How Modes are the Key to Everything: The Plan

I need to spend considerably more time in the library to flesh this theory out, and perhaps stand on Bruin walk handing out $5 bills to attract participants for experimental research, but I had to put the idea down while it was still fresh.

First of all, I want to prove the universal existence of modes in all music cultures and also to lay out the general principles, based on human cognition that have guided the formation of these modes. A catalog of modes is easy enough to create, and they should be indexed by the various features that give them their respective similarities and differences, namely (and my indexing proposal will probably hint at some of my hypotheses) number of pitches in an octave, maximum and minimum intervals (by cents), distribution of smaller steps (such as where are the "half" steps, or tight spots), presence or absence of perfect 5th, use of dominant (and which note).

What I expect to find is that there is a limit to how far notes a step apart can be stretched, after which they will no longer be perceivable as step, and that no extant modes will feature step intervals larger than that. This threshold for step perception should be verifiable by experimental study.

In general, modes around the world have 7 steps, and that seems to reflect the human ability to perceive step intervals, distributed over and octave. There are two obvious exceptions. The first is the gap of a minor third (or similar interval) in the pentatonic mode, or in modes that have fewer than 7 notes. It seems that this case would have to represent a subset of the 7 note mode (and indeed Javanese music demonstrates the coexistence of 5 and 7 note modes). One possible interpretation of this was put forward by Roger Bourland. He supposes that the 5 note mode facilitates heterophonic or even polyphonic experimentation, such that all the members of a community can sing or play in a mode, with little consideration for rules of pitch combination. Any pitches in a pentatonic scale can be played simultaneously without serious accoustic problems. It could be said then that 5 (and 6) note modes are the result of pruning problematic notes in a heterophonic texture - the capacity for 7 notes coexisting with a practice of avoiding unpleasant intervals in favor of greater freedom in spontaneous polyphony. While this conjecture would be hard to verify historically, it strikes me as very plausible.

Another explaination for the pentatonic mode (and also the "no 6th" mode common in Appalachian folk songs) stems from my lessons years ago with William Critser. He asserted that there was something fundamental about the accoustic nature of the falling minor 3rd - that it was something children do naturally (and therefore is the dominant feature in childrens' play songs). In fact, we see the minor third all over the place - it is a common reciting tone in Catholic liturgical chant, it dominates many childrens' songs such as "Sally Water" and "Ring Around the Posy," we hear it in Colonal Bogey March (and it may be very telling that the composer drew this thematic interval from a non-musical source), it is a widely used interval in blues, and of course, it is the gap interval in the widely used pentatonic mode. So widely used is the minor third that I believe rather than an exception to modal step, it may be one of the most basic building blocks of the human music experience. Accoustically, it is a fairly straightforward interval, a simple 6:5 ratio. As in Colonal Bogey, however, I wonder if it is not drawn from sources that are not purely musical, namely from pitch in speach. There ought to be substantial documentation of the pitch contours used in speach, and I will report back on my findings on the subject soon. My guess is that people use a falling (or even rising) minor third rather often in speaking. The mode therefore fills in around the basic interval of a minor third. Interestingly, the fact that this gap is a minor third (and not a major third) makes it difficult (and unlikely, based on other accoustic factors) to break it down into equal steps. Could the minor third therefore be the reason unequal steps are needed in the full 7 note modes?

There is one exception, though, that comes to mind that makes a universal cognition approach to step modes problematic. That exception is the modes that have something comparable to an augmented second in them, what could stereotypically be called "oriental." Most Americans and Europeans find this interval, when highlighted (not tucked away in a rhythmically innocuous place as in the use of harmonic minor scale on dominant 7th chords in the Baroque) rather exotic sounding, evoking a Something and a Somewhere. Cesar Cui's Orientale hinges on this point of flavor. Now, it is unlikely that musicians and audiences from such a place would find it particularly "exotic," though I wonder if the flavor of the augmented second (or near equivalent) would prick the ear of a native listener in a similar way. Indeed it might just be a shared experience, even after factoring out the association of the "extra wide" step as a signifier. My reason is that this step in the mode usually comes between the second and third degrees of the mode, or between the sixth and seventh (I'll elaborate on this in my upcoming catalog). The interval does not appear just anwhere, as in the diatonic modes, and therefore seems to pick its pitches based on accoustic considerations as well as modal tonic/step considerations. The major third seems a pretty likely given its clear existance as a harmonic, and the low second degree (Phrygian second) exists elsewhere. So I wonder if this mode (or modes, since there are a number of variations) in fact evolved separately, and that while the pitches were derived from multiple considerations (i. e. the desire for a harmonically pure third and a low supertonic to tonic step), the inherent goofiness of the resulting interval became exploited rather than tucked away. I will hypothesize that ornamentation and rhythmic accentuaion of this interval reveals that native proponents of these modes are well aware of its goofiness (i. e. flavor) and exploit it, thereby rendering an argument that the augmented second is problematic for the human cognition step mode theory ungrounded (at least on this point).

Given my research is primarily intended to describe what rhythm is, how it works, where it comes from and what this elusive thing called "flow" is, you may wonder why I spend so much time and effort looking at modes, which would normally be considered in the domain of pitch. But I believe it is in modality that rhythm gets its value and its function. Sure, there are plenty of examples of non-pitched percussion music, and I want to be careful not to imply that there is anything missing or inferior about percussion music. And yet, while there are examples of highly precussion-dominated musics in the world, percussion-only musics are rare. And in those musics, timbre and color tend to be important shaping forces as well as rhythm. It is in a mode that the pure set of pitches and perhaps even the outline of contour (though even this contour is meaningless until it is set in motion by the most basic elements of rhyhtm) is brought to life and has its musical potential piqued. To understand rhythm we must understand what it can do, and the vast array of modal musics, notated or improvised, provide a rich laboratory where were can see how real musicians playing for real audiences use rhythm to unlock modal potenial and make music.