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Modal Not Tonal
Jul. 12th, 2024 07:53 am My ignorance of musical theory is almost complete.
But there's a chink in the darkness: I now know the difference between Tonal and Modal.
Let's see if I can get it right.
Tonal is when you stack chords on top of your basic melody. This is how most western music since the Renaissance has been made.
Modal is when you stick other notes between the notes of your basic melody. This is how western music was made before the Renaissance- and how much music is still made east of the Urals.
Tonal music is vertical, Modal music is horizontal.
And here's another tthing- as Western music changed from Modal to Tonal it went through a phase known as Polyphonic- which is where you overlay your basic melody with another melody....
Can I hear the difference? Well, I think I can...
I've got Farya Faraji to thank for this information. Faraji is French Canadian and unbelievably beautiful and the best music teacher eva. He has a YouTube channel in which he talks music theory (but makes it fun) and posts his own versions of historic pieces of music which he's made as authentic as he possibly can. Want to know what a Bacchic dance sounded like? Faraji will give you his best guess. His musical knowledge and competence is unbelievably wide- and his repertoire stretches from the ancients through the middle ages and up into the 19th century. He sings in Assyrian, in Norse, in Occitan, in Latin, in French and even in English. He can do you the Plastinalied and he can do you Cumberland Gap- and they both sound foot-tappingly good.
On a side note he says that most of what passes for medieval music these days is inauthentic. The tunes may be the real thing but they're being played tonally not modally and on the wrong instruments. This is Bardcore. Nothing wrong with Bardcore- he loves some Bardcore musicians- just don't be fooled into thinking you're hearing the sound of the Middle Ages.
The Irish Bazoukhi? It looks mediaeval and sounds a bit mediaeval but it was invented in the !970s. It's a modern instrument!
But there's a chink in the darkness: I now know the difference between Tonal and Modal.
Let's see if I can get it right.
Tonal is when you stack chords on top of your basic melody. This is how most western music since the Renaissance has been made.
Modal is when you stick other notes between the notes of your basic melody. This is how western music was made before the Renaissance- and how much music is still made east of the Urals.
Tonal music is vertical, Modal music is horizontal.
And here's another tthing- as Western music changed from Modal to Tonal it went through a phase known as Polyphonic- which is where you overlay your basic melody with another melody....
Can I hear the difference? Well, I think I can...
I've got Farya Faraji to thank for this information. Faraji is French Canadian and unbelievably beautiful and the best music teacher eva. He has a YouTube channel in which he talks music theory (but makes it fun) and posts his own versions of historic pieces of music which he's made as authentic as he possibly can. Want to know what a Bacchic dance sounded like? Faraji will give you his best guess. His musical knowledge and competence is unbelievably wide- and his repertoire stretches from the ancients through the middle ages and up into the 19th century. He sings in Assyrian, in Norse, in Occitan, in Latin, in French and even in English. He can do you the Plastinalied and he can do you Cumberland Gap- and they both sound foot-tappingly good.
On a side note he says that most of what passes for medieval music these days is inauthentic. The tunes may be the real thing but they're being played tonally not modally and on the wrong instruments. This is Bardcore. Nothing wrong with Bardcore- he loves some Bardcore musicians- just don't be fooled into thinking you're hearing the sound of the Middle Ages.
The Irish Bazoukhi? It looks mediaeval and sounds a bit mediaeval but it was invented in the !970s. It's a modern instrument!
