Ben Hall kindly offered to identify the mode of a handful of tunes for me. So here they are Ben. I thought a public place would be good, as at least one other member is showing interest in modes.
Not twenty, as that would be taking advantage of your kindness. Some of them I got from books, and just slapped on the simplest key signature that had the right number of sharps. Others I transposed and may have confused.
X:2
T:An Raibh Tu ar an gCarraig?
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:G
(ed | BB3Bd | ee3) (ef gg g3 f/e/ | f3 e (3dBA |
B4) (ef | g>g g3 f/e/ | f f3 (3edB | e e3 ) z (e/f/ |
f>e e2 ) (gf | e>dBAB^c | d2 B2) (g>f | e>dBAF>E |
D4) (EF | G>G G2 e/d/B/G/ | FF F2) z (A/F/ | E E2 D/E/ F>E | E4) |]
X:3
T:Cliffs Of Dooneen, The
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
R: waltz
Q:60
%I transcribed this - it was listed as Dmix
K:Emix
|: E FA |
B3 A c2 | c2 B3 A | F2 E2 D2 | E4 cd |
e3 f e2 | c2 E2 FA | B3 A B2 | c4 cd |
e2 f3 e | c2 E2 A2 | B2 c>B AB | c4 (3dcB |
A2 AB ce | c2 (3BcB A2 | F E4 E | E3
X:4
T:Dark Island (Transposed)
C:Ian Maclachlan
S:Various records
Z:Nigel Gatherer
M:3/4
L:1/8
%I transposed this - it was originally marked Dmix
K:Emix
F|B3 F B2|A3 B A2|F3 E D2|E4 AB|
c3 B A2|c e3 E2|c3 e c2|B4 EF|
B3 F B2|A3 B A2|F3 E D2|E4 AB|
c3 Eec|B3 EcB|A6|A4|]
cd|e3 E E2|c3 B A2|F D3 F2|E4 AB|
c3 B A2|A e3 E2|c3 e A2|B4 EF|
B3 F B2|A3 B A2|F3 E D2|E4 AB|
c3 EeA|B3 EcB|A6|A4|]
X:5
T:Hector the Hero
C:James Scott Skinner
S:Various
Z:Nigel Gatherer
Q:30
L:1/8
M:6/8
% I transposed this - I am sure that it is not in D really
K:D
D | F>ED BAF | A3- A2 D | F>ED BAF | E3- E2
D | F>ED BAF | A2D d2 B | ADF E2D | D3- D2
F | B>cB dcB | A3- A2 F | BAF ADF | E3- E2
F | B>cB dcB | ADE F<dB | ADF E2D | D3- D2 :|]
X:6
T:Urchnoc chein mhic cainte
L:1/8
Q:90
M:3/4
K:D
S: Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor - Geraldine Cotter
z4 A2 | d4 ed | c4 A2 | G4 EF | D4 DE |
F3G A2 | c3d e2 | d4 c2 | A4 (3ABc |
d3e d2 | c4 A2 | G2 E2 F2 | D4 DE |
F3G AF | G2 E3F | D4 D2 | D4 AG |
F2 A2 d2 | d4 de | f4 ed | dc3 A2 |
d3e f2 | e3c e2 | d4 c2 | d4 (3ABc |
d3c AF | G3A B2 | B4 AG | F4 D2 |
F3G AF | GE3 F2 | D4 D2 | D4 |
X:7
T:Wounded Hussar from hannigan
L:1/8
Q:60
M:3/4
K:G
|: E4 AB |c4 BA |Bd3 BA |G4 AB |
g3a ed | c4 B2 | AG EG AA |1 A4 AG :|2 A4 AB |
c>B A3B/^c/ | d4 AB | c>B c/d/e/f/ g2 | e4 AB |
c2 de/f/ g2 | a3g/f/ g2 | a>a a2 ab | c’2 a3g/f/ |
g4 ed | c2 B3A | Bg B2 (3efg | a3g ed |
c3A B/A/G/E/ | G2 A3A | A4 AG | E4 AB |
c4 BA | Bd3 BA | G4 AB |
g3a ed | c4 B2 | AG EG AA | A4 AG | A4 |
OK. I’ve started. The first one, the way it is transcribed, is indeed, in D major. Stictly speaking, a form of gapped Ionian. Except that it doesn’t sound right - are you sure you’ve written it out right? I’d help out there as well, but I don;t know the tune … I don’t think …
The second one is in E dorian. But, again, it’s not transcribed correctly. There are several places where it’s difficult to read the way it’s written out.
I’ll do the rest now, but … do you have printed sources for any of these that you could maybe scan and post up here? It would probably solve any ambiguities.
The Cliffs of Dooneen, as written, is in hexatonic based on A. Effectively, it is in A major without the G sharp. Don’t get fooled by the fact that the last note is E - the key is still A.
Hector the Hero, as written, is in D major hexatonic, this time gapped at the fourth degree rather than the seventh. The transciption seem OK, but are you sure you didn’t see it written originally in 3/4 rather than 6/8?
Last but one’s in D major. Last one’s in A dorian.
I’m curious. 7 tunes. Every single one of them in 3/4 time (if you accept that Hector the Hero is in 3/4, which it is). Not a single tune in mixolydian - a very common mode in trad … 3 in D major, 2 in hexatonic gapped A major, one in hexatonic gapped D major, an E dorian and an A dorian.
Why all the same time signature? Why so few modes? Why have you picked a bunch of tunes that are so apparently atypical of trad tunes?
It has been pointed out to me that Scott Skinner’s own manuscript version of Hector the Hero is written out in 6/8. Careless of me. I could have looked that up easily - I’ve got the thing in the house, after all.
Mind you, the way it’s generally played, I reckon it would be more appropriate to write it out in 3/4, whatever SS originally intended.
Thanks Ben, you have answered some questions and (as usual) raised others…
The simplest point for me to answer is the narrow range of modes and time signature. This is probably because of my tastes - towards slow airs. And perhaps I am not so much oriented towards trad music - though I like it a lot - but towards playing the whistle. I play a version of The River by Springsteen, a tune from Free (Sunday Morning), a couple from Don Maclean…
Tune 1: Casadh an tSugain. I got this from Geraldine Cotters book, and was surprised that the song on uTube sounded very little like it. I have the hang of playing it now, so it sounds correct to my untutored ear, but I will check back against the book and what I actually play. I will photograph and post if you wish, and if this is legal.
Tune 2: I got from O’Cannains book. It enabled me to match up reasonably well with a uTube version (not the one mentioned on this forum, but one in a key that matches my whistle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lol2FlxSUfs ) I will check for transcription errors. I will photograph and post if you wish, and if this is legal.
I will be back later - the dogs are demanding their exercise.
I think, as far as posting those things are concerned, even if you can’t legally post them on the site, you should be able, for these purposes, to scan them and PM them to me. I would be very interested to see.
As you probably appreciate, I am heavily into trad stuff, but yes, I play all sorts of other tunes on my whistle as well. I’d have about a thousand trad tunes or so up in my head at any given time. Any of these I could play on fiddle, but, as a relatively newbie whistler myself, I could only play about 50 or so on whistle. That number’s going up every day though. And sometimes, like in the session the other night, I suddenly find that I can play tunes on whistle that I’ve never played on whistle before. It starts getting interesting when you get to that point.
This is one melody I do play, have accompanied others (singers) on etc. So this answer isn’t just theoretical.
I play it on flutes in diifferent keys (eg ends on E with Irish D flute or with D on a large C bamboo flute), harmonium and singingt etc.
AS transcriibed here, it is in a mode with tonic E. Because it is a hexatonic piece (gapped mode) it could be classed as either E Dorian or E Mixo. (the thhird interval is omitted). So It is correctly noted as Emix. However, except in the case of Ionian and Aeolian modes (which reflect the key signature complementaries of Western muisc classification) it is confusing to describe a mode as a key.
The mode Emix. is in the key signature of A .
The mode Edor. is in the key signature of D .
Modal reckonings are for the purpose of simple (as in plainsong and drone based) rendering of melody.
This needs to be contrasted harmonic reckonings in accompanying with CHORDS.
I tried to anticipate and counter that argument about the Cliffs of Dooneen above. It’s irrelevant what note the thing ends on. Just because it ends on E doesn’t make E the tonic. In that particular tune, the tonic is A. It’s clearly A.
I don’t know how old The Cliffs of Dooneen is, but it was very common once for modal tunes to end on the “tenor” (cf Western Church Musical modes, which is what Irish music has, loosely, developed out of), instead of on the tonic.
So. How to tell that it’s in A, and not E, as Talasiga claims. Some people talk of which note a tune “resolves” to. I hate the use of that word in the context of modal tunes, because it implies some sort of relationship with tonal, as opposed to modal, music, as well as implying a harmonic rather than a melodic basis for the tunes. However, if it helps, use the context. Here’s how to tell: the tune, as it stands, feels ‘incomplete’, yes? It has a wistful feel, as if that last note is just left hanging. Well, try to put an A after that last note. You will find a sense of completion. If you want to use the word, the tune “resolves” to A. It doesn’t actually get that far, because it stops before it reaches it. But that’s where the tune is heading.
Why does my argument above matter? I started asking myself that after posting the above … and other people will surely have thought the same.
Well, it matters to me, simply because of an interest in and knowledge about, modal tunes, and some of the origins of modes as used in Irish music. I’m interested in the melodies.
But … it REALLY bloody matters when you start getting guitarist involved. If some poxy guitarist tried to accompany me playing the Cliffs of Dooneen using chords appropriate for either E mix or E dor, I’d shoot 'em. (Alright, I wouldn’t shoot 'em because I haven’t got a gun … But I’m sure something equally effective could be managed with a violin string or two and/or a bow.) To accompany that tune, you have to use A chords. Personally, I would then want them to end on an E ‘power chord’ (using just E’s and B’s), to preserve the ambiguity of the missing seventh degree of the scale, and also to preserve the wistfulness inherent in the fact that the tune doesn’t “resolve” back to the tonic note, A.
In this particular version, as almost always, but not to my taste, as I said above, they actually use the sharp seventh in the final chord. But listening to this does emphasise the point of which note is the tonic i.e. NOT the last note of the melody.
The tune is only “heading” there if you have a harmonic or chordal predisposition in your treatment, a predisposition foreign to the olden melodic predispostion of simple tunes. The song ends on the note E. The note E is not just an ornament, it is a fundamental note in the song through it and at the home base where it comes to its ecstatically wistful rest.
The rest of the notes in the song taken all together spell a mixolydian relationship to the E. The exception is that the tune does not have third interval. Therefore from a chordal perspective, the tonic is weak because you don’t have a critical note to form the fundamental triad with E. This gives an incomplete wistful sense to the melody which is how it should be. It may be SANITISED with chordal A which harrmonises with the E.
However, the other way is to strengthen the tonic (rather than sabotaging it). The simplest way to do this is to play an E drone while you perform the song. This way you will more strongly hear the completion in the wistfulness.
harmonics are implicit in all music including single line melody without chordal accompaniment and even when you play or sing a single note.
Playing a chord in acompaniment is an explicit harmonic emphasis which locks in one of the many ambient harmonic possibilities in the hearing of the music. Whilst, if done sensitively, this can work quite well, in many cases, the locking in destroys the atmosphere of the piece.
Playing a drone is another, less locked in way to emphasise the harmonic colour of a piece. If you play the mode tonic (the home note of the song line) as the drone it will emphaise one colouring. If you employ the mode’s perfect 4th as the drone it will emphasise another colouring and if you employ the mode’s perfect 5th as the drone you will get yet another beautiful effect. The mode tonic has not changed, just the treatment.
