Music:Musical modes
From Arcthon
Musical Modes
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_modes
In music, a scale is an ordered series of musical intervals, which, along with the key or tonic, define the pitches. However, _mode_ is usually used in the sense of scale applied only to the specific diatonic scales found below. The use of more than one mode is polymodal, such as with polymodal chromaticism. While all tonal music may technically be described as modal, music that is called modal often has less diatonic functionality and changes key less often than other music.
Modern modes
The modern conception of modes describes a system where each mode encompasses the usual diatonic scale but with a different tonic or tonal center. On a piano or other such keyboard instrument, one can find a diatonic scale by using the white keys. The seven-note scale starting on middle C is an Ionian scale. Going up the keyboard one gets a Dorian scale by starting on the D, a Phrygian scale by starting on the E, a Lydian scale by starting on the F, a Mixolydian scale starting on the G, an Aeolian scale starting on the A, and a Locrian scale starting on the B. As a memory aid, there is a mnemonic: I Do Follow Lonely Men And Laugh (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian). Another one is I Dont Particularly Like Modes A Lot.
The modes can be arranged in the following sequence, where each mode has one more shortened interval in its scale than the one preceding it.
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Greek modes
Early Greek treatises on music referred to modes, or scales, which were named after certain of the Ancient Greek subgroups (Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians), one small region in central Greece (Locris), and certain neighboring (non-Greek) peoples from Asia Minor (Lydia, Phrygia).
The Greek modes were:
- Ionian
- Dorian and Hypodorian
- Phrygian and Hypophrygian
- Lydian, Hypolydian
- Mixolydian
- Aeolian
- Locrian
Plato felt that playing music in a particular mode would incline one towards specific behavior associated with that mode, and suggested that soldiers should listen to music in Dorian or Phrygian modes to help make them stronger, but avoid music in Lydian, Mixolydian or Ionian modes, 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 (c. 350 BCE) include sections that describe the effect of different musical modes on mood and character formation. For example, this quote from Aristotles _Politics_:
"The musical modes differ essentially from one another, and those who hear them are differently affected by each. Some of them make men sad and grave, like the so called Mixolydian; others enfeeble the mind, like the relaxed modes; another, again, produces a moderate or settled temper, which appears to be the peculiar effect of the Dorian; and the Phrygian inspires enthusiasm."
Plato and Aristotle describe the modes to which a person listened as molding the persons character. The modes even made the person more or less fit for certain jobs. The effect of modes on character and mood was called the "ethos of music".
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-- Main.Music:Geir_thomas_andersen - 09 Oct 2007
