Mode/Modal

This is quite difficult to explain briefly in a blog post, but here goes...

The majority of Western classical (in the widest sense of the word) since c.1600 and pop music has been based on the MAJOR or MINOR scales that we have looked at throughout the music course. These consist of a set order of TONES and SEMITONES, eg. a major scale is T-T-S-T-T-T-S, and give this music the MAJOR or MINOR tonality that we can identify quite easily.

MODAL scales simply order the notes of the scale differently. Here are two examples (the SEMITONES are indicated by slurs)

Modal music still has a MAJOR or MINOR or feel to it (the Lydian Mode above sounds kind of MAJOR, for example, because all of its INTERVALS are the same as a MAJOR SCALE except for that between the  fourth and fifth notes), but can often seem a bit more like a mixture between the two, and the CADENCES don't sound quite like the ones we have learnt about.

From about 1500, the MAJOR and MINOR scales gradually came to dominate music. PLAINSONG/PLAINCHANT/GREGORIAN CHANT, which originates from before this time is MODAL, as is the majority (but not all) of RENAISSANCE music, and this is where you're most likely to encounter it in your exam. In fact, if you're hearing PLAINSONG or any RENAISSANCE music in a multiple choice question, I would advise you to tick it. Here are some examples:

Beyond classical music, MODAL tonality also features in a lot of FOLK MUSIC from throughout history (tracks 1-5 in the following playlist).

Many classical composers in the early Twentieth Century had a great interest in the FOLK MUSIC of their countries and incorporated folk tunes (tracks 6 & 7) or influences (Tracks 8-10) into their compositions. These compositions often therefore have a MODAL feel to them.

Some JAZZ is also based on MODES and is known as MODAL JAZZ (tracks 11-14). 

Vocal - Mass

The MASS sets the six main sections of the Roman Catholic Liturgy. You must listen out for the keywords which begin each section: Kyrie (this is Greek, incidentally, unlike all the others which are Latin), Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei.

Like the ANTHEM, this is a style of work that we learn about when covering RENAISSANCE music, but it is not an exclusively RENAISSANCE one. 

In this playlist, the Kyrie is from the RENAISSANCE  era, the Gloria BAROQUE, Credo CLASSICAL, Sanctus ROMANTIC, Benedictus C20, with a return to the RENAISSANCE for the Agnus Dei.

Vocal - Anthem

Sung in English, the texts they set are Christian, so you need to be listening for keywords such as "God", "Jesus", "Christ", "Lord", "Angels", "Hosanna", "Heaven" etc.

We cover this style when we're doing RENAISSANCE music, and you're most likely to hear an example from that era in your exam (if you hear one at all). The first four tracks on this playlist are RENAISSANCE, and typically are mostly POLYPHONIC in texture and either A CAPELLA or accompanied by ORGAN.

The ANTHEM is not an exclusively RENAISSANCE form, however, and composers have written them ever since then. An ANTHEM from the 20th Century has featured in the Higher exam at least once over the past few years, so I've included some non-Renaissance ones here.

Track 5 (Hear My Prayer) is by the English BAROQUE composer Henry Purcell, and notable for its highly expressive CHROMATIC, at times DISSONANT, HARMONIES.

Track 6 (God is Gone Up) is by Geral Finzi, and track 7 (Give unto the Lord) by Edward Elgar, both from the early 20th Century.

Coloratura

Somebody asked me about this in class the other day, so here's a reminder....

High, complex solo vocal music featuring scales, trills and other ornaments. Frequently, but not exclusively heard in C19 Italian OPERA. Here are nine ARIAs which feature COLORATURA.

Fugue

There are several concepts associated with Fugue:

Subject - this is the main theme, the first thing you hear played/sung by the first instrument/voice to enter.

Real Answer/Tonal Answer - this is the subject as played by the second instrument/voice to enter, in a related key. If the intervals between the notes are the same, it's a Real Answer, if one or two intervals have to be changed to make it fit, it's a Tonal Answer

Countersubject - after the subject or answer is played, the continuation of that same instrument or voice is called the countersubject.

Episode - a modulating link between entries of the subject, often based on fragments from the subject or Counter subject.

Exposition - the first part of the fugue, in which each of the voice/instrument parts has stated the Subject or Answer once.

Stretto - when each part enters quickly one after the other. Used to add tension/excitement, usually towards the end of the Fugue.