# Pure Aeolian mode / natural minor vs. mixed natural/harmonic/melodic minor



## Dim7

The Battle of the Minors.


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## Mahlerian

They're too young to engage in combat, don't you think?

Aeolian mode with no accidentals even at cadences tends to have a floating quality, more subdued and less dissonant than common practice tonal minor music.


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## Dim7

Can't recall much hearing pure natural minor mode in classical though. Vaughan-Williams perhaps?


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## Mahlerian

Dim7 said:


> Can't recall much hearing pure natural minor mode in classical though. Vaughan-Williams perhaps?


Passages in some 20th century classical music are in pure natural minor, such as the violin cadenza in the opening of Lark Ascending, but it's much more often found in pop/rock music and film/video game scores.


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## isorhythm

Arvo Part has used pure Aeolian pretty often, I think.


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## millionrainbows

The real consequences of these different minor scales is not heard until you build triads on them; then the harmonic flavor really changes noticeably. For example, in A aolean minor (natural minor) the main triads are ace/dfa/egb, all minor triads. With the d dorian scale, we have dfa/Gbd/ace, with IV being a major triad.

I don't think that conceiving of these scales as melodic entities makes as much difference; it's when harmonic factors enter that the differences really become audible.

For example, an improviser playing single notes over a root drone can get away with using a natural 6 or a flatted 6 without it making that much difference to the ear.


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## Pugg

I like neither :tiphat:


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