The Phrygian mode (pronounced /ˈfrɪdʒiən/) can refer to three different
musical modes: the ancient Greek tonos or harmonia, sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set of
octave species or scales; the medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern conception of the Phrygian mode as a
diatonic scale, based on the latter.
Ancient Greek Phrygian
The octave species (scale) underlying the ancient-Greek Phrygian tonos (in its diatonic
genus) corresponds to the medieval and modern
Dorian mode. The terminology is based on the Elements by
Aristoxenos (fl.
c. 335 BCE), a disciple of
Aristotle. The Phrygian tonos or harmonia is named after the ancient kingdom of
Phrygia in
Anatolia.
In Greek music theory, the harmonia given this name was based on a tonos, in turn based on a scale or
octave species built from a
tetrachord which, in its diatonic genus, consisted of a series of rising intervals of a
whole tone, followed by a
semitone, followed by a whole tone.
In the chromatic genus, this is a
minor third followed by two semitones.
A diatonic-genus octave species built upon D is roughly equivalent to playing all the white notes on a piano keyboard from D to D:
This scale, combined with a set of characteristic melodic behaviours and associated
ethoi, constituted the harmonia which was given the ethnic name "Phrygian", after the "unbounded, ecstatic peoples of the wild, mountainous regions of the Anatolian highlands".[1] This ethnic name was also confusingly applied by theorists such as
Cleonides to one of thirteen chromatic
transposition levels, regardless of the intervallic makeup of the scale.[2]
Since the Renaissance, music theorists have called this same sequence (on a diatonic scale) the "
Dorian" mode, due to a mistake interpreting Greek (it is different from the
Greek mode called "Dorian").
Medieval Phrygian mode
The early
Catholic Church developed a system of eight
musical modes that medieval music scholars gave names drawn from the ones used to describe the ancient Greek harmoniai. The name "Phrygian" was applied to the third of these eight
church modes, the authentic mode on E, described as the diatonic octave extending from E to the E an octave higher and divided at B, therefore beginning with a semitone-tone-tone-tone
pentachord, followed by a semitone-tone-tone
tetrachord:[3]
The
ambitus of this mode extended one tone lower, to D. The sixth degree, C, which is the tenor of the corresponding third psalm tone, was regarded by most theorists as the most important note after the final, though the fifteenth-century theorist Johannes Tinctoris implied that the fourth degree, A, could be so regarded instead.[3]
Placing the two tetrachords together, and the single tone at bottom of the scale produces the
Hypophrygian mode (below Phrygian):
Modern Phrygian mode
In modern western music (from the 18th century onward), the Phrygian mode is related to the modern
natural minor scale, also known as the
Aeolian mode, but with the second scale degree lowered by a semitone, making it a minor second above the tonic, rather than a major second.
The following is the Phrygian mode starting on E, or E Phrygian, with corresponding
tonalscale degrees illustrating how the modern
major mode and
natural minor mode can be altered to produce the Phrygian mode:
E Phrygian
Mode:
E
F
G
A
B
C
D
E
Major:
1
♭2
♭3
4
5
♭6
♭7
1
Minor:
1
♭2
3
4
5
6
7
1
Therefore, the Phrygian mode consists of: root, minor second, minor third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, minor sixth, minor seventh, and octave. Alternatively, it can be written as the pattern
half, whole, whole, whole, half, whole, whole
In contemporary
jazz, the Phrygian mode is used over chords and sonorities built on the mode, such as the sus4(♭9) chord (see
Suspended chord), which is sometimes called a Phrygian suspended chord. For example, a soloist might play an E Phrygian over an Esus4(♭9) chord (E–A–B–D–F).
The Phrygian dominant is also known as the Spanish
gypsy scale, because it resembles the scales found in
flamenco and also the
Berber rhythms;[4] it is the fifth mode of the
harmonic minor scale. Flamenco music uses the Phrygian scale together with a modified scale from the Arab maqām Ḥijāzī[5][6] (like the Phrygian dominant but with a major sixth scale degree),[citation needed] and a bimodal configuration using both major and minor second and third scale degrees.[6]
Examples
Ancient Greek
The
First Delphic Hymn, written in 128 BC by the Athenian composer
Limenius, is in the Phrygian and Hyperphrygian tonoi, with much variation.[8]
The
Seikilos epitaph (1st century AD) is in the Phrygian species (diatonic genus), in the Iastian (or low Phrygian) transposition.[9]
In practical terms it should be said that few rock songs that use modes such as the phrygian, Lydian, or locrian actually maintain a harmony rigorously fixed on them. What usually happens is that the scale is harmonized in [chords with perfect] fifths and the riffs are then played [over] those [chords].[38]
^Benward, Bruce, and Marilyn Nadine Saker. 2009. Music in Theory and Practice: Volume II, eighth edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill. p. 244.
ISBN978-0-07-310188-0.
^Pöhlmann, Egert, and Martin L. West. 2001. Documents of Ancient Greek Music: The Extant Melodies and Fragments, edited and transcribed with commentary by Egert Pöhlmann and Martin L. West. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 73.
ISBN0-19-815223-X.
^Adams, Doug. 2010. The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard Shore's Scores. Van Nuys, California: Carpentier/Alfred Music Publishing. p. 54.
ISBN0-7390-7157-2.
Franklin, Don O. 1996. "Vom alten zum neuen Adam: Phrygischer Kirchenton und moderne Tonalität in J. S. Bachs Kantate 38". In Von Luther zu Bach: Bericht über die Tagung 22.–25. September 1996 in Eisenach, edited by Renate Steiger, 129–144. Internationalen Arbeitsgemeinschaft für theologische Bachforschung (1996): Eisenach. Sinzig: Studio-Verlag.
ISBN3-89564-056-5.
Hewitt, Michael. 2013. Musical Scales of the World. [s.l.]: The Note Tree.
ISBN978-0-9575470-0-1.
Novack, Saul. 1977. "The Significance of the Phrygian Mode in the History of Tonality". Miscellanea Musicologica 9:82–177.
ISSN0076-9355OCLC1758333
Tilton, Mary C. 1989. "The Influence of Psalm Tone and Mode on the Structure of the Phrygian Toccatas of Claudio Merulo". Theoria 4:106–122.
ISSN0040-5817