Aeolian mode
The
aeolian mode comprises a
musical mode or
diatonic scale.
An aeolian mode formed part of the
music theory of
ancient Greece, based around the relative natural scale in A (that is, the same as playing all the 'white notes' of a piano from A to A). Greek theory called this simple scale the
hypodorian mode, and the aeolian and
locrian modes must have formed different (perhaps
chromatic) variations of this.
The term
aeolian mode fell into disuse in mediaeval Europe, as
church music based itself around eight
musical modes: the relative natural scales in D, E, F and G, each with their
authentic and
plagal counterparts.
In
1547 Heinrich Glarean published his
Dodecachordon. His premise had as its central idea the existence of twelve
diatonic modes rather than eight. It seems that popular
folk music used the additional modes, but they did not form part of the official church repertoire. Glarean added
aeolian as the name of the
new ninth mode: the relative natural mode in A with the
perfect fifth as its dominant,
reciting note or
tenor. The tenth mode, the plagal version of the aeolian mode, Glarean called
hypaeolian ("under aeolian"), based on the same relative scale, but with the
minor third as its tenor, and having a melodic range from a
perfect fourth below the tonic to a
perfect fifth above it.
As
polyphonic music replaced mediaeval
monophonic church music, the
folk modes added by Glarean became the basis of the
minor/
major division of
classical European music: the aeolian mode forming the natural
minor mode.
The aeolian mode consists of the same components as the
major mode with the minor's sixth
scale degree as its tonic. Examples include:
* C Aeolian mode - the E♭ major scale starting on C; the
key signature has three flats.
* G Aeolian mode - the B♭ major scale starting on G; the
key signature has two flats.
* D Aeolian mode - the F major scale starting on D; the
key signature has one flat.
* A Aeolian mode - the C major scale starting on A; the
key signature has no sharps or flats.
* E Aeolian mode - the G major scale starting on E; the
key signature has one sharp.
* B Aeolian mode - the D major scale starting on B; the key signature has two sharps.
* F# Aeolian mode - the A major scale starting on F#; the key signature has three sharps.
* C# Aeolian mode - the E major scale starting on C#; the
key signature has four sharps.
The Aeolian mode's intervallic formula when compared to the major scale consists of flatting the 3rd, 6th, and 7th scale degrees.
Many popular songs, such as the lullaby,
Summertime, from the 1935
Porgy and Bess musical, use the Aeolian mode.
