Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry! I am especially excited for today’s episode, because we will only be talking about MUSIC THEORY! In order to help you study for large comprehensive music exams, I am going to take a couple of our Friday episodes to end the week to review some music theory topics. Following along chronologically in our learning, it only felt right to spend today’s short episode talking about church modes!

In our last episode, we spent some time talking about gregorian chant, a form of Western plainchant used in the church. Today, we are going to explore how the melodies of these chants can change. A few episodes ago, I mentioned a concept called church modes. However, during that episode, we took a few minutes to learn more about the different octave series that were created by ancient Greek music theory philosophers. In a sense, we are still talking about the same scales, but their names have been changed around and are typically what we refer to when we are speaking about modes. 

There is another Greek scholar and theorist that I have been remiss in mentioning; his name is Boethius. He was around in the 6th century and was responsible for translating important works from Greek into Latin. He also wrote a famous text called “De institutione musica,” of which theorists centuries later depended on to help explain modes. The way that church modes were recognized and used until music in the 17th century was similar to the pairings that we heard about last episode. There were 4 pairs of modes with their building point beginning on the pitch D. A few hundred years later, a Swiss theorist named Henricus Glareanus wrote a text called “Dodecachordon” which added 4 more modes to the list. It wasn’t until the late 18th and early 19th centuries that modes became what we now know today as our modern church modes. 

Let’s dive into these 7 modes. For the sake of continuity, I will be referring to the differences among these modes as major vs minor based modes as well as denoting modified scale degrees with raised/sharp or lowered/flat. The two modes that we know most well are Ionian and Aeolian. These, respectively, are our major and natural minor scales. A way to look at modes in general is to really base the changes of each mode off of what is going on in these two modes. Ionian mode sounds like this [MUSIC] while aeolian mode sounds like this [MUSIC]. 

Ionian, as we just discovered, is the basis of our major scale. When we are talking about the order of modes, this is our first mode, and it starts on C. In addition to this major based mode, there are two modes that can be built from this mode. They are Lydian, which begins on F and Mixolydian, which begins on G. The lydian mode, which sounds like this [MUSIC], contains a raised or sharp 4th scale degree. The mixolydian mode, which sounds like this [MUSIC], begins just like our major scale, but negates the leading tone, or our 7th pitch in the scale, making it a lowered or flattened 7th scale degree. Here is what all of those sound like again in succession: Ionian [MUSIC], lydian [MUSIC], and mixolydian [MUSIC]. 

The minor based modes take shape from the Aeolian mode, which again sounds like this [MUSIC]. The two minor based modes are called Phrygian, which begins on the pitch E, and dorian, which begins on the pitch D. The phrygian mode, which sounds like this [MUSIC], contains a half step right at the beginning of the mode, which lowers or flattens scale degree 2. The dorian mode, which sounds like this [MUSIC], has a raised or sharp 6th scale degree. Here is what all of those modes sound like again in succession: aeolian [MUSIC], phrygian [MUSIC], and dorian [MUSIC]. 

Now you might be counting on your fingers that we’ve only talked about 6 modes…and you’re right. There is a 7th mode that is the least frequently used mode of all 7. It is called the Locrian mode, and it begins on the pitch B natural. It sounds like this [MUSIC]. You’ll notice that it doesn’t necessarily have a specific color toward major or minor, so I am not denoting that as a feature of this mode. This mode is best described by its components, so I will be addressing it by half and whole steps. Spelling out the mode in this way gives us HWWHWWW. Do you remember the only other mode that starts off with a half step? It’s phrygian. The half/whole step pattern is different from that point, but if you need a way to remember this cool mode, that could be of some help!

These modes are important for many things: singing gregorian chants, analyzing both old and new music, and much more. Nowadays when we go to sing gregorian chant, some editions won’t even mention what mode is being sung. And sometimes, we don’t even really need to care because it's in modern notation AND has a key signature! So, it’s pretty simple to find out from that information. However, if you are presented with a piece of music in Solesmes notation, something might be written above that says mode II or mode III with roman numerals next to the word mode. Since this was an early 20th century practice, the number of modes line up with the modes we now know. If you were keeping up with all of the aforementioned modes' starting pitches, you might know their order. But I will mention the order now from 1-7 before we end today’s lesson. Ionian (I) beginning on C, dorian (II) beginning on D, phrygian (III) beginning on E, lydian (IV) beginning on F, mixolydian (V) beginning on G, aeolian (VI) beginning on A, and locrian (VII) beginning on B. 

In our next episode, we will begin to talk about parts of the mass and how gregorian chant fits into that as well as help expand repertoire to more than just monophony. Join me next time on Between the Barlines!