[zoerhoff] At my daughter's high school concert last night, they
played a phrygian piece but had trouble explaining to
the audience what that actually meant
One could remark on the woeful lack of musical education, though humans have a lot else they stuff their brains with these days, and music theory may not be the most profitable of things to brain-stuff. This is your chance to exit!
Okay so in the modern Western system the major and minor scales are typical, C D E F G A B C (C major) and A B C D E F G A (A minor) being two common forms. The starting note can be moved around, e.g. D E F-sharp G A B C-sharp D (D major) and D E F G A B-flat C D (D minor), but the intervals remain the same. This for modern Western music generally assumes but does not require the 12-tone equal temperament tuning, but alternate tunings are a rat-hole we shall not delve into here. The major scale interval sequence is 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 and the minor scale 2 1 2 2 1 2 2. A piano keyboard may help to count between keys.
2 2 1 2 2 2 1
C D E F G A B C
2 1 2 2 1 2 2
A B C D E F G A
One observation is that the major and minor scales are rotations of one another; that is, if you shift off the leading A of the minor scale, rotate the B to the end of the list, and add a C to complete the octave you get the major scale.
A B C D E F G A # start
B C D E F G A # shift A
C D E F G A B # rotate B
C D E F G A B C # complete the octave
With an interval sequence the rotation is simpler, as that sequence does not include the "fencepost" octave double of the starting scale note as I've been doing for the note letter form of the scales. Also computers can be pretty good at shuffling small integers around.
Another observation is that scales were started on A and C, but what about starting a scale from the other notes, without chromatic F-sharp or B-flat alterations as was done for the D major and D minor scales, above?
A B C D E F G # A minor B C D E F G A C D E F G A B # C major D E F G A B C E F G A B C D # ! F G A B C D E G A B C D E F
For this article the scale starting with E is relevant, as this is a phrygian mode. Some new terms: tonic, and dominant. The dominant? That is for the moment defined as the fifth note of the scale (E in A minor, or G in C major). The first note is the tonic, and also the fourth note is the subdominant, or you may see I, IV, and V under the roman numeral notation system. There are names and uses for the other scale degrees, but you can go pretty far using only the tonic, subdominant, and dominant. Entire songs use only chords built on these notes. The next observation is that interval qualities vary depending on the mode, which can be made more apparent by building chords in various modes and either listening to them (this is important in some forms of music study) or observing the intervals the chords form:
# Major - scale degree, chord, intervals
I <C E G> [4 3]
IV <F A C> [4 3]
V <G B D> [4 3]
# Minor - scale degree, chord, intervals
I <A C E> [3 4]
IV <D F A> [3 4]
V <E G B> [3 4]
# Phrygian - scale degree, chord, intervals
I <E G B> [3 4]
IV <A C E> [3 4]
V <B D F> [3 3]
The tonic, subdominant, and dominant in the major scale all have major thirds in the bottom of the chord (C to E, F to A, etc), while those in the minor scale have minor thirds (A to C, etc), and phrygian is like minor, but different. Sometimes the roman numerals are written in lower case when the chord is minor, and upper case for major chords. One can borrow chords from other scales or modes (e.g. to use B D F-sharp in E phrygian), but another approach is to play "in the mode" so that phrygian chords are used with a progression that would normally be played in the major scale (or ionian mode, yes, there are wacky Greek names for all these modes, and plagal variations that I won't get into here, all these details being why you end up with books on music theory). A major (ionian mode) chord progression will sound different due to the differing interval sets of a different mode. Does it sound good? Play it and find out! Or you may need to use a different progression, one that better suits the phrygian mode.
Also, you can start a mode on any note, so E phrygian is the phrygian mode beginning on the note E, typical because this uses all the white keys on a piano, but you could work out the notes of C-sharp phrygian, if so inclined (hint: build the interval sequence for phrygian, as shown above for major and minor). Or, you could find or write software that generates note names from the interval sequences of the mode in question and a given starting pitch.
$ scalemogrifier --mode=phrygian --transpose=4
e f g a b c d e'
$ scalemogrifier --mode=dorian --transpose=5 --flats
f g aes bes c d ees f'
The circle of fifths might also be good to study, if you don't already know about that.
Anyways, the above might be difficult to explain quickly while still retaining sufficient detail to an audience not in the know, especially if they are there for the music and not a lesson in music theory. You: "It's like the minor scale, but different", them: "what's the minor scale?", …
The above is a modern conception of the mode—nor did folks back then use our equal temperament tuning—so I used "a phrygian mode" not "the phrygian mode" because ancient Western music uses some modes differently: in modern harmony I IV V is king, while in 16th century polyphony the dominant of phrygian is instead C (avoiding the tritone on B), and the mediant is G; a typical phrygian melody back then would start on E, generally linger on G, and then move to C. Modern harmonic design might instead favor the I IV V sequence of E A B as the underlying skeleton of a melodic phrase. Progressions and modes do however come in and out of fashion, and both ancient and modern composers did borrow or alter notes to modify the music as need be, so what is new or outdated can and does change over time.
P.S. after all this, some of the modes are either problematic, theoretical, or can be seen as variations on major or minor, especially allowing for note tweaks or a borrowed chord or two. Dorian (D E F G A B C, D dorian) does see use, as well as mixolydian (G A B C D E F, G mixolydian) and George Russell has a Lydian Chromatic Concept. The phrygian does see use; you can find it in the Bach chorales, or other works more ancient or modern.
P.P.S. maybe omit or downplay the phrygian thing if it's going to confuse the audience and prompt long-winded blog posts? I mean when did Meshuggah stop a concert to explain that they're about to…
P.P.P.S. the word "modern" is problematic as what is modern now may not be in 20 or 100 years, but I don't feel like rewriting things to use "current" or "present day", and the notion that most everyone these days uses functional harmony is at best a gross simplification. Also "modern" sometimes gets conflated with "better", and developments in music may not be for the better (atonality comes to mind), or sometimes the old guard has to die off before some new thing (or Bach's old music) is seen as any good.