Dorian Jigs, Laments and Shifting Moods

This post is part of a series on the modes.

You can hear a Dorian mode by playing the white keys from D to D. To play a Dorian scale starting on another note, use a minor scale with a raised 6th step. Ex; the key D minor has a B flat. Since B is the 6th step of the scale, we play B natural when starting on D.



Dorian is one of the modes that turns up in Celtic tunes fairly often. Morrison's Jig is fine example. It is a bright and shiny little tune that hurtles along and does a beautiful job of using its mode to add a bit of spice to the jig style. It is often played at Ren Faires but not everyone realizes it is a modal tune. Once, a guitarist who didn't know the tune was told to just play in E minor but, since she has a very good ear, she kept getting frustrated over the chords that didn't fit. When I told her to add a C sharp (C is the 6th step in an E minor scale), her face lit up as all the odd chords suddenly made sense.
Some of my favorite troubadour tunes use Dorian (well, not exactly but close enough for our ears). Comtessa de Dia's song "Chantar m'er" caught my ear the first time I heard it in a rather dull music history class. The raised 6th pops out and creates a longing sound in the middle of the tune that complements the falling melody. But when this song is taken at a faster tempo with some triplet rhythms added in, the raised 6th transforms into the brightest, cheeriest sound you could want.

This is the first verse only and one of the (slightly) simpler versions of the melody. The last note is sometimes shown as an E (when planning to play another verse) but D was likely the note played on the final verse.

Dorian can be a tragic sounding scale or one of the happiest. But my favorite way to use it is for sad songs with a hopeful twist hidden within them. Dorian is one of the easier modes to learn how to play since the note that is different (the 6th) is not a standard part of the final cadence progression. But that raised 6th adds a wonderful pull up to the tonic or a surprise uplifting sound to a line descending through the 5th once you get the hang of using it.

Modern Modes

A crash course on the modern modes.
I like modes. They cause trouble. Melodies using modes don't and can't work exactly the same as major or minor tunes and have been known to throw experienced musicians for a loop. They are used in traditional tunes, troubadour music, Renaissance and older music and by many current composers. This post is the first in a series about the modes.

Modes are just scales with different patterns of half and whole steps. The names of the modern modes come from the Ancient Greek modes but be warned, the scales are completely unrelated to Ancient Greek music. Once you know the pattern of whole and half steps a mode uses, you can play a mode starting on any note.
The following is a cheat sheet for working out the modes based on major or minor scale patterns. I'm going to start on C and work my way up the keyboard. That is the traditional way to work through scales in the music world. Musicians are just odd that way.

Ionian is the same as the major scale or the same as playing all the white keys from C to C. (All major scales are Ionian scales, just starting on different notes than C.)
Dorian is the same as a minor scale with a raised 6th step or the same as playing the white keys from D to D. (The key for D minor has a B flat and since B is the 6th step of the scale, we play B natural)
Phrygian is the same as a minor scale with a lowered 2nd step or the white keys from E to E. (E minor has an F sharp but since F is the 2nd step of the scale we play F natural)
Lydian is the same as a major scale with a raised 4th step or the white keys from F to F. (F major has a B flat but B is the 4th step of the scale so we play B natural)
Mixolydian is the same as a major scale with a lowered 7th step or the white keys from G to G. (G major has an F sharp but since F is the 7th step of the scale we play F natural)
Aeolian is the same as a natural minor scale or the white keys from A to A. (A minor has no sharps or flats)
Locrian is the same as a minor scale with a lowered 2nd step and a lowered 5th step or the white keys from B to B. (B minor has a C sharp and an F sharp but since C is the 2nd step and F is the 5th, both are natural)

Just like major and minor, all the scale patterns can start on any note. The notes I gave are just examples that can be picked out on a keyboard easily so you can hear what they sound like. The trick to using modes is that you may have to lead up to the final cadence or start the melody differently to keep the tonic (first and last) note sounding final. So all that voice leading music majors study in music theory starts breaking down in places. But not completely which is why people get so confused. (Some people like using modes the same way they would use major and minor and just letting them sound "unfinished" when they stop on the tonic notes but I think that is missing the point of having a different scale at work.)
You may have noticed that our major and minor scales can be found within the modes. This is where those two scales came from but they are now considered a different system than the modes. Some music books say that musicians in the Renaissance and Middle Ages used something called musica ficta to adjust the modes to something more like a major or minor scale. While that did happen (it is part of how we got to using mostly major and minor) it is a serious oversimplification of both musica ficta and the modes. Sometimes music was written to take advantage of the different intervals in the modes and sometimes modes were used because instruments couldn't always play certain notes in tune so they just worked with the notes the instruments could play. And of course the modal sound was more accepted in general. People had been hearing it all their lives; composers knew how to handle the modes and they were used to them.

Each mode was generally considered to have a different mood or color but I find that there is a wide range of moods each mode can handle. The rhythms and melody patterns have just as much to do with the character of a song as the scale it is based on. Still, different modes are especially good at different things partly because they force you to use different melody patterns so as not to lose track of the tonic note. This is one of the things I like to explore with the modes. I'll be talking about each mode in more detail in later posts.
If you are wondering what moods Renaissance theorists gave the modes, the best I can give you is a possible reconstruction based on how the modes were linked to the planets (we're heading into astrology here but it was fairly common for Ren theorists to do just that.) Here's my best guess as to what that would give you;
Dorian for the Sun-bright and happy
Phrygian for Mars-aggressive or enthusiastic
Lydian for Jupiter-expansive and powerful
Mixolydian for Saturn-melancholy or authoritative
Aeolian for the Stars or the Moon-spiritual and joyful or emotional and introspective
Locrian for Mercury-energetic, tricky or unpredictable
Ionian for Venus-loving, seductive and gentle
I based this off of a Renaissance picture called "Music of the Spheres" that was published in 1496 in Francinus Gafurius's Practica musice (for more on this picture, click here.) Finding historically accurate moods for the modes is a daunting project so be prepared for a lot of research if that is what you want to know!

Have fun with these ideas but don't let them limit you. Our tuning system is not the same as the ones (yes, there were several, all confusing) used in the Renaissance so not only are we less used to the modes but they don't even sound the same today as they once did. And in my experience, anytime someone tries to say a scale represents only one mood, it means they are ignoring how much rhythm, meter, harmony and all the other details of music work together to create the piece.

All a Flutter

Ever heard a really bad imitation Scottish accent? With lots of RRR rolling? Ever done one? Then you can flutter tongue.
Flutter tonguing isn't used that often but it turns up more and more as time goes on. It can be found in Jazz, Classical and even Folk music. The rolling of the tongue creates a buzzy, surreal sound that mixes with the clear flute sound in interesting ways. The sound can't be imitated very well by any other technique. And its fun.
(A personal plea; Keep the jokes about this topic clean please! Trust me, we've all heard the dirty jokes before and they get old fast.)

There are two ways to flutter tongue and both relate to rolling Rs. Really, both are extremely fast and repeated tongue strikes that don't stop the note or air stream. This is not a muscle controlled action; the tongue is close enough to the roof of the mouth that the air stream causes it to vibrate like a reed on a clarinet and this creates the buzzing or rolled R sound.
The preferred technique (for flute) uses the tip of the tongue. Put the tongue behind your front teeth and let it "bounce" off the roof of your mouth as you exhale, like a rolled R without vocalizing. (This is the same spot you place your tongue for a regular single tongued note-the "ta" or "da" tongue.) It is sort of like turning your tongue into a mini jack-hammer. The trick is learning to maintain your embouchure while doing this.
The other method uses the back of the tongue or the uvula R roll, the way Rs are rolled in French. Its not that different from the other one, just further back in the mouth. This is the spot you use for the "ka" or "ga" sound when double tonguing. Just faster. For the record, flutter tonguing is "easiest" for flute and brass instruments but the reed instruments can flutter too (yes, even oboes though that may count as cruel and unusual punishment.) It is however much easier for reed players to use the second method of flutter tonguing!
If you can't do one, try the other. The first method tends to be more obvious sounding and the second one has a softer buzz but either one works. If you can do both, you end up with a choice of sounds for flutter tonguing. Always a plus.
Once you get the hang of it, its actually kind of entertaining to do although having to switch it on and off at just the right moment can take some practice. Often, flutter tonguing is used on one or two notes though they may be long held notes that make your mouth feel odd after awhile. Sometimes the flutter is meant to last over several notes or used with faster passages. With luck, it will be clearly marked when to start and stop.

So how is this marked in music? Unfortunately, its not very consistent. Part of the reason is that, just like all terms in music, different languages use different words. Flatterzunge, frullato, coupe de lange roule, tremolo dental, vibrata linguale are just some of the different names used for flutter tonguing.
Most flute players agree that it SHOULD be marked with a fl, flt, flz or fltz and sometimes frull. or flutter above the note followed by a squiggly line (a trill mark) to show how long to flutter.

This is clear, noticeable and informative so of course many composers don't use it.
The next most recognized marking is to write fl or flutter above the note with diagonal lines slashing the stem of the note (a string tremolo mark.) This works but it can be confused with subdivision markings especially since composers often leave out the the fl and only use the slashes or write flutter once and never again even when the fluttered notes are mixed with regular notes. I recently played a piece that used this mark for flutter tonguing right after using subdivision marks for actual subdivisions and then proceeded to switch back and forth from subdivisions to flutter tonguing for two lines. It took me 4 times through the piece to figure out what was happening where.
Some composers simply write FL or flutter above the note with no other marking and leave you to guess how long you have to keep your tongue buzzing. Quite frustrating.
And some composers switch between all these marks just to make sure the flute section is paying attention. These are the composers I want to track down and send to remedial composition classes!
Finally, other composers make up their own marking I guess because they couldn't be bothered to look it up. As long as they explain their invented mark clearly and they use the same mark for the whole piece, I don't mind this. Consistency makes up for a lot!