Modal music

Modal music organizes melody and harmony around a mode, a characteristic scale with a tonal center and distinctive patterns. The term covers traditions ranging from medieval European chant to jazz.

Mode (music): A musical framework defined by a scale, tonal center, and characteristic melodic patterns. The mode supplies the scale and tonal behavior that organize modal music.
Major scale: A seven-note scale whose whole- and half-step pattern underlies major-key music. Modal scales are often compared with the major scale from which several can be derived.
Gregorian chant: The Latin liturgical chant tradition of the medieval Western Church. Its melodies were classified by medieval church modes.
Ancient Greek music theory: The study of musical scales, intervals, and tuning in ancient Greek intellectual traditions. European modal terminology draws on Greek theories, though medieval modes developed differently.
Modal jazz: A jazz approach that builds improvisation around modes and sustained harmonic areas. Jazz musicians use modes to shape improvisation without rapid chord changes.
Tonic (music): The tonal center perceived as a piece’s point of stability and return. A mode’s identity depends partly on which note serves as its tonal center.
Minor scale: A family of seven-note scales associated with minor-key tonal music. Modal music may sound minor without following the conventions of minor-key harmony.
Dorian mode: A mode with a minor third and major sixth above its tonal center. It is a widely used mode in both historical repertories and modern modal styles.
Boethius: A late antique Roman philosopher whose writings transmitted Greek music theory to medieval Europe. His account helped shape the medieval reception of Greek musical concepts.
Miles Davis: An American jazz trumpeter and bandleader who reshaped several styles of modern jazz. His album Kind of Blue made modal jazz prominent.

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