Modes in the 16th and 17th centuries 

"Now you know why you never really understood modes. Because... no one did." :D

Great video! I am more confused about the subject after watching it,,,

This is genuinely the best explanation on these modes I've come across. It's the first time I've really felt that it's been explained what characteristics the modes have, but WHY they have them!

Modes in the Renaissance period: "transpositions, cadences, meaning of texts, different interpretations and systems, many theorists trying to make sense out of the system" Modes in 21st century RU-vid: *Make your music ScArY using THIS awesome scale*

You have spectacular video editing skills!

I don’t waste my time at all with your lessons. The best explanations on mode I’ve ever come across. All your lessons are very good, but this is a special one . Thank you for your artistry🎶

This was a fun watch! It sounds like Modal Theorists got carried away with the categorizing. It's a bit like how people argue about what genre a piece is while it never crosses the songwriter's mind.

modes were always a mistery for me. thanks for this seminal like video. i really have to say that the quality of this channel is exceptional!!!!

This RU-vid channel is awesome, I cant believe I just discovered you today.

Thank you Early Music Sources! Your videos have proven to be very helpful to aiding me and my fellow choristers in singing renaissance music in a more informed way - I cannot understate how important of a work this is that you guys are doing, and wish you all the best! Thank you once again :)

One of my favourite channels on RU-vid. Thank you so much.

Elam !! Wowwww Incredible video!!! This is really, really another level of explanation. Thank you very much! It was amazing!

This is an amazing explanation of the history of modes I spent hours looking at texts online trying to explain it but you did it flawlessly

Absolutely amazing and intriguing mini documentary! A must see on modes!

Great channel! So glad to have found such a precious source. It would be very interesting to talk about modes' influence on later, tonal music, especially in XIX and XX century. Thanks again. Samuele

I want to learn more about how they came up with cadence formulas. I love how you can have two voices weaving in and out of each other and landing on chords, then going away, and coming back. It's a type of music we don't seem to have composed anymore.

Thank you, Elam, for this incredible series of lessons. I have played early music on recorders and viols for nearly 4 decades, and it has brought me much joy. But I never had any theoretical lessons on the what and the why of the music I play. I have learned so much from your videos, and it has deepened my enjoyment of the pieces I play. I am so grateful!

After watching a lot of your videos and this one at least for the third time, I begin to understand why I don't understand... and finding a little bit of understanding as well. Thank you very much for your work!

This was incredibly captivating. Thank you for the clear and educational presentation! So well done.

Great job, as usual. For those who are interested with modes in polyphony, I suggest this book: ‘The Modes of Classical Vocal Polyphony Described According to the Sources’ by Bernhard Meier. It is a cornerstone for this argument. Thanks Elam for your great job!!!

AMAZING! The quality of this video is truly amazing..

I got so many questions but anyway... basically you give us a modal counterpoint class. simply amazing!!!! Thank you so much!!!

Thank you so much for this wonderful Presentation!

Very interesting history of the modes and how composers thought about them, including the inconsistencies. It is no wonder that modes still provide a challenge to this day, compounded by modes derived from various scaled degrees, like the modes of the Harmonic Minor scale. These provide a much wider palette of Keys, and harmonic possibilities, but come at the price of the difficulties in understanding and using them. The content on this Channel is first rate, beautifully presented and narrated. Subscribed - Thanks.

Thank you guys, you are doing a very helpful job!

Magnífico vídeo. Muchas gracias por compartir sus conocimientos. ¡Sigan produciendo nuevos vídeos, los seguiremos atentamente! Saludos desde Lima, Perú.

I love how practical you explain this theory in this video! Thank you for your effort and keep it up!

Hi, Early Music Sources! Thank you very much for this video, Elam. I'm delighted with the concise and friendly manner in which you deal with every topic in this channel. At this occasion, I've translated the English Subtitles into Spanish for one of my groups of students. If the spanish subtitles were any useful to you, I would manage to send you them, as a little and humble retribution for the huge work you've done here. Thank you, indeed!

Thank you so much. This topic has always completely confused me and now, at last, I'm a little bit less confused! (I might just watch it a couple more times though to make sure!)

Muchísimas gracias por este trabajo. Muy aclarador y con información verdaderamente útil. Te has ganado un subscriptor . Un fuertee abrazoo!!

Excelente como siempre!! Great video!! Thanks!

This was NOT a waste of time! Thank you. This is the most helpful information about modes I have ever heard. Knowing that the subject has always been a source of confusion explains a lot, or at least bolsters my belief that the berkley jazz sh&* can be dismissed or ignored unless I suddenly get the urge to solo over Giant Steps. : )

Delicious channel! I've fallen in love!

Thank you so much! This was reaaaaally useful, thanks for the effort!

great as always! thanks

Gracias por tan tremendos vídeos. Felicidades!

there is some deep knowledge here. im glad to have found this channel

I have no idea how you got all that dry information into my head in such a mesmerizing and entertaining way, but when the video ended I just yelled at the screen: "NOOO😱! I want MORE!" 😎👍

Very enlightening! It would be fun to have a bit more sound illustration, but I'm already so happy to have found this!

Excellent research and very useful!

Very nice and informative video. Thank you!

I thank you very much for this great vid. I was directed to your channel by Adam Neely. The one problem I have is the more you try to understand music the more you don't know. Cheer's

Fantastic!

Very good insight. New knowledge for me

Thanks a lot. Great video.

Thanks for sharing all resources about mode. I know why I read more books I have more question in my mind now. Different people different explain. Thank you very much for combination and explain.

Awesome content and lucidity!

Excelente video, espero ver más así.

Excellent video! Thank you!

Kudos. This is by far the clearest explanations of modes I have ever heard. I have recently had deep conversations with an Orthodox Rabbi friend and we were guessing what ancient Jewish modal music might have sounded like? For example, we have now lost the oral tradition of how to sing or chant Tehillim. We can only guess what they sounded like when sung. There is some consideration to the interaction of sacred Jewish tunes from the Second Temple time as it was picked up by both Greeks and Romans and in the case of early Christian music, it is considered highly probable that some plain chant had Jewish liturgical tunes as sources. That particular subject greatly interests me. I really enjoy your musical essays.

I love your channel. And your essay here, in its context, is great. I do not misunderstand the specificity of your title, you are addressing a period... but given the way you frame the subject, how you state the origin of modes, I would like to suggest, as I am confident you know, that there is a broader lens on the subject which takes in folk traditions across Europe and beyond, and places/understands these schema in a wider range of social and musical contexts. The history extends in all directions of time and space, including appalachian scales which are one set of notes going up, another going down (not unlike the harmonic minor but from different roots), mergers of pentatonic and other modes in practice, bespoke modes, modes in highbrow music beyond the period considered here, modes in jazz and pretty much all twentieth century popular music, not to mention the curious history of that boiling down, the question of what exactly do black keys really mean... it is massive. And again, I adore your channel. You are amazing at what you do. It is specific and beautifully done. Modes, broadly speaking, are messy

And this video is VERY helpful, thank you!

The best explanation ever about the modes.

Shared to the SCA early Musicians FB site

Thank you very much!

Amazing video!

Vídeo maravilhoso! Parabéns e obrigada.

I really enjoyed it! Expecially the part about cadences: indeed, one of the most entertaining characteristics of Renaissance music is that there are cadences you are not aquainted to as a baroque-classical listener. I really thank you, and I leave a question for those who want to answer: what's your favourite mode? I vote... DORIAN!!!

Excellent presentation, the conclusion made me laugh....and then came "Kind of Blue"

The explanation is magnificent and the modes never entirely disappeared -especially in the case of Irish music, where modulation out of a set key is virtually unheard of, something to do pitch of the instruments in use, perhaps?

💝💝💝 Learn so much today............ Thank you.

Thanks for this about the modes. As a young man I used to sing a lot of Gregorian chant, which is, of course, based on the modes. The Benedictines of Solesmes (France) have preserved this modal system intact today, as they continually create new chants for new texts. They have done a prodigious amount of research, a lot of which is summarized in the Liber Usualis published in the 50's. We were made aware that certain modes were used to express certain emotions, just as the explanation above. I never realized then how lucky I was to be exposed to this whole era of music making.

Thank you!

By George, I think I got it! Brilliant, as ever 🙏

Perhaps one should conclude that all this confusion of theories is due to the fact that modes are actually linked to a fundamentally subjective state of mind, which would mean that the affects do prevail... Your channel is gorgeous. Congratulations.. to all of us!

SO GLAD FOR ONE OF THESE TO BE OUT AGAIN.

THANK YOU SO MUCH

Grazie, come sempre.

Gracias, me ayudaste mucho

Awesome especially about the polyphonic pieces

Thanks!

Bravo! You are doing a terrific job with these videos. I teach a class on History of Western of Music Theory, and find your work extremely useful with my students. These are difficult subjects of study, but you make it very easy to grasp, and appealing. Great job on your sources, too. Thank you. Would you ever consider to produce a video on the subject of intonation formulas (noannoeane/noeagis) in Early plainchant?

Merci.

Συγχαρητηρια, κατατοπιστικο βιντεο.

This is by far the most comprehensive video about modes I have ever seen. Thank you so much, Elam! I have a question regarding the rhytmic modes. You listed Pyrrhic as the VI mode but when I looked them up I found the Tribrach listed instead. Could you explain why? (I did a lot of Googling but could not find an explanation for this.) Thanks again for your wonderful and inspiring work!!

정말 고맙습니다

Awesome!

Thank you, from me as a non musician, for explaining the jargon on modes.

Amazingggg

This is fantastic content. I'm going to make a composition now.

Modes have made a come back in jazz theory. In jazz theory each chord is associated with a mode. So C maj7 is associated with C major mode. D min 7 with D dorian, G7 with G mixolydian, etc.

Nice content

Love the pig and info

The leading tone is the fifteenth partial in the harmonic series. It took a long time to find it. Once discovered, though, it took over and swept all before it. This ended the modes and introduced major and minor keys. Recitative with its constant leading tones became popular.

Finally someone explained what are tuoni!

Muy buenos los vídeos.

Highly informational, and explains why we have in the german tonal system still H and B, and not B and B flat like the englisch system.

Excellent video!!! Now not only I know more about modes, also I can feel like a normal human being because I had not understood everything before. What a relief! :P

It might help for folks confused to look at vihuela tab (transcribed into treble clef of course) from Spain mid 1500s. The reason is those dudes where reducing vocal polyphony into fretted chordal voicing and the tonal concepts appear more obvious. So a simple concept like Dorian called first tone, looks on paper like basic minor key stuff with occasional “Dorian” passing notes here and there, but not for that reason, simply due to like G major or Eminor chords appearing in otherwise D minor key. Then your hypo- even numbered modes (tones 2,4,6,8) have your plagal or half-cadences going on (plagal and half cadences basically sound the same). So you go Gm-D major in same concept as before (D minor key stuff) instead of A major to D. Meanwhile all kinds of chromatic passing notes can be going on.

I read Marpurg and Fux and Kirberger but it still wasn't clear now it is a bit more clear although not much. It's mystery is also it's charm. Thanks.

I found this so interesting. I would like to know more about how the modes were used earlier, in the medieval period. And also how they related to more ancient church practice, like in the Greek east.

A good source I have come across in relation to this topic is Joel Lester's book, 'Between modes and keys'.

So, nobody says anything about the last picture? !!!! Your jokes are sofisticated, my man.

I'm going to have to listen to this video several times. very complicated... but interesting

Modern modes of Major in order circle of Fifths: Lydian Ionian (Major) Mixolydian Dorian Aeolian (Minor) Phrygian Locrian - the weirdest cousin

That's a very very good job! That you for this video and all the others! I just notice that at 1:39, the fourth species of 4th is actually the same as the first in terms of inner intervals, so I guess is not really useful to designate it as a different species. At least, I mean one could imagine that 4 different kinds of species exist, but there are only 3. That was my little point. But anyways thank you and good job. Have success with your project!

Wow! So weird to hear how confusing it was in reality. The way we generally understand what we call modes today is so much simpler. Take a major scale structure and just set another one of the notes of the scale as the tonic. If D is the tonic it's Dorian, E makes it Phrygian, etc.) Yet there's this general idea that it was the same way back then. It's more like we've just appropriated the term "mode" more because it's SIMILAR in many ways to the renaissance but way oversimplified. I'll stick with the modern understanding 😂

And here I thought there was 7. Dope af

Really fascinating! Do you have tips regarding how to distinguish modes when listening to early music and music in general?

Congratulations on a brilliant video; your clarity and erudition are truly inspiring! May I ask who is the painter of the image of the last supper which you use towards the end?