ECCLESIASTICAL MODES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 548, 23 December 1949, Page 5

ECCLESIASTICAL MODES

Sir,-In your issue of November 18, "Student" of Christchurch takes me to task for grave errors on the subject of _ ecclesiastical modes, and goes on to men-+ \ tion various aspects of microtonal music that I omitted. I am aware of the sixth tone music he mentions, but may I remind "Student," and others who do not find in the Radio Review columns every scrap of information about the subjects mentioned, that these are 500-600-word articles. Some of the topics touched on are only incidental to the main one, and a due sense of proportion has to be observed. I did not, for example, mention at all the pentatonic scale, which is quite important in music, the Scriabin and Arabian scales, etc. As regards the modes, it is unfortunate that "Student" made such positive statements. He could rightly have complained) that I did not ‘state which nomenclature I was using, but again lack of space forced me to take it for granted that those interested would know the position. I deliberately refrained from using the word "ecclesiastical" because, of course, there are two ways of naming the modes, the Greek way and the Ecclesiastical way. Since modes were developed from the Olympian tetrachord, the earliest nomination was the Greek one, which,I preferred to use. The Church later shuffled these names around in several ways, but the statements made in my article were correct according to the clear and definite. Greek usage. I would simply refer "Student" to, the chapter on Scales and Temperament in The Physics of Music, by Alexander Wood, pages 173-176, or any other stand-

ard text book which treats of the whole development of modes, and not merely their ecclesiastical names. .

H. J.

F.

(Wellington).