# Harmonized modal melodies



## Fdoublesharp (Oct 19, 2011)

If a plainsong, folksong melody is harmonized, without using accidentals, is it still modal?

I mentioned accidentals because modal melodies are defined by their melodic cells and shapes, and adding accidentals destroy their character, hence will not be modal anymore.

Organum - is it still classed as modal music? Because now the melody is not unaccompanied any more, however, NO accidentals are used.

What about Debussey's La Cathedrale Engloutie? A succession of second inversion chords moving completely parallel with the melody.

This is going back deep in to music history, rather than music theory as such.

What my ultimate question is, can harmony be added to a modal melody, and still be called modal music?


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

There is a difference between MODAL scale and DIATONIC scale. Actually, any modal scale is diatonic. Depending on which of the seven notes is used as the beginning, the positions of the intervals, the half-steps, end at different distances from the starting tone, you are obtaining seven different MODES, hence they are deduced from the diatonic scale. 

Organum is certainly modal music, as it was all music before the beggining of the XVII-th century, when composers began to experiment with what can be called "minor" and "major" scales. 

And yes, an harmonized modal melody is still modal music. Actually, were few compositions are really modal or fit a single tonality. There are very often modulations, modal mixture, accidentals, etc. Music which sticks to a single tonality using only diatonic tones is pretty boring and simple.


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## Fdoublesharp (Oct 19, 2011)

Renaissance said:


> And yes, an harmonized modal melody is still modal music.


How so? Are there any examples?

Scarborough Fair? But is it still modal, or is it now tonal because there are chords and accidentals applied to it. Therefore the modal character is destroyed. Like Paul Simon's version.


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

If you use functional harmony (these are tonic, subdominant, dominant, etc) yes, it is tonal music with a modal melody... But if I understand correctly, you want something pure modal. But what is the point ? If you check any tonal composition you will find more than one key in it, accidentals, borrowed chords, altered chords, etc. The same with modal music. Debussy used a lot of modality in his works, but I doubt there are some pure modal. 

Anyway, try not using chords because there is a tendency to use them according to their functionality in tonal harmony. Build your harmony as a consequence of counterpoint. Learn counterpoint in 3-4 voices (very hard, I know, but worthy) and use this kind of harmony, not the tonal one. Avoid tonic-dominant relations, and more important, study the music of the old counterpunctual masters like Palestrina, Byrd, Tallis, Frescobaldi....Bach is good too but he is already tonal.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Modal just means it uses modes in its construction, pretty much all tonal music is modal, with the exceptions being tonal pieces created via extremely careful and creative use of the 12-tone system. Its still modal, modal just usually refers to music constructed with modes that doesn't follow the rules of the tonal system, like the music of Debussy and Satie and Ravel, and later Stravinsky, Bartok, Messiaen, Ives. Sometimes they can use tonal functions in the harmonies of such music, but often they simply just write stuff that sounds good, and aren't tempered by a single set of arbitrary rules.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I would think purely modal pieces are pretty restricted in what they can do with their pitches alone. But I see no reason why a piece that uses harmony with accidentals, but has a melody that clearly works within a modal scale, can't be loosely talked of as modal. Harmony without accidental: there are some pieces that are pretty diatonic and still sufficiently interesting and complex. Usually it is just for a section of the piece, but I definitely think that if all notes, stacked or otherwise, fall into the pattern of a scale, then it can be called what it is.


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