Musical Modes?

[oscarr111111]

I also play Electric bass.  On bass I use the musical modes a great deal, for giving my melodies a certain sound, for altering the mood without changing the key and for note choice when supporting a chord progression and soloing.

In my delving into piano though I've found that the modes are very infrequently used, or even mentioned.  Are they really used at all and if so in what way are they used?  If they have any  real application do they exist as a system in their own right (they originated in vocal music that was not performed in a set key as a method of changing the tonal center and mood without changing the key, I think, and have been adapted and categorized for use in modern music) or are they used as a supplementary system to the tonal method.

I've found them very useful to my playing so far but I want to learn to play and understand the music on piano 'correctly' before I add my own slant to it.

[Bob]

I know modes are used a lot in jazz for thinking of chord/scales.

I haven't seen them used much in classical music.  There are pieces in modes - Debussy uses them - but I don't see a big emphasis on them, no where near what jazz does.

[Barbosa-piano]

      Oh yes...
      Just by listening to a little passage of a jazz improvisation by a studied pianist, you can hear all kinds of runs based on these modes- running up and down the keyboard using bebop scales- augmented, major, etc... or a superlocrian form of the major scale...
       
      It's a good tool to have- Yes- Debussy bases his more impressionistic music heavily on the whole-tone scale, and I would also say Lizst uses some modes of the Hungarian Scale in some of the cadenzas of his pieces, and Brahms occasionally adds harmonic passages to his music. Classical music is mostly melodic. Just make some musical analysis and see what you find out- It might be an inspiration.

[mcgillcomposer]

I know modes are used a lot in jazz for thinking of chord/scales.

I haven't seen them used much in classical music.  There are pieces in modes - Debussy uses them - but I don't see a big emphasis on them, no where near what jazz does.

Modes (other than aeolian and ionian) are used everywhere in classical music, especially from the beginning of the romantic period onwards. Example off the top of my head: Chopin (in general)...

[pianistimo]

i thought chopin had 'the aolian harp' as an etude.  you mean, it's not really in the aolian mode?

[mcgillcomposer]

i thought chopin had 'the aolian harp' as an etude.  you mean, it's not really in the aolian mode?

I mean that aeolian and ionian are used ALL the time (major and natural minor), but the use of OTHER modes is also quite common.

[mcgillcomposer]

i thought chopin had 'the aolian harp' as an etude.

In Greek mythology, the aeolian harp is the instrument of Aeolus (god of wind) and is played (you guessed it), not by hands but by the wind. I doubt the name of the piece came from Chopin himself...similar problem with the name Moonlight among others.

[Barbosa-piano]

  The name "Aeolian Harp" was given to this Etude by Schumann, if I'm not mistaken.       Chopin hated when names where given to his pieces.