PPP207: Teacher Chat About Church Modes with Jeremy Duck and Travis Lohmann

Jeremy Duck offered several samples of historic compositions which incorporate various modes. He has sent us lots of links for further listening. Thank you, Jeremy!

Ionian mode – William Byrd’s Fantasia

Dorian mode – Johann Fischer’s Ariadne Musica

Chopin’s Mazurka which has some brief moments of Dorian and Lydian mode.

Debussy’s Suite pour la piano Sarabande has a flavor of Phrygian mode. Here is also Debussy’s Toccata from the same suite.

Ernest Bloch’s “Suite Modale,” is actually for flute and piano, but it displays and weaves through several modes.

Here is Volume 1 of Bartok’s Mikrokosmos. It basically starts off with 5-finger patterns, but as it gets more into the book, some modality appears. One could, of course, assign modes to the early ones. #32 is in the Dorian mode. #34 is in the Phrygian mode.

Here is Volume 2. It starts off in the Lydian mode. #48 is in the Mixolydian mode. #55 is Lydian.

You don’t hear about the Locrian mode too much, but Rachmaninoff used it a bit in his Prelude in B Minor Op. 32, No. 10. I imagine it also has to do with the Russian Orthodox Church and the flat 2, which the Locrian mode features. He also composed a couple of suites for two pianos. The fourth movement is titled “Easter,” because it uses an Easter chant from the Russian Orthodox church.

Since we got into talking some about the Jewish and Greek Orthodox modes and I brought up some pieces. Here is Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp Minor. It uses the Freygish mode (known more to us as the Phrygian Dominant scale) from Jewish folk music. The notes are like the Mixolydian mode, but with a flat 2 and flat 6, and it can have a leading tone at the bottom. This has a lot of flat 2’s (G-naturals) and falling minor 2nd’s in the fugue. It has some two-note slur figures that are called an Iambic Prime motif in Jewish folk music. For something even more explicitly Jewish in sound, Shostakovich wrote a set of songs for three singers and piano or orchestra called “From Jewish Folk Poetry.”

Here is John Tavener’s Ypakoë. It is a set of piano pieces all written using the Greek Orthodox modes. Ypakoë is the Greek Orthodox’s Easter.

Travis Lohmann has these Jazz resources to share:

Jamey Aebersold PDF Scale Syllabus on Scales and Modes

JazzBooks.com

For jazz improvisation- it’s nice to have the students have a basic understanding of what modes COULD fit with certain chord types. I like to make sure my students have a firm grasp of them so we run them from a “home base” key and all the modes from that key, as well as C Ionian, C Dorian, C Phrygian, etc. (the latter let’s them see how things change from the same starting key)

More Resources

Imslp.org is an incredible resource for scores of music in the public domain.

Classic FM “Guide to Musical Modes”

Signals Music Studio “Meet the Modes”