source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 24 May 1997 20:48:00 +0200 Subject: modes vs keys (was: JI modes) From: Daniel Wolf Gordon Collins wrote: '' A key is not just a set of notes - it is determined by chordal structure rather than melodic formulae. '' No, a key is a set of 7 pitches in a (at least nominal) series consecutive of fifths, octave equivalence assumed, and auxillary accidentals allowed.This contributes the pitch height component of the identification of a mode of a piece. Our terminology for this is not so transparent, in that traditionally the tonic is named verbally and the set of pitches identified by the key signature. Thus the key with two flats gives Bb Major, g minor(with or without auxillaries - a look at Baroque minor key signatures is instructive), c dorian, d phrygian etc.. Major and minor tonalities have distinctive harmonic possibilities from harmonized church modes, and these are manifest in particular harmonic sequences. For example, a phrygian harmonization will have a different treatment of the second degree from that found in major or minor. (A V ofV - V - I sequence is very different in these modes and that is exactly thefeature that Schumann or Berlioz or Sibelius grabs onto!). Since I have had to do some church organ playing of late in a church (Altkatholische) where Lutheran chorales are used, I have been struck by the variety of harmonizations. Most settings are modal (i.e. retaining the dominant/tonic functions of the melodic mode), but some - particularly those of Bach - put the melody into a Major/minor tonality with elaboratecross relations and usually are slowed down considerably to accommodate the rapid increase in harmonic rhythm. Indeed, although the congregation onlysings the melody, the ''tonal'' harmonizations make the melody harder to sing at the more familiar tempo. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 25 May 1997 20:33 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA09593; Sun, 25 May 1997 20:33:02 +0200 Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 20:33:02 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA09587 Received: (qmail 8553 invoked from network); 25 May 1997 18:32:59 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 25 May 1997 18:32:59 -0000 Message-Id: <009B4CD2D21947D6.2DD7@vbv40.ezh.nl> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu