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To demonstrate "the essence of the character of a specific seven-note whitekey diatonic mode," consider the modal melodies of Example 2. Within the first
measure of each example, using only the pitches of the tritone, as well as scale
degrees 1 and 5, a complete sense of the affect of the mode is created. The
second measure then contains a variation of the first measure where all the
pitches of the mode are "used up." The "other" pitches of the mode, of course,
are useful as connective tissue and for creating a richer set of relationships, but
they are not essential for achieving a particular modal coloration.
There is a small curiosity that appears when the Heptatonia Secunda modes
are derived from the white-key modes in each of two different ways. In
Example 4, this difference can be seen clearly. In "Derivation Method 1," the
pitch class "E" in each of the white-key modes is first flatted, 6 and secondly
the scale is transposed down to begin on pitch class "C." In "Derivation
Method 2," the white-key modes are first transposed down to begin on pitch
class "C," and secondly the appropriate pitch class is flatted. The first method
transforms the Phrygian mode into a mode containing a Lydian tritone and an
Aeolian tritone, and is what we have called the "Lydaeolian" mode. The
second method, however, transforms the Phrygian mode into a mode
containing an Ionian tritone and a Phrygian tritone, and, thus, could be called
the "Ioniphrygian" mode. The second method of derivation would seem to be
desirable since it should allow pitch-class structures built on "C" (i.e., the
transposed white-key modes) to be transformed into other pitch-class
structures also built on C (i.e., the transposed Heptatonia Secunda modes).
In the case of transforming the transposed Phrygian mode into a Heptatonia
Secunda mode, however, it is the tonic pitch itself which must be displaced
down a semitone, and the point of reference of the whole system (i.e., "C") is
thus lost from the scale. Therefore the second method of derivation, at least
as far as creating modal names is concerned, will be rejected in favor of the
first method.
If the white-key modes are viewed from a set-theory point-of-view, then pitch
class "E" is the pitch class "5" drawn from the septachord
[0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10]
=
[B, C, D, E, F, G, A].
It is this fourth element (p.c. 5) of the prime form of the set constituting the
white-key modes which is lowered by one semitone and which then
transforms the white-key modes into the Heptatonia Secunda modes (with a
prime form of [0, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10].)
Now it is time to consider further these 14 diatonic modes, starting once again
with the white-key modes, and keeping in mind the importance of scale
degrees 1 and 5, and the pitches making up the tritone(s) within the mode. Of
the Locrian mode, the tritone content completely overlaps scale degrees 1 and
5. This "degenerative" mode contains only two essential7 pitches (C-Locrian:
C, Gb). Of both the Phrygian and the Lydian modes, the tritone content shares
one pitch in common with scale degrees 1 and 5. So in C-Phrygian, the pitch
G is part of the tritone G-Db, as well as being scale degree 5. In C-Lydian, the
pitch C is part of the tritone C-F#, as well as being scale degree 1. Phrygian
and Lydian are both modes containing three essential pitches (C-Phrygian:
C, Db G; and C-Lydian: C, F#, G). Finally, Ionian, Aeolian, Dorian and
Mixolydian are yet even richer pitch systems because each contains four
essential pitches; the pitches of the tritone do not overlap the pitches of scale
degrees 1 and 5. (The essential pitches of C-Ionian are C, F, G, B. The
essential pitches of C-Aeolian are C, D, G, Ab. The essential pitches of CDorian are C, Eb, G, A. The essential pitches of C-Mixolydian are
C, E, G, Bb.)
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essential, that is, to the unique affect of the given mode. These "essential"
pitches, as stated earlier, include scale degrees 1 and 5, and the pitches of
the tritone(s).
3rd above the tonic pitch, gives this mode a distinctly "more major" character
than minor.
8
Consider, by way of
analogy, a perfectly
square house that has
a flat roof and four
walls each containing
a door in the center
and two windows
placed on either side
of the door. (The
house has no front
porch or back porch!)
This structure, in and
of itself, has no logical
"front" and is perfectly
symmetrical. If,
however, one were to
place this structure in
the context of a
neighborhood whereby
one of the walls of the
house suddenly "faced
the street," then, by
that context, one could
say that the "front" of
the house was the side
which faced the street.
Likewise, the
symmetrical interval of
a tritone can be used
"tonally" quite well
when placed in
structural juxtaposition
with an asymmetrical
tonic triad.
Some will point out that the Natural Minor scale is not really used in the music of
the Common Practice Era. The more commonly used Harmonic Minor scale,
however, employs an augmented second and is therefore a chromaticallyaltered scale and is not truly diatonic by our definition. (See Footnote 3.)
Consider, though, that the Harmonic Minor scale utilizes both the Ionian tritone
and the Aeolian tritone. It has a unique intensity because both of the pairs of
tritone pitches are eventually removed from the tonal fabric when closure is
obtained through the final tonic triad. In times past, the search for effective
musical closure led to the use of modes which contained tritones not
overlapping the tones of the tonic triad. Now, in our time, it is not necessarily