source file: mills2.txt Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 23:20:32 +0200 Subject: modes From: Daniel Wolf Paul Erlich is quite right in identifying the qualitative difference thatmajor and minor have with respect to the other diatonic modes when placedin a polyphonic voice leading situation. Among other things, the placement of the diminished fifth (_tritone_ ought to be saved for the pythagorean 729/512, on analogy with the ditone) allows for counterpoint with greaterfreedom for inverting voices, which becomes essential in tonal counterpoint, canon, and fugue. However, _melodically_ these modes function perfectly well when the melodic rules for the more traditional modes are followed (that is - Major as combination of mixolydian and lydian and minor as a combination dorian, phrygian and lydian). In fact, I thinka good case could be made for hearing early works in Major or minor as a kind of rapid _raga malaka_ where changes of harmony allow local melodic fragments to shift from one modal melodic type to another. Although the study of musical intonation provides fertile ground for hearing these things flexibly, all too often the result is the opposite. I heard a lecture a decade or so ago by a famous African American composer and theorist who wanted to analyse _all music_ in terms of the lydian mode because it was the one where the the tonic coincided with the lowest termin a series of fifths. I pointed out that this was fine as a model for composition - and many fine compositions were made using his model - but could not be applied analytically to all music. In simple voice leading, the diminished fifth of the lydian mode would always resolve to the dominant and the Bach example he used simply didn't do this. The good professor responded: ''And that's where Bach went wrong...'' Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 23 May 1997 11:10 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA08329; Fri, 23 May 1997 11:10:23 +0200 Date: Fri, 23 May 1997 11:10:23 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA08288 Received: (qmail 16098 invoked from network); 23 May 1997 09:10:04 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 23 May 1997 09:10:04 -0000 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu