulating Discovery (have a daw piano roll or actual piano for this part):
Before getting into names and intervals let's try an experiment. Let's imagine a piano, but it doesn't have any of the black keys and our understanding of any kind of scale is limited to the pattern starting on C. I know many people may already understand it to be a C major scale, but set aside that knowledge for now and try to operate from the perspective of discovery. If you're using a daw you may be able to simulate this using a scale feature that can fold the piano roll down to only the white notes; otherwise ignore the black keys as best as possible. Start by writing for yourself a little 1-2 bar melody. It doesn't have to be anything special, but make sure it follows some of the guidelines previously mentioned, has some larger leaps (greater than a third), and that it starts/ends on C. Play it a few times and make some observations about it.
1. What do you notice about the overall affect (feeling)?
2. What do you notice about how it ends? Does it seem strong/weak?
3. How does it feel to sing the melody? Are there any intervals that feel awkward?
The specific answers to these questions are not as important as making the initial observations themselves, and developing some perspective about what you're playing and hearing. Now, let's take that same pattern and shift it up so we're now beginning and ending on D. Play that a few times, and work through the same set of questions. You'll notice differences from the previous version that started on C. Repeat this process all the way through B, and take the time to really think about what is happening in each version. Don't worry about possible chords or scales at this point, only about how the melody is altered from one starting point to the next.
Names and Characteristics:
Each mode has a specific name and defining characteristics. The names, at this point, are rather arbitrary and simply exist because the associations are too tightly locked to bother renaming them. The resulting characteristics of the intervals are a bit more formally defined, albeit the affect of those characteristics is subjective. The characteristics we'll look at here are a) major/minor quality, b) general (contemporary) affect, and c) cadential strength and considerations (ending).
Ionian - (starting on C) More commonly known now as the major scale, and considered a more "happy" mode. G->C and B->C are strong cadences with D->C being acceptable as well.
Dorian - (starting on D) Minor mode with a more folkish/rustic like feel. A->D is the only strong cadence option, but E->D can work just as well. C->D lacks the half step that makes an upward resolution work well, but can still be done if desired.
Phrygian - (starting on E) Another minor mode, but with a melancholic feel. B->E is the only strong cadence option. F->E can feel nice, but usually as part of a descending sequence like G->F->E or after jumping up D->F->E.
Lydian - (starting on F) Moving back to major modes this one closely resembles Ionian, but is used more for adventurous or playful themes (commonly used for video game themes). C->F and E->F are the strong cadences, and G->F being useful as well.
Mixolydian - (starting on G) Similar to the folkish qualities of Dorian, but the major mode version. D->G is the strongest cadence, but A->G can work just as well
Aeolian - (starting on A) More commonly known as the minor scale, and the second most commonly used mode. This mode gets some special treatment in modern contexts when it comes to cadences, but what is commonly referred to as the natural minor is what we'll focus on for now. E->A is the strongest cadence while G->A and B->A work as well.
Locrian - (starting on B) While technically a minor mode it is more accurately described as having a diminished quality because of the interval between B->F (will be discussed in more detail later). Because it lacks a strong cadence it's difficult to really nail down a specific affect other than it being strange.
Conclusion:
By now, if you've been keeping up on reading you should have some kind of outline (written or in your head) regarding the overall structure of melodies/motifs, the modal building blocks we'll be using (for now) to fill them in, and some requisite concept of how specific notes are derived from pitches and frequencies. We'll fill out the details of pitches and notes in the next blog as we get into identifying and dealing with intervals within and between voices. There's still some time before we get to chords and functional harmony so try not to think too far ahead. This isn't going to be a typical theory blog, and it's going to be a slower burn than most are used to. That being said, hopefully this process will be more rewarding than what is offered by mainstream methodologies.
