To exemplify this friction, take for example this setting of the Pange Lingua, one of the most popular old chants still in widespread use in the church. The melody, while clearly in Mode III, or Phrygian, is harmonized as if it were in a major key, with the tonic now figuring as the mediant. Gone are many of the evocative features of Phrygian mode, notably the low second degree, minor third and minor sixth (which happens to be the dominant in this mode, contrary to the universal use of the fifth in tonal music). To be somewhat charitable toward the arranger, the Phrygian mode has its own peculiarities that would make a harmonization at least somewhat perplexing, such as the inherent tritone conflict between the flat-second and fifth degree (the fifth being rather important in a tonal setting). Susan McClary cites J.S. Bach's occasional setting of a Phrygian melody, "which required him to twist his harmonization every which way but loose, often culminating in chromatic meltdowns that simply obscured the fundamental irrationality of the process." (97). While I personally find the harmonization of monophonic chants (which in their authentic setting would have had no harmonization) unnecessary and undesirable, their attempted harmonization in many printed hymnals reveals a conflict in sensibility between the modaly driven melodies and the harmonically driven chord progressions. The forces at work in 11th century modality and 19th century harmony are worlds apart and are compatible only by compromise or occasional coincidence.
[note to self: take a look at Josquin de Prez's Missa Pange Lingua to examine how the Phrygian mode is treated in a polyphonic setting]
What is a mode really? In undergraduate music history and theory classes, students are often introduced to the modes as alternative scales with their respective characteristic whole and half step patterns, the seven named modes being derived from a single diatonic set. While students in a class setting such as that of a Dalcroze solfege class may be encouraged to improvise with some of these modes, exploration of the rich potential and functionality of modes is seldom afforded to busy students with vast amounts of Classical and Romantic literature to learn. Furthermore, the use of modes in monophonic or monodic music in its pure and unadulterated form is rare, and examining the expressive potential of a mode is therefore convoluted. It's not that modality is a thing of the past and doesn't exist, but that as a force it often goes unnoticed and unappreciated.
As "shaping forces" in music (to adopt Earnst Toch's terminology), modality and tonality exhibit some common features. They are, however, not the same thing, and as forces have rather different agendas. In viewing the following chart of analogous features, you can see where these two forces are similar and different.
Modality
- Has a tonic note as a tonal center toward which the melody tends to gravitate
- Has as its characteristic half steps or whole steps in a certain, unchangeable arrangement whereby expressive potential particular to that mode is realized
- Has a dominant, often the fifth tone, but not always
- May have a reciting tone
- Has a penultimate note (below the tonic) which may or may not be a leading tone
- Pitch levels represent modal space rather than harmonic shadings
- Structure is realized through exploration of modal space and through contour
Tonality
- Has a tonic note as a tonal center toward which the melody tends to gravitate AND a harmonic space toward which the music tends to gravitate regardless of pitch level
- Has in a key a set of whole and half steps which resemble those in the modes except that they must be either major or minor; chromatic notes may be borrowed from parallel modes without necessarily disrupting the sense of key
- Has a dominant pitch AND key area which is always the fifth and is always major and has certain structural powers
- Penultimate note is always the leading tone, in both major and minor, a half step below the tonic
- Pitch levels, while important for contour are themselves subject to interpretation based on the concurrent harmonic field
- Structure is realized through tension between the tonic and dominant. Contour and pitch level are subsidiary considerations in determining structure
Even before empirically exploring the limits and preferences of general human cognition it is useful to examine the extant modal structures and tunings already in use in folk music. In articulating the modal features of a given music (Arab, Hindustani, Javanese, Chinese, etc.) it seems to be the habit of critical writers to cite the differences (and therefore "Otherness") of these modes compared to the standard modern European and American practice. Indeed, the now perfectly logarithmic chromatic tuning system provides an attractive blank slate by which to measure the various deviation of exotic modes. Misleading terminology like "micro tonal tunings" and "quarter tones" tend to define these quite traditional and natural systems as complicated derivatives of an obviously rational Western purity. However, traditional world tuning systems are not inherently irrational, and the origin of the modern Western tuning system is far from logarithmic or even standard, having the burgeoning contrapuntal and harmonic adventures to spur its evolution and standardization. Despite the now apparent political pit-falls of explaining various modal structures and tunings as deviations from the logarithmic chromatic system, I will nonetheless measure intervals using cents (hundredths of semitones) as useful and sufficiently precise units considered to be amply smaller than the threshold of human pitch discrimination (Critser).
Most if not all modes in world music consist of steps of unequal size. In European diatonic Church modes, these are called whole steps and half steps, and there are near equivalents to these steps in many other modes. The distribution of these steps over the span of an octave (which seems to be basically "perfect" most of the time) seems to be more or less universal as well (for example, Arab musicians perform in heterophonic "unison" on various instruments in different octaves ignoring octave the displacement) (Racy). In sung music as well as most instrumental music, the upward limit to pitches distributed over (but not including) the octave seems to be seven. There are, as a few examples will show, instances of variations of pitches where in the descending version of the mode (or other special usage) a variant on a pitch level is substituted. But by and large, there are few examples of eight note modes (though the octatonic scale was documented by Arab theorists as early as the eighth century) and fewer if any of larger numbers of pitches in extant modes. But even in the case of a rare exception, the number seven is telling, and hints at a threshold in step perception.
PENTATONIC MODAL THEORIES: THE FIELDWORK OF SHARP AND BARTOK
To say that modes evolved simply from distributing uneven steps over the span of a perfect octave would seem to fall short of explaining the existence of modes containing less than seven pitches to an octave. The pentatonic modes (and hexatonic, as there are many examples of six note modes as well) are so common that they must be viewed not as exceptions from our expectation of evolving modes from steps but as evidence of another basic foundational principle of the emergence of pitch material. Now, while the predominance of the use of pentatonic modes in Chinese music and the extensive use of seven note modes in Arabic and Hindustani music may be viewed as exclusive modal traditions, thereby categorizing pentatonic modes as a really different thing, there are a number of musics where pentatonic and heptatonic modes exist concurrently, evidence that it is not quite out of mind for a performer of pentatonic music to also perform (or at the very least coexist with) heptatonic music.
The work of Cecil Sharp in his collection of English folk songs in Southern Appalachia and his modal theory based on analysis of these songs provides us with a wealth of information regarding the relationship between pentatonic and heptatonic modes as well as valuable insight into the nature of melody through multiple variants of certain songs ("Barbara Allen" for example, #24 in the collection, is recorded in sixteen different versions, varying considerably in mode and rhythm). In Sharp's theory, hexatonic and heptatonic modes are seen as directly related to an underlying pentatonic sensibility. In comparing the various diatonic modes to the pentatonic modes (of which there are five), he sites "weak" notes, where the uses of such non-pentatonic pitches are relagated to axillary function or rhythmically weak placement. Incidentally, Bartok noted an instability in pitch in the second degree of the minor modes in his analysis of Turkish melodies (Bartok, ###).
Maud Karpeles, in his preface to the 1931 edition of Sharp's collection, provides us with the following chart, relating heptatonic modes to pentatonic modes:
Heptatonic. 'Weak Notes.' Pentatonic Mode.
Ionian 3rd and 7th 1
4th and 7th 3
Dorian 3rd and 7th 1
2nd and 6th 2
3rd and 6th 4
Phrygian 2nd and 6th 2
2nd and 5th 5
Lydian 4th and 7th 3
Mixolydian 3rd and 7th 1
4th and 7th 3
3rd and 6th 4
Aolian 2nd and 6th 2
3rd and 6th 4
2nd and 5th 5
(xix)
In Sharp's theory categorizing the diatonic modes, based on the position of the weak notes and the position of the tonic, we see that the skeletal trace of the pentatonic structure in the diatonic modes gives them nuanced character that goes far beyond the idea of a mode as a pitch set or even the idea of mode as a scale. But what is it that makes a note weak? Karpeles acknowledges that such a task as labeling the weak notes is difficult, and is unwilling to provide such an analysis of his own to songs not appearing in the first edition. Sharp admits the problematic nature of tracing the history of the pentatonic scale, that to engage in such an enterprise is "to venture upon controversial ground." (xxxi). His observation though, that the 'two gap' scale is so prevalent in Appalachian folk songs, and that there appears to be a hesitation regarding the occasional incorporation of other diatonic pitches is certainly grounds for further investigation. He goes on to explain a hypothetical evolutionary trajectory of the pentatonic mode toward the free use of the diatonic modes. However, I find his use of a primitive-to-advanced developmental model unsatisfactory in explaining the relationship between gap-scales and step-scales. There is a plurality in surviving modes as well as a gradation to the relative weakness (or absence) of pitches. However, to say that one 'evolved' over a long period of time would imply a sort of social evolution that is highly speculative and is most likely not supportable or socially acceptable. Modes have had tens of thousands of years to evolve in every culture, and the tendency of singers of traditional musics to maintain a pentatonic frame indicates some very deep aspect of human psychology and biology. The 'weak' note in the hexatonic and diatonic modes is always one of the notes that is either the upper or lower note in the minor second interval in the minor third gap. As all notes in a pentatonic mode relate to their neighbors as either steps (whole) or gaps, it stands to reason that there is also a qualitative difference in the meaning of the half-step interval in comparison to the whole step.
Bartok and his research partner A. Adnan Saygun offer a modal theory (in Turkish music) remarkably similar to the theory of Cecil Sharp. And such similar discoveries among such diverse material suggests validity to the intuitions of both ethnomusicologists. Both Sharp's findings in Appalachian music and Bartok's findings in Turkish folk music reveal a pentatonic skeleton beneath the apparent diatonic modes, and both musics existed for centuries in profound isolation (Bartok believes he can date the melodies in the Turkish repertoire to historical eras of cultural transmission between Turky and Hungary through the existance of songs in both cultures). Regarding a structural feature common in Class 1 of his collected melodies, Bartok writes:
"The main caesura (final tone of the second section) is b3 in 4 [instances], 4 in 3, 5 in 7 cases, and 8 in a single case. The secondary caesura (final tone of the 1st and 3rd sections) are 5in 8, 4 in 2 cases, and b6, 7, b10 in a single case. -The position of the section's final tones on the degrees b3, 4, 5, 7 and 8, (with the only exception of b6 in No. 2) i.e. exclusively on the degrees of the pentatonic scale gives a sufficient evidence for the latent pentatonic structure existing in these melodies." (V-VI).
Saygun develops this idea, ascerting that "the pentatonic structure forms the basis of the great majority of Turkish folk music and that the descending scale 'g-f-d-c-Bb-g' forms its skeleton." (224). He goes on to build a decending pentatonic scale from trichords, that is, the intervals of a whole step and a minor third. The other pitches, that is the 2nd and the 6th, are secondary, because of their weak and axillary function in melodies as well as their instability. By filling in the minor third gaps with natural or lowered 6ths and 3rds, several different modes can be constructed, roughly equivalent (that is, with near approximation to the tempered scale) to the ecclesiastic modes, namely Aolean, Dorian, and Phrygian. (225). Saygun goes on to explain the tuning practice in Turkish modal music, opting to define each interval on its on terms in ratios, rather than contrasting them against the even tempered scale in cents. He also notes significant flexibility in tuning of the unstable degrees (2nd and 6th), describing the attractive force of the tonic in pulling down the pitch of the second degree in cadential contexts.
RHYTHM AND MODE
It may seem that such a lengthly account of modal structures is out of place in a discussion that is ostensibly about rhythm and musicality in time. However, it is precicely in its application in modal music that rhythm assumes its function. While there is some music that consists completely of rhythm (and even in percussion rhythm-only music, there is considerable dependance on color and sonority), percussion instruments in most world musics are relagated to reinforcing meter and rhythmic mode. They do make the periodical nature of rhythm in music quite apparent, but rhythm as applied to melodic mode goes beyond meter and repetitive rhythmic mode and functions in ways far beyond reinforcing periodicity, dividing time or even marking steps in a dance setting.
Bartok finds a pentatonic structure revealed in final notes of phrases - these are the notes that the singer gravitates toward, which include the tonic and other "strong" pitches. Sharp finds a pentatonic structure both in an existing scale and a hesitancy in the use of weak notes, which I take to be structural weakness as well as rhythmic and dynamic (accent). In exloring the interplay of text, accent, rhythm (durational values and gestures), and mode we find that the underlying pentatonic structure biases certain pitches (and therefore intervals) toward expressive capacity which is reinforced by the long and short durations in rhythm, thus giving meaning (value) to the activity of the rhythm (were it to be extracted as such). Acting as an initiating (but by no means final) limit to what musical gestures are exectured by the interplay between pitch in mode and duration are text, dance and meter. If, as proposed by Daniel Levitan, music evolutionarily preceeded language and made our capacity for language even possible, then speech may itself be inherently musical, as Dalcroze believes movement also is. In elevating language to the art of song, the musicality of speech is magnified, evolved, and merged with body movement sensibility in ways that both reflect its origin and can pull away from it, exploring the realm of the absolute and the beautiful.
Standing where I am now, at the edge of the Pacific Rim at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, nearly a hundred have passed since Sharp and Bartok made their invaluable surveys of music in isolated communities. In that time, imperial Europe reached the apex of its influence, followed by two apocolyptic wars, the deconstruction of the European powers, the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as world superpowers and the decolonization of Africa, South America and Asia. It is quite difficult to put ourselves in the mindset of these scholars and to understand music as they did emerging from the not yet fully deconstructed world of highly Westernized common practice tonality.
Sharp in particular, while highly concious of the value of folk musicality and posessing nearly faultless respect and appreciation for his subjects, seems oblivious in his distinction of folk musicians from "art-musicians" of the critical role modality and non-canonical sources would play in undermining the previous three centuries of tonal domination in music in the West. And yet, while a veritable tidal wave of cultural revolution was about to crush, reorganize and redefine music in Europe and America, Sharp provides us with this highly nuanced, culturally sensitive document. What Sharp discovered in modality actually has more significant implications and importance than he may have realized.
Precisely where he (in my opinion) errs in assuming that the emergence of full, hesitation-free mode is the evolution of art musicians (and the subtext of art-music being somehow superior to or different from folk music), he unknowingly reveals the strength and significance of his work. While the absence (in gap modes) or severe hesitation caught his attention and he was able to follow such hesitation to a degree, thus revealing gradation in the treatment of weak notes, Sharp is not wholly confident in his apparatus for defining this weakness in a more nuanced setting, conceding that in the "art-music" seven note modal music, such pentatonic structure is no longer applicable. However, there are two significant ways in which the "weak note" theory is applicable and enlightening in even the most egalitarian use of seven notes.
First, even as there is free use of the actual pitches in a seven note mode, the half-step (or "tight," to avoid borrowing too directly from the equal-tempered terminology) interval still bears the mark of a certain sensitivity, and it is treated differently, with a higher degree of affinity toward its neighbors, from other intervals. Second, if there are indeed multiple internal architectures to a given ecclesiastical mode, then that skeletal pentatonic mode should be able to modulate to other pentatonic modes without detection, given the unifying pitch material. Simliar to how major and minor scales behave differently against different harmonies, full modes would behave differently with different skeletons. Borrowing for a moment Sharp's conjecture that the full modes are an "evolution" of pentatonically based modes, it is reasonable to figure that modes in which weakness is not apparent (and analysis by modal-modulation is fruitful) are indeed more complex, and therefore developed beyond simpler modal arraingments is apparent. It is unlikely though, given the continued persistance of simpler modes and the existance of similar plurality in degree of complexity found in diverse isolated cultures, that this more complex arrangement would reflect long term cultural evolution. It may, however, represent difference in preference among contributing individuals, micro-evolutions at certain transitional points in a specific culture's early development or a preference among members of a group for varying levels of complexity in a repertoire.
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