Harmony: Modes

There are twelve notes that divide an octave, say from C to C'. Scales could be constructed from any of these notes. The major, minor, ascending and descending and chromatic scale are examples. On the major scale, there are nuances that occur from where on the scale you start. The minor scale beginning on the sixth degree is a good example. These different sounds have a long history that goes beck through ancient Greek and Roman traditions and probably before that. Names were given to each of these scales or "Modes" and in Medieval times the rules of Melody and harmony were tied somewhat to ideas about how each mode should work. If we use the major scale, that was called "Ionian" in the old parlance. If we began on VI, that was "Aeolian", IV was "Lydian", II, "Dorian", III "Phrygian", etc., of these the one that sounds oddest to modern ears is the one that begins on III. In fact is sounds like Arab music. The names of the modes in fact refer to places in Greece which was where the usage of the modes was formalized. To these we must add the Whole Tone Scale which can be easily made by playing just the black keys on the piano. It sounds like Asian music. It has the interesting property that no combination of its notes in harmony is objectionably dissonant and for that reason is often used in wind chimes which nature plays at random.