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By Aron Bernstein 2 Comments

Weekly Music Challenge: 5/9/22

Show off your theory chops with my weekly challenge! You’ll find a new question here every Monday. Please comment to post your reply.

This Week’s Challenge:

The late 19th-Century saw the rise of musical nationalism in Europe. Composers in Bohemia, Hungary, Russia, and, to some extent, in France wanted to liberate themselves from common-practice styles and rules, which were largely of German and Italian origins. So Smetana and Dvorak, Glinka and the Mighty Five, and later Bartók and Debussy set about using resources that predated major-minor tonality–the cornerstone of the common practice. They often reached back into their own folk music, which relied heavily on the old church modes: Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian.

So here’s the challenge: how do these modes help to undermine common-practice tonality? There doesn’t have to be one correct answer!

Post your reply and come back Friday, May 13th for my take on it!

ANSWER for 5/9/22

While renewed interest in modes wasn’t the only factor in the dissolution of common-practice tonality, it certainly helped. For me, the best example is Mixolydian, identical to a major scale except for the lowered seventh degree. This makes for a minor dominant triad, with which a typical authentic cadence is not possible. Other modes generate similar harmonic colors that, while beautiful and compelling, destabilize the primacy of the V-I relationship. Moreover, the growing reliance on color to carry a piece (rather than harmony, melody, or rhythm) became yet another rival to established common-practice rules. The purpose of tonal harmony is movement: tension and resolution driving the music toward a goal. With the lush, often modal soundscapes of Debussy, harmony has a very different function: immersion.

Want to Learn More?

With Breaking Barlines you learn music theory the right way: fun, holistic, and with a personal touch! Have a look at the complete Breaking Barlines Course! Then sign up for a monthly subscription for full access to all video lessons, worksheets, and answer keys. New lessons are always added, so stay tuned!

By Aron Bernstein 8 Comments

Weekly Music Theory Challenge 11/1/21

Show off your theory chops with my weekly challenge! You’ll find a new question here every Monday. Please comment to post your reply.

This week’s challenge:

Reaching back to the High Renaissance this week! This is the opening of a paraphrase mass by Josquin des Prez (I’ll tell you which one on Friday). The melody in all four voices is based on a Medieval hymn. Which mode was it in? HINT: look at the tenor and soprano voices, and try not to read too much into the major/minor implications of this mass. Josquin was making near-tonal use of a much older (and modal) hymn. Be sure to listen to the audio as well!

Listen to Audio

Reply to post your answer, and check back on Friday, November 5th to see if you’re right!

ANSWER for 11/1/21

This is Josquin’s Missa Pange Lingua, written in the early 16th Century. It’s based on the Medieval hymn of the same name. In its original form (seen in the tenor and soprano voices here), the hymn was in the Phrygian Mode:

The tonic is E, and the hymn has the half-step from E to F characteristic of the Phrygian mode. In Josquin’s mass, the bass and alto have an altered version of the hymn in the Aeolian mode (natural minor). In the entire mass, we never actually hear the entire hymm; it’s used instead as a giant motive for imitative writing and quasi-fugal techniques. This is different from a cantus firmus mass, in which the original hymn is heard in its entirety, and the other voices are “scaffolded” above and below it.

Want to Learn More?

With Breaking Barlines you learn music theory the right way: fun, holistic, and with a personal touch! Have a look at the complete Breaking Barlines Course! Then sign up for a monthly subscription for full access to all video lessons, worksheets, and answer keys. New lessons are always added, so stay tuned!

By Aron Bernstein 1 Comment

Weekly Music Theory Challenge 5/24/21

Show off your music theory chops with my weekly challenge! You’ll find a new question here every Monday. Please comment to post your reply.

This week’s challenge:

Music Theory a la mode! Here are two of Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances. Which mode is each piece written in?

Romanian Folk Dance No. 2 by Bela Bartok
Listen to Audio
Romanian Folk Dance No. 6 by Bela Bartok
Listen to Audio

Check back on Friday, May 28th for the answer!

ANSWER for 5/24/21

Romanian Folk Dance #2 uses the Dorian Mode. Dorian is identical to natural minor, except that the 6th note of the scale is raised a half-step. So in the key of D minor, the B natural is what gives it away:

This is what the Romanian Folk Dance No. 2 would sound like in Natural Minor, rather than Dorian:

Romanian Folk Dance #6 is in the Lydian Mode. Lydian is the same as a major scale, but with its 4th note raised a half-step. So in the key of D major, the G sharp gives it away:

This is what the Romanian Folk Dance would sound like in Major, rather than Lydian.

Want to Learn More?

Brush up on your scales with a whole series of lessons in my Scales Module!  Sign up for a monthly subscription for full access to all video lessons, worksheets, and answer keys. Also, this year I’ll be adding new lessons on modes. I created Breaking Barlines with one thing in mind: making music theory effective and FUN!