ThePhrygian mode (pronounced/ˈfrɪdʒiən/) can refer to three differentmusical modes: the ancient Greektonos orharmonia, sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set ofoctave species or scales; the medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern conception of the Phrygian mode as adiatonic scale, based on the latter.
In Greek music theory, theharmonia given this name was based on atonos, in turn based on a scale oroctave species built from atetrachord which, in its diatonic genus, consisted of a series of rising intervals of awhole tone, followed by asemitone, followed by a whole tone.
This scale, combined with a set of characteristic melodic behaviours and associatedethe, constituted theharmonia which was given the ethnic name "Phrygian", after the "unbounded, ecstatic peoples of the wild, mountainous regions of the Anatolian highlands".[1] This ethnic name was also confusingly applied by theorists such asCleonides to one of thirteen chromatictransposition levels, regardless of the intervallic makeup of the scale.[2]
Since the Renaissance, music theorists have called this same sequence (on a diatonic scale) the "Dorian" mode, due to a mistake interpreting Greek (it is different from theGreek mode called "Dorian").
The earlyCatholic Church developed a system of eightmusical modes that medieval music scholars gave names drawn from the ones used to describe the ancient Greekharmoniai. The name "Phrygian" was applied to the third of these eightchurch modes, the authentic mode on E, described as the diatonic octave extending from E to the E an octave higher and divided at B, therefore beginning with a semitone-tone-tone-tonepentachord, followed by a semitone-tone-tonetetrachord:[3]
Theambitus of this mode extended one tone lower, to D. The sixth degree, C, which is the tenor of the corresponding third psalm tone, was regarded by most theorists as the most important note after the final, though the fifteenth-century theorist Johannes Tinctoris implied that the fourth degree, A, could be so regarded instead.[3]
Placing the two tetrachords together, and the single tone at bottom of the scale produces theHypophrygian mode (below Phrygian):
In modern western music (from the 18th century onward), the Phrygian mode is related to the modernnatural minor scale, also known as theAeolian mode, but with the second scale degree lowered by a semitone, making it a minor second above the tonic, rather than a major second.
The following is the Phrygian mode starting on E, or E Phrygian, with correspondingtonalscale degrees illustrating how the modernmajor mode andnatural minor mode can be altered to produce the Phrygian mode:
E Phrygian
Mode:
E
F
G
A
B
C
D
E
Major:
1
♭2
♭3
4
5
♭6
♭7
1
Minor:
1
♭2
3
4
5
6
7
1
Therefore, the Phrygian mode consists of: root, minor second, minor third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, minor sixth, minor seventh, and octave. Alternatively, it can be written as the pattern
half, whole, whole, whole, half, whole, whole
In contemporaryjazz, the Phrygian mode is used over chords and sonorities built on the mode, such as the sus4(♭9) chord (seeSuspended chord), which is sometimes called aPhrygian suspended chord. For example, a soloist might play an E Phrygian over an Esus4(♭9) chord (E–A–B–D–F).
The Phrygian dominant is also known as theSpanishgypsy scale, because it resembles the scales found inflamenco and also theBerber rhythms;[4] it is the fifth mode of theharmonic minor scale. Flamenco music uses the Phrygian scale together with a modified scale from the Arabmaqām Ḥijāzī[5][6] (like the Phrygian dominant but with a major sixth scale degree),[citation needed] and a bimodal configuration using both major and minor second and third scale degrees.[6]
In practical terms it should be said that few rock songs that use modes such as the phrygian, Lydian, or locrian actually maintain a harmony rigorously fixed on them. What usually happens is that the scale is harmonized in [chords with perfect] fifths and the riffs are then played [over] those [chords].[38]
^Benward, Bruce, and Marilyn Nadine Saker. 2009.Music in Theory and Practice: Volume II, eighth edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill. p. 244.ISBN978-0-07-310188-0.
^Pöhlmann, Egert, and Martin L. West. 2001.Documents of Ancient Greek Music: The Extant Melodies and Fragments, edited and transcribed with commentary by Egert Pöhlmann and Martin L. West. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 73.ISBN0-19-815223-X.
^Adams, Doug. 2010.The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard Shore's Scores. Van Nuys, California: Carpentier/Alfred Music Publishing. p. 54.ISBN0-7390-7157-2.
Franklin, Don O. 1996. "Vom alten zum neuen Adam: Phrygischer Kirchenton und moderne Tonalität in J. S. Bachs Kantate 38". InVon Luther zu Bach: Bericht über die Tagung 22.–25. September 1996 in Eisenach, edited by Renate Steiger, 129–144. Internationalen Arbeitsgemeinschaft für theologische Bachforschung (1996): Eisenach. Sinzig: Studio-Verlag.ISBN3-89564-056-5.
Hewitt, Michael. 2013.Musical Scales of the World. [s.l.]: The Note Tree.ISBN978-0-9575470-0-1.
Novack, Saul. 1977. "The Significance of the Phrygian Mode in the History of Tonality".Miscellanea Musicologica 9:82–177.ISSN0076-9355OCLC1758333
Tilton, Mary C. 1989. "The Influence of Psalm Tone and Mode on the Structure of the Phrygian Toccatas of Claudio Merulo".Theoria 4:106–122.ISSN0040-5817
