church modes

Do players of today use the term mode and scale interchangeably? Yep, for the most part both of these terms simply imply an ordered, looping, group of pitches." How timeless are these church modes? Ancient Greeks? Romans? Even ancient Egypt? Atlantis maybe? As far back as our history goes for sure. Our present day modes come to us from the established church of Rome and are a continuance from the ancient Greeks, many of whom left their homeland Greece and resettled in southern Italy around 500 b.c.

Is everything potentially modally based in our modern, equal tempered world? Could be, does the modal perspective of the resources allow for a deeper mining of the musical resources, rewarding the searching player with modern versions of ancient and timeless themes? Just might. That's the art part. The coolness of understanding the musical modes when reflected by equal temper creates a gradually shifting palette of intune scale and chordal musical color, that is set in motion starting at distinct points within the loop, which creates the shifting of intervals and resulting colors. So very cool. Check it out. Example 1.

Here's the sound of the above chart using C as the root pitch, creating a gradual shifting of modal color by moving a melodic idea through the gradually shifting sequence of intervals still so beloved of artists worldwide today. Click icon below to hear the modes as presented in the chart just above in action. Example 1a.

Interesting sound eh? Not an easy sound file to create. Notice the "half step ( 1 / 2 ) ladder" in the chart of example 1 above. Is it the shifting of the half steps, whose placement is locked into the equal temper system, that creates the shifting or ascending of modal colors? If ascending, which mode goes where on the ladder? Can the ascension concept be applied in composing?

So, where else could we apply this "gradually shifting of modal color" in a modern setting? The following idea is in a more modern vamp that simply shifts between the major and minor tonalities. Over the minor color I often choose the Aeolian group for a "loop of pitches" and Locrian over the major tonality. Coolness emerges, at least I think it does, in that the roots of the these scales are both the pitch A. So, a shifting back and forth between the mode or mood created by A Aeolian to A Locrian etc. Example 2.

For new learners. The following ideas are presented to provide for the new learner a sense of what players today commonly call the "modes." Why are the modes important? Well, for a number of reasons. First perhaps in that these groups of pitches ( modes ) historically predate the system of music we use today. They were combined together into our present system of tonal organization, the equal temperament system. Second in that although we do not really know their ancient tuning thus sound, we can get a sense of their color from within equal temperament. The modes can be important colors for composers. Thirdly, that these colors are potentially important for the improvising musician in many of the styles of American music.

The menu below follows a simple path of learning that when surveyed in it's entirety may create a bit of curiosity in the reader and perhaps a sense of these ancient colors.

"I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need." Francois-Auguste Rodin, when asked how he managed to make his remarkable statues

Footnotes:

Isacoff, Stuart, Temperament. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001, pp. 26.