My first interaction with the musical term modes was Leonard Bernstein’s brilliant Young People’s Concert, also called What is a Mode? In that show, Bernstein showed how modes are an essential part of what makes modern music, meaning pop and rock music, tick. This was central to Bernstein’s point during this amazing show, which is available on Youtube, and he punctuated his discussion with multiple examples of pop music from the time that used modes. Today, on this Patreon sponsored episode, I was asked to go through all of the modes and show how they have been used in classical music. Much of my show today is modeled on and takes its inspiration from that Bernstein Young People’s Concert, and I’ll be peppering clips from that show throughout my own exploration. As Bernstein says, the common practice period of classical music, starting with Haydn and ending sometime early in the 20th century, didn’t feature a lot of modal music, though that doesn’t mean it was completely absent. So today I’ll explain what modes are, and we’ll go through each of the so called church modes, explaining their characteristics, and then showing you examples throughout musical history of exactly how these modes were used by the great composers. This show might seem a bit technical, but I think there’s a lot of really interesting and fascinating stuff here, so stick with me, and let’s explore modes together. Join us!
The Music of Film Composers
Janacek Sinfonietta
The Degenerates: Music Suppressed By The Nazis
David Krauss, Principal Trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Beethoven Op. 18 String Quartets, Part 2
Beethoven Op. 18 String Quartets, Part 1
Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1
10 Pieces You've (Probably) Never Heard, But Need to Listen To!
Ives, "Three Places in New England"
Louise Farrenc Symphony No. 3
Saint-Saens, The Carnival Of The Animals
Brahms Symphony No. 4
Mozart, The Music, The Myth, The Legend, w/ Jan Swafford
The Life and Music of George Gershwin
Haydn Symphony No. 94, "Surprise"
Derrick Skye: "Prisms, Cycles, and Leaps" w/ Derrick Skye
The Music of Olivier Messiaen
Dvorak Symphony No. 8
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4, "Italian"
Brahms Piano Quartet in G Minor (+Schoenberg!)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
Immediately Kinfolk
Turned On
Resident by Hernan Cattaneo
Markus Schulz presents Global DJ Broadcast