What is a Mode?
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
Joshua Weilerstein
4.9 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2024
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My first interaction with the musical term modes was Leonard Bernstein’s brilliant Young People’s Concert, also called What is a Mode? In that show, Bernstein showed how modes are an essential part of what makes modern music, meaning pop and rock music, tick. This was central to Bernstein’s point during this amazing show, which is available on Youtube, and he punctuated his discussion with multiple examples of pop music from the time that used modes. Today, on this Patreon sponsored episode, I was asked to go through all of the modes and show how they have been used in classical music. Much of my show today is modeled on and takes its inspiration from that Bernstein Young People’s Concert, and I’ll be peppering clips from that show throughout my own exploration. As Bernstein says, the common practice period of classical music, starting with Haydn and ending sometime early in the 20th century, didn’t feature a lot of modal music, though that doesn’t mean it was completely absent. So today I’ll explain what modes are, and we’ll go through each of the so called church modes, explaining their characteristics, and then showing you examples throughout musical history of exactly how these modes were used by the great composers. This show might seem a bit technical, but I think there’s a lot of really interesting and fascinating stuff here, so stick with me, and let’s explore modes together. Join us!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Sticky Notes the Classical Music Podcast. My name is Joshua |
| 0:16.1 | Wilerstein. I'm a conductor and I'm the chief conductor of the Alborg Symphony |
| 0:19.7 | and the music director of the Phoenix Orchestra of Boston. This podcast is for anyone who loves |
| 0:24.4 | classical music, works in the field, or is just getting ready to dive in to this amazing |
| 0:28.9 | world of incredible music. If you'd like to support the show, please head over to Patreon.com |
| 0:34.0 | slash Sticky Notes Podcast. And if you are a fan of the show, please take a moment to give us a |
| 0:38.6 | rating or review on Apple Podcasts. It is greatly appreciated. |
| 0:45.0 | Before I begin, I wanted to explain the challenge that was set to me by the Patreon sponsor for this episode, Jane. |
| 0:52.0 | Please do an episode about the church modes and where, how, why they appear in classical music, |
| 0:57.0 | perhaps limiting yourself to music written after the Renaissance. |
| 1:01.0 | The end of that request limiting myself to music after the Renaissance would prove to be the real |
| 1:06.0 | challenge here as we'll get into later. But first you might be wondering what is a mode? |
| 1:14.6 | Well my first interaction with the musical term modes was in this clip from Leonard Bernstein's young people's concert |
| 1:18.2 | called helpfully what is a mode. That's just mixolytianian. Now, do you hear how that lowered seventh note makes that jazz sound? |
| 1:27.0 | Of course, the examples I could give you are endless, but just to take a recent smash hit. |
| 1:35.0 | My baby does the hanky-panky. |
| 1:40.0 | Mixelidian. |
| 1:41.0 | Could you believe it? Or do you remember a really terrific song, a barbaric number |
| 1:48.1 | of a few years ago sung by a group known as the Kinks. It's called You Really Got Me. |
| 1:55.0 | Girl, you really got me going. |
| 2:00.0 | You got me so I cast the midnight. |
| 2:03.0 | Yeah, you really got me now. |
... |
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