Modus (medieval music)

Modus (medieval music)

In medieval music theory, the Latin term modus (meaning "a measure", "standard of measurement", "quantity", "size", "length", or, rendered in English, mode) can be used in a variety of distinct senses. The most commonly used meaning today relates to the organisation of pitch in scales. Other meanings refer to the notation of rhythms.

Contents

Modal scales

In describing the tonality of early music, the term "mode" (or "tone") refers to any of eight sets of pitch intervals that may form a musical scale, representing the tonality of a piece and associated with characteristic melodic shapes (psalm tones) in Gregorian chant. Medieval modes (also called Gregorian mode or church modes) were numbered, either from 1 to 8, or from 1 to 4 (protus, deuterus, tertius, and tetrardus) in authentic/plagal pairs, and sometimes named after the ancient Greek tonoi (with which, however, they are not identical).

Authentic modes Plagal modes
I. Dorian II. Hypodorian
III. Phrygian IV. Hypophrygian
V. Lydian VI. Hypolydian
VII. Mixolydian VIII. Hypomixolydian
The eight musical modes. f indicates "final" (Curtis, 1998).

Modus (modal notation)

In the medieval theory of rhythmic organisation, a mode was understood to be a stereotypical sequence of long and short notes, comparable to a foot in poetry. Rhythmic modes were described by the medieval theorists[weasel words] according to a classification numbered from 1 to 6 (of which only 1 to 3 were of practical importance.)[citation needed]

  1. Long-short (trochee)
  2. Short-long (iamb)
  3. Long-short-short (dactyl)[citation needed]
  4. Short-short-long (anapest)[citation needed]
  5. Long-long (spondee)
  6. Short-short (pyrrhic)

Rhythmic modes were the basis for the notation technique of modal notation, the first system in European music to notate musical rhythms and thereby make the notation of complex polyphonic music possible, which was devised around 1200 AD and later superseded by the more complex mensural notation. Modal notation indicated modes by grouping notes together in ligatures.[vague]

Modus (mensural notation)

In the notation system of mensural notation (after c.1300), the term modus was used to describe a part of the overall metric organisation of a piece, comparable to a modern time signature. It referred to the division of the longa note into either three (modus perfectus) or two (modus imperfectus) breves. Similar divisions on subsequently lower levels were described by the terms tempus (referring to the division of breves into two or three semibreves) and prolatio (the division of semibreves into two or three minims).

References

  • Curtis, Liane (1998). "Mode". In Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music, edited by Tess Knighton and David Fallows. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520210816.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Medieval music — Periods of Western art music Early Medieval   (500–1400) Renaissance (1400–1600) Baroque (1600–1760) Common practice Baroque (1600–1760) …   Wikipedia

  • Modus — can mean: Modus, the Latin name for grammatical mood, in linguistics Modus, the Latin name for mode (statistics) Modus (company), an Alberta based company Modus (medieval music), a term used in several different technical meanings in medieval… …   Wikipedia

  • Medieval cuisine — A group of travelers sharing a simple meal of bread and drink; Livre du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio, 14th century. Medieval cuisine includes the foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, a… …   Wikipedia

  • music — musicless, adj. /myooh zik/, n. 1. an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color. 2. the tones or sounds employed, occurring in single line (melody) or… …   Universalium

  • Mode — Contents 1 Places 2 Mathematics 3 Science 4 Language …   Wikipedia

  • Musical mode — This article is about modes as used in music. For other uses, see Mode (disambiguation). Modern Dorian mode on C  Play …   Wikipedia

  • Mensural notation — A manuscript page of early mensural notation, late 14th century. The Agnus Dei of the Barcelona Mass. Mensural notation is the musical notation system which was used in European music from the later part of the 13th century until about 1600.… …   Wikipedia

  • Octoechos — This article is about the Byzantine musical system of eight modes. For the book of liturgical texts set to those modes, see Octoechos (liturgy). Oktōēchos (here transcribed Octoechos ; Greek: Ὀκτώηχος, from ὀκτώ eight + ἦχος sound, mode called… …   Wikipedia

  • ГРИГОРИАНСКОЕ ПЕНИЕ — [григорианский распев, григорианика, григорианский хорал (устар.); лат. cantus gregorianus; англ. gregorian chant; франц. chant grégorien; нем. gregorianischer Gesang, gregorianischer Choral, Gregorianik; итал. canto gregoriano], традиц.… …   Православная энциклопедия

  • Nenano — Phthora Nenano (gr. φθορά νενανῶ, also νενανὼ) is the name of one of the two extra modes in the Byzantine Octoechos an eight mode system, which was created by a reform of the Monastery Agios Sabas, near Jerusalem, during the seventh century.… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”