Phrygian mode
In modern western music (from the 18th century onward), the Phrygian mode is related to the modern natural minor musical mode, also known as the Aeolian mode: the Phrygian scale differs in its second scale degree, which is a semitone lower than that of the Aeolian.
The following is the Phrygian mode starting on E, or E Phrygian, with corresponding tonal scale 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
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Modern uses of the Phrygian mode
Phrygian dominant
A Phrygian dominant scale is produced by raising the third scale degree of the mode:
E Phrygian dominant 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
The Phrygian dominant is also known as the Spanish gypsy scale, because it resembles the scales found in flamenco music (see Flamenco mode). Flamenco music uses the Phrygian scale, together with a modified scale resembling the Arab maqām Ḥijāzī (like the Phrygian dominant but with a major sixth scale degree), and a bimodal configuration using both major and minor second and third scale degrees (Katz 2001).
The Phrygian Mode in Jazz
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).
Examples
Popular
- Howard Shore, "Prologue" accompanying the opening sequence of LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring film (D. Adams 2010, 54).
Jazz
- "Solea" by Gil Evans (Pelletier-Bacquaert [n.d.]).
External links
Further reading
- Tilton, Mary C. 1989. "The Influence of Psalm Tone and Mode on the Structure of the Phrygian Toccatas of Claudio Merulo". Theoria 4:106–22. ISSN 0040-5817
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