EXTEMPORE PLAYING - online tutorial

40 Lessons in how to correctly play improvisations.

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	Modal Music                               127
	by the even numbers, II, IV, etc., with the prefix of Hypo to each name; e.g., Hypodorian, etc. The intervals of our present tempered keyboard repre­sent the original ones only approximately, as the modern system of temperament was not even thougnt of at the time when these modes were evolved. However, since keyboard tuning cannot be changed at will, we must be content with mere approximation, which produces only an imperfect imitation of the original. The old modes were not originally intended to be harmonized, and when the system of modern harmony became established they gave way to our present major and minor forms. When used to-day they produce an archaic, old-world effect. This is not always to be despised in modern music. Some composers have been attracted by its colouring, and have utilized the old system with interesting results. E.g.,
	Harmonies were gradually introduced, through a long series of experiments, culminating in the works of the Palestrina school—which should be studied by the earnest student. For practical purposes all the above scales may be harmonized with the common chords and first inver­sions occurring in the key of C, the leading idea being to regard each as the scale of one of the chords of that key. Thus, the first mode is the mode of the II chord, the third is the mode of the III chord, the fifth, of the IV chord, the seventh, of the V chord, the ninth, of the VI chord, and the thirteenth, of the I chord (i.e., the modern major mode). All that is necessary, then, to keep within the bounds of legitimate successions, is to treat the various chords in the key of C in the usual manner, but to make a final cadence on each of the above-named outstanding chords.