Modal frame
Encyclopedia
In music
a melodic mode or modal frame is one of, "a number of types permeating and unifying African
, European, and American
song
" and melody
. "Mode" and "frame" are used in this context interchangeably. Melodic modes allow melodies which are not chord-based or determined by the harmony
but instead by melodic features. A note frame is a melodic mode that is atonic
(without a tonic
) or has an unstable tonic.
Examples and aspects of modal frames include:
Other songs with modal frames indicated are "A Day in the Life
" and "My Generation
".
' "A Hard Day's Night
" features a ladder of thirds axially centered on G with a ceiling note of B and floor note of E[] (the low C being a passing tone):
According to Middleton
, the song, "at first glance major-key-with-modal-touches", reveals through its "Line of Latent Mode" "a deep kinship with typical blues
melodic structures: it is centred on three of the notes of the minor-pentatonic
mode [on C: C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat] (E-G-B), with the contradictory major seventh (B) set against that. Moreover, the shape assumed by these notes - the modal frame - as well as the abstract scale they represent, is revealed, too; and this - an initial, repeated circling round the dominant (G), with an excursion to its minor third (B), 'answered' by a fall to the 'symmetrical' minor third of the tonic (E) - is a common pattern in blues."
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
a melodic mode or modal frame is one of, "a number of types permeating and unifying African
Music of Africa
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....
, European, and American
Music of the United States
The music of the United States reflects the country's multi-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. Among the country's most internationally-renowned genres are hip hop, blues, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, barbershop, pop, techno, and rock and roll. The United States has the...
song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
" and melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
. "Mode" and "frame" are used in this context interchangeably. Melodic modes allow melodies which are not chord-based or determined by the harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
but instead by melodic features. A note frame is a melodic mode that is atonic
Atonic
Atonic may refer to:In music:* Atonality, lack of a key or tonal centerIn medicine:* Atony, a muscle losing its strengthIn linguistics:* Atonic or unaccented, a syllable without stress or pitch accent...
(without a tonic
Tonic (music)
In music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone. The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord...
) or has an unstable tonic.
Examples and aspects of modal frames include:
- floor note
- the bottom of the frame, felt to be the lowest note though isolated notes may go lower
- ceiling note
- the top of the frame
- central note
- the center of mode, around which other notes cluster or gravitate
- chantChantChant is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes to highly complex musical structures Chant (from French chanter) is the rhythmic speaking or singing...
tunes (Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Subterranean Homesick BluesSubterranean Homesick Blues"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan, originally released in 1965 as a single on Columbia Records, catalogue 43242. It appeared 19 days later as the lead track to the album Bringing It All Back Home. It was Dylan's first Top 40 hit, peaking at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also...
")
- chant
- axial tunes ("A Hard Day's Night", "Peggy Sue", Marvin GayeMarvin GayeMarvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
's "Can I Get A WitnessCan I Get a Witness"Can I Get a Witness" is a 1963 hit song by Marvin Gaye on the Tamla label. Written and produced by Motown songwriting and producing team Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song was built among gospel-styled music and heralded Gaye's beginnings in the church with a rhythm and blues/rock and roll setting...
", and Roy MiltonRoy MiltonRoy Milton was an American R&B and jump blues singer, drummer and bandleader.-Career:Milton's grandmother was a Chickasaw. He was born in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, United States, and grew up on an Indian reservation before moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma...
's "Do the Hucklebuck")
- oscillating (Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack FlashJumpin' Jack Flash"Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released as a single in 1968. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by Rolling Stone, the song was perceived by some as the band's return to their blues roots after the psychedelia of their preceding...
")
- open/closed (Bo DiddleyBo DiddleyEllas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
's "Hey Bo DiddleyHey Bo Diddley"Hey! Bo Diddley" is Bo Diddley's 8th Checker Records single released as a single in April 1957 by Checker Records. The single's b-side was "Mona" .-Recording:...
")
- terraceMelodic motionComplex melodic motion is the quality of movement of a melody, including nearness or farness of successive pitches or notes in a melody. This may be described as conjunct or disjunct, stepwise or skipwise, respectively and involves the use of the complex number, i, in its calculation.Bruno Nettl ...
- shout-and-fallShout-and-fallShout-and-fall or tumbling strain is a modal frame, "very common in Afro-American-derived styles" and are featured in songs such as "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "My Generation"....
- ladder of thirdsLadder of thirdsA ladder of thirds is similar to the circle of fifths, though a ladder of thirds differs in being composed of thirds, major or minor, and may or may not circle back to its starting note and thus may or may not be an interval cycle.Triadic chords may be considered as part of a ladder of thirds.It...
- upper or lower focus
- portion of the mode on which the melody temporarily dwells
- melodic dissonance
- the quality of a note which is modally unstable and attracted to other more important tones in a non-harmonic way
- melodic triad
- arpeggiated triads which appear in a melody but not in the harmony. A non-harmonic arpeggio is an arpeggioArpeggioAn arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...
whose notes or chordChord (music)A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
does not appear in the harmonyHarmonyIn music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
of the accompanimentAccompanimentIn music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...
. The most common example is the melodic triad.- levelLevel (music)A level , also "tonality level", Gerhard Kubik's "tonal step", and John Blacking's "root progression") is a temporary modal frame contrasted with another temporary modal frame built on a different foundation note. It is more general and basic than a chord and is found in Asian, African, and Celtic...
- level
- a temporary modal frame contrasted with another built on a different foundation note. A "change" (as in chord change) in levels is called a shift.
- co-tonic
- a melodic tonic different from and as important as the harmonic tonic
- secondary tonic
- a melodic tonic, though different from and subordinate to the harmonic tonic
- pendular third
- alternating notes a third apart, most often a neutralNeutral thirdA neutral third is a musical interval wider than a minor third but narrower than a major third . Three distinct intervals may be termed neutral thirds:...
, see double tonicDouble tonicA double tonic is a chord progression, melodic motion, or shift of level consisting of a, "regular back-and-forth motion," in melody similar to Bruno Nettl's pendulum type though it uses small intervals, most often a whole tone though may be almost a semitone to a minor third .It is extremely...
Other songs with modal frames indicated are "A Day in the Life
A Day in the Life
"A Day in the Life" is a song by The Beatles, the final track on the group's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song comprises distinct segments written independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with orchestral additions...
" and "My Generation
My Generation
My Generation is the debut album by the English rock band The Who, released by Brunswick Records in the United Kingdom in December 1965. In the United States it was released by Decca Records as The Who Sings My Generation in April 1966, with a different cover and a slightly altered track...
".
Example
The modal frame of The BeatlesThe Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night (song)
"A Hard Day's Night" is a song by the English rock band The Beatles. Written by John Lennon, and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it was released on the movie soundtrack of the same name in 1964...
" features a ladder of thirds axially centered on G with a ceiling note of B and floor note of E[] (the low C being a passing tone):
Richard Middleton (musicologist)
Richard Middleton FBA is Emeritus Professor of Music at Newcastle University in Newcastle upon Tyne. He is also the founder and co-ordinating editor of the journal Popular Music.-Education:...
, the song, "at first glance major-key-with-modal-touches", reveals through its "Line of Latent Mode" "a deep kinship with typical blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
melodic structures: it is centred on three of the notes of the minor-pentatonic
Pentatonic scale
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave in contrast to a heptatonic scale such as the major scale and minor scale...
mode [on C: C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat] (E-G-B), with the contradictory major seventh (B) set against that. Moreover, the shape assumed by these notes - the modal frame - as well as the abstract scale they represent, is revealed, too; and this - an initial, repeated circling round the dominant (G), with an excursion to its minor third (B), 'answered' by a fall to the 'symmetrical' minor third of the tonic (E) - is a common pattern in blues."