A modal frame in music is "a number of types permeating and unifying

African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

, and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

song" and

melody A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...

., quoted in Richard Middleton (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music'', p. 203. Philadelphia: Open University Press. . It may also be called a melodic mode. "Mode" and "frame" are used interchangeably in this context without reference to scalar or rhythmic modes. Melodic modes define and generate melodies that are not determined by

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

, but purely by

. A note frame, is a melodic mode that is atonic (without a tonic), or has an unstable tonic. Modal frames may be defined by their: *floor note: the bottom of the frame, felt to be the lowest note, though isolated notes may go lower, *ceiling note: the top of the frame, *central note: the center around which other notes cluster or gravitate, *upper or lower focus: portion of the mode on which the melody temporarily dwells, and can also defined by melody types, such as: **

chant A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes ...

tunes: ( Bob Dylan's " Subterranean Homesick Blues") **axial tunes: ("A Hard Day's Night", "

Peggy Sue "Peggy Sue" is a rock and roll song written by Jerry Allison and Norman Petty, and recorded and released as a single by Buddy Holly on September 20, 1957. The Crickets are not mentioned on label of the single (Coral 9-61885), but band members Jo ...

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

's "

Can I Get A Witness "Can I Get a Witness" is a song composed by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland and produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier as a non-album single for American recording vocalist Marvin Gaye, who issued the record on Motown's Tam ...

", and Roy Milton's " Do the Hucklebuck") **oscillating: (

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

' " Jumpin' Jack Flash") **open/closed: ( Bo Diddley's " Hey Bo Diddley") ** terrace ** shout-and-fall **

ladder of thirds A modal frame in music is "a number of types permeating and unifying African, European, and American song" and melody., quoted in Richard Middleton (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music'', p. 203. Philadelphia: Open University Press. . It may al ...

\relative c'' \addlyrics "Chel-sea" football crowd

: minor third. Further defined features include: *melodic dissonance: the quality of a note that is modally unstable and attracted to other more important tones in a non-harmonic way *melodic triad: arpeggiated triads in a melody. A non-harmonic arpeggio is most commonly a melodic triad, it is an

arpeggio A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

the notes of which do not appear in the

of the

accompaniment Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles ...

. *

level Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights *Spirit level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical *Canal pound or level *Regr ...

: a temporary modal frame contrasted with another built on a different foundation note. A change in levels is called a shift. *co-tonic: a melodic tonic different from and as important as the harmonic tonic *secondary tonic: a melodic tonic different from but subordinate to the harmonic tonic *pendular third: alternating notes a third apart, most often a neutral, see

double tonic A double tonic is a chord progression, melodic motion, or shift of level consisting of a, "regular back-and-forth motion," in melody similar to Bruno Nettl's pendulum type though it uses small intervals, most often a whole tone though may be almost ...

Shout-and-fall

Shout-and-fall or tumbling strain is a modal frame, "very common in Afro-American-derived styles" and featured in songs such as " Shake, Rattle and Roll" and " My Generation". Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music'', . Philadelphia: Open University Press. . "Gesturally, it suggests 'affective outpouring', 'self-offering of the body', 'emptying and relaxation'." The frame may be thought of as a deep structure common to the varied surface structures of songs in which it occurs.

Ladder of thirds

A ladder of thirds (coined by van der Merwe 1989, adapted from Curt Sachs) is similar to the circle of fifths, though a ladder of thirds differs in being composed of thirds,

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

minor Minor may refer to: * Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities. ** A person who has not reached the age of majority * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Music theory *Minor chord ** Barb ...

, and may or may not circle back to its starting note and thus may or may not be an interval cycle. Triadic chords may be considered as part of a ladder of thirds. It is a modal frame found in

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and British folk music. Though a pentatonic scale is often analyzed as a portion of the circle of fifths, the blues scale and melodies in that scale come, "into being through piling up thirds below and/or above a tonic or central note." Middleton, Richard (1990). ''Studying Popular Music'', p. 203. Oxford University Press. . They are "commonplace in post-rock 'n' roll popular music – and also appear in earlier tunes". Examples include The Beatles' " A Hard Day's Night",

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...

's "

" and The Who's " My Generation", Ben Harney's "You've Been A Good Old Wagon" (1895) and Ben Bernie et al.'s " Sweet Georgia Brown" (1925).

Example

The modal frame of The Beatles' " A Hard Day's Night" features a ladder of thirds axially centered on G with a ceiling note of B and floor note of E[] (the low C being a passing tone): According to Richard Middleton (musicologist), Middleton, the song, "at first glance major-key-with-modal-touches", reveals through its "Line of Latent Mode" "a deep kinship with typical

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

melodic structures: it is centred on three of the notes of the minor- pentatonic mode n C: C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat(E-G-B), with the contradictory major seventh (B) set against that. Moreover, the ''shape'' assumed by these notes – the modal ''frame'' – as well as the abstract scale they represent, is revealed, too; and this – an initial, repeated circling round the dominant (G), with an excursion to its minor third (B), 'answered' by a fall to the 'symmetrical' minor third of the tonic (E) – is a common pattern in blues."Middleton (1990), p. 201.

References

{{Melody types Musical techniques Melody

Shout-and-fall

Ladder of thirds

Example

See also

References