# any good book for church modes?



## kwokboy (Sep 10, 2012)

the title says it all
no matter its based on example analysis/theory / other sorts
i will take them all

and...
both Kund jeppesen & Eric taylor say 
every mode has its own melodic shapes/outlines
but they just provide too few information for that
even not a word on other sources

and i just cant find other books about the shapes
any suggestions ?


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

No need to buy a book. This should be enough to explain it all
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_(music)


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## kwokboy (Sep 10, 2012)

thanks for reply
i visited that page long age
but seem cant find what i want

heres a page from Kund jeppesen's counterpoint
just to show what i mean by 'melodic shape'
(this book can dl from internet for free & legally of course
=> archive.org)
Eric taylor says in very similar way about that
so i guess there must be some great books about these shapes
ideas ?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Perhaps a general book on the music of the era might be what you're looking for. It's not my specialty, so I really can't help there.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

What you can do is derive the chords from each mode and analyze their qualities as well as improvising modal melodies until you get the 'feel' of each mode. You will find, for example, that the strongest modal progression is by 2nd as oposed to by 4th and by 5th which are the strongest in the common functional tonality system. This is a very nice introduction


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

If what you seek is the profiles of Gregorian chants in the various modes, just pick up the _Liber Usualis_, which sorts them by mode. This contains more or less the entire chant repertoire in modern use. The patterns used for different modes and parts of the mass or offices can be deduced by just singing them.

A good general source on medieval music would help as well. Try Jeremy Yudkin's _Music in Medieval Europe_, which has an anthology integrated within the text. It illustrates all kinds of uses and practices related to the church modes.

I would go to a library to make sure these sources will be helpful before investing.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Hopefully someone here can confirm or deny or clarify this: I believe that in the Medieval era they tuned the fifth perfectly, whereas since the CPP we've tuned the octave perfectly. So their fifths would sound even more consonant than ours. Related to that, whereas we subconsciously organize our modes by octaves, they did so with fifths. Of course they didn't use a very wide range, so that worked for them well.


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