TheLocrian mode is the seventh mode of the major scale. It is either amusical mode or simply adiatonic scale. On the piano, it is the scale that starts with B and only uses the white keys from there on up to the next higher B. Its ascending form consists of the key note, then: Half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step.
Locrian is the word used to describe an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the three regions ofLocris.[1] Although the term occurs in several classical authors on music theory, includingCleonides (as an octave species) andAthenaeus (as an obsoleteharmonia), there is no warrant for the modern use of Locrian as equivalent toGlarean's hyperaeolian mode, in either classical, Renaissance, or later phases of modal theory through the 18th century, or modern scholarship on ancient Greek musical theory and practice.[2][3]
The name first came into use in modal chant theory after the 18th century,[2] whenLocrian was used to describe the newly numbered mode 11, with its final on B,ambitus from that note to the octave above, and semitones therefore between the first and second, and between the fourth and fifth degrees. Itsreciting tone (or tenor) is G, itsmediant D, and it has twoparticipants: E and F.[4] Thefinal, as its name implies, is the tone on which the chant eventually settles, and corresponds to the tonic in tonal music. The reciting tone is the tone around which the melody principally centers,[5] the termmediant is named from its position between the final tone and the reciting tone, and the participant is an auxiliary note, generally adjacent to the mediant inauthentic modes and, in theplagal forms, coincident with the reciting tone of the corresponding authentic mode.[6]
In modern practice, the Locrian may be considered to be one of the modernminor scales: Thenatural minor with the step before second and thefifth scale degrees reduced from a tone to asemitone. The Locrian mode may also be considered to be a scale beginning on the seventh scale degree of anyIonian, or modern naturalmajor scale. The Locrian mode has the formula:
The chord progression for Locrian starting on B is Bdim 5, CMaj, Dmin, Emin, FMaj, GMaj, Amin.Itstonic chord is adiminished triad (Bdim = Bdim 5
min 3 =BDF, in the Locrian mode using the white-key diatonic scale with starting note B, corresponding to a C major scale starting on its 7th tone). This mode's diminished fifth and theLydian mode's augmented fourth are the only modes that contain atritone as a note in their modal scale.
| Major Key | Minor Key | Key Signatures | Tonic of the locrianscale | Locrian scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C♯ major | A♯ minor | 7♯ | B♯ | B♯ C♯ D♯ E♯ F♯ G♯ A♯ |
| F♯ major | D♯ minor | 6♯ | E♯ | E♯ F♯ G♯ A♯ B C♯ D♯ |
| B major | G♯ minor | 5♯ | A♯ | A♯ B C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ |
| E major | C♯ minor | 4♯ | D♯ | D♯ E F♯ G♯ A B C♯ |
| A major | F♯ minor | 3♯ | G♯ | G♯ A B C♯ D E F♯ |
| D major | B minor | 2♯ | C♯ | C♯ D E F♯ G A B |
| G major | E minor | 1♯ | F♯ | F♯ G A B C D E |
| C major | A minor | - | B | B C D E F G A |
| F major | D minor | 1♭ | E | E F G A B♭ C D |
| B♭ major | G minor | 2♭ | A | A B♭ C D E♭ F G |
| E♭ major | C minor | 3♭ | D | D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C |
| A♭ major | F minor | 4♭ | G | G A♭ B♭ C D♭ E♭ F |
| D♭ major | B♭ minor | 5♭ | C | C D♭ E♭ F G♭ A♭ B♭ |
| G♭ major | E♭ minor | 6♭ | F | F G♭ A♭ B♭ C♭ D♭ E♭ |
| C♭ major | A♭ minor | 7♭ | B♭ | B♭ C♭ D♭ E♭ F♭ G♭ A♭ |
The Locrian mode is the only modern diatonic mode in which thetonic triad is adiminished chord (flattened fifth), which is considered verydissonant. This is because the interval between theroot and fifth of the chord is adiminished fifth. For example, the tonic triad of B Locrian is made from the notes B, D, F. The root is B and thedim 5th is F. The diminished-fifth interval between them is the cause for the chord's striking dissonance.[citation needed]
The name "Locrian" is borrowed from music theory ofancient Greece. What is now called theLocrian mode, however, was what the Greeks called thediatonicMixolydian tonos. The Greeks used the term "Locrian" as an alternative name for their "Hypodorian", or "common" tonos, with a scale running frommese tonete hyperbolaion, which in its diatonic genus corresponds to the modernAeolian mode.[7]
In his reform of modal theory,[8]Glarean named this division of the octave "hyperaeolian" and printed some musical examples (a three-part polyphonic example specially commissioned from his friendSixtus Dietrich, and the Christe from theMissa de Sancto Antonio byde la Rue), although he did not accept hyperaeolian as one of his twelve modes.[9]
The term "Locrian" as equivalent to Glarean'shyperaeolian or the ancient Greek (diatonic)mixolydian, however, was not used until the19th century.[2]
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There are brief passages inclassical, especiallyorchestral, works that have been regarded as using the Locrian mode:
The Locrian mode is almost never used in folk or popular music:
Among the very few instances of folk and popular music in the Locrian mode:
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