# Modes and Classical/Romantic Music



## Majed Al Shamsi

Hello all,

I was wondering if modes were ever used by classical and/or romantic composers. If so, can anyone point to some examples?

Also, is the tonic-dominant relationship preserved in different modes? As in, in the dorian mode of C major, for example, with Dm as the tonic, is Am the new dominant, and does it behave as such?

Thank you.


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## Taggart

Music that uses the Phyrigian mode include Liszt 's Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, Rimsky Korsakov 's Scheherezade, Vaughan Williams 's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and the final aria of Philip Glass 's Satyagraha. 

Music that employs the Lydian mode includes Chopin 's Mazurka No. 15 and the third movement of Ludwig van Beethoven' s String Quartet No. 15 in A minor.

Debussy 's 'The Sunken Cathedral' uses the mixolydian mode.

There are passages in the Locrian mode in works by Rachmaninov , for example the Prelude in B minor, op. 32, no. 10, and in Sibelius 's Symphony no. 4 in A minor. 

As to tonic - dominant  It sort of does and it sort of doesn't. You don't have the standard IV V I pattern because in the dorian mode although the tonic is Dm and the dominant is Am, the sub dominant is G! The lydian is even worse - tonic F dominant C, sub dominant - tritone alert!


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## KenOC

I believe the major and minor are modes as well, both in VERY common use of course. Beethoven used more ancient modes in his Missa Solemnis and Op. 132 string quartet, as Taggart points out...


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## Majed Al Shamsi

Thank you, both. Very informative, and more than enough. :tiphat:


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