Mixolydian mode

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Mixolydian mode on C

The Mixolydian mode is a musical mode or diatonic scale. It has the same series of tones and semitones as the major scale, except the fifth (dominant) note is taken as the tonic or starting (beginning) pitch of the scale. It may also be considered a major scale with the leading tone moved down by a semitone.

The order of tones and semitones in a Mixolydian scale is TTSTTST (T = tone; S = semitone), while the major scale is TTSTTTS. The key signature varies accordingly (it will be the same as that of the major key a fifth below).

Some examples:

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• The G Mixolydian mode (Based on C major - on a piano it is all the white keys from one G to the next. GABCDEFG)
• The C Mixolydian mode (Based on F major. CDEFGAB♭C)
• The D Mixolydian mode (Based on G major. DEF♯GABCD)
• The E Mixolydian mode (Based on A major. EF♯G♯ABC♯DE)

Greek Mixolydian

The idea of a Mixolydian mode comes from the music theory of ancient Greece. The ancient Greek Mixolydian mode was invented by Sappho, the 7th century B.C. poet and musician.^[1] However, what the ancient Greeks thought of as Mixolydian was very different from the modern interpretation of the mode.

In Greek theory, the Mixolydian mode (or tonos) employs a scale (or 'octave species') corresponding to the Greek Hypolydian mode inverted: in its diatonic genus, this is a descending scale from paramese to hypate hypaton: in the diatonic genus, a whole tone (paramese to mese) followed by two conjunct inverted Lydian tetrachords (each being two whole tones followed by a semitone descending). This is the equivalent of playing all the 'white notes' of a piano from B to B, or B | A G F E | (E) D C B. (In the chromatic and enharmonic genera, each tetrachord consists of a minor third plus two semitones, and a major third plus two quarter-tones, respectively).^[2]

Medieval Mixolydian and Hypomixolydian

Medieval European music scholars understood the Greek system of modes through the Latin works of Boethius. However, his work was misinterpreted,^[vague] and the name Mixolydian came to be applied to one of the eight modes of mediaeval church music: the seventh mode. This mode does not run from B to B on white notes, as the Greek mode, but was defined in two ways: as the diatonic octave species from G up one octave to the G above, or as a mode whose final was G and whose ambitus runs from the F below the final to the G above, with possible extensions "by licence" up to A above and even down to E below, and in which the note D (the tenor of the corresponding seventh psalm tone) had an important melodic function.^[3] This misinterpretation led to the current use of the term for the natural scale from G to G.

The seventh mode of western church music is an authentic mode based on and encompassing the natural scale from G to G, with the perfect fifth (the D in a G to G scale) as the dominant, reciting note or tenor.

The plagal eighth mode was termed Hypomixolydian (or "lower Mixolydian") and, like the Mixolydian, was defined in two ways: as the diatonic octave species from D to the D an octave higher, divided at the mode final, G (thus D–E–F–G + G–A–B–C–D); or as a mode with a final of G and an ambitus from C below the final to E above it, in which the note C (the tenor of the corresponding eighth psalm tone) had an important melodic function.^[4]

Notable songs in Mixolydian mode

• Old Joe Clark^[5]
• Dear Prudence^[6]
• She Moved Through the Fair^[7]
• Let It Loose^[8]
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Theme^[9]
• Norwegian Wood by The Beatles^[9]
• The Visitors by ABBA^[9]
• Dark Star by the Grateful Dead^[9]
• China Cat Sunflower by the Grateful Dead^[9]
• The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot^[9]
• Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd^[9]
• Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones^[9]
• Theme from Katamari Damacy^{[citation needed]}
• Drinking in L.A. by Bran Van 3000^{[citation needed]}
• The first half of Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• "Mixolydian scale for guitar". The Guitarist's Online Survival Kit. http://gosk.com/scales/mixolydian-scale-for-guitar.php. Retrieved on June 27, 2008.