Hypolydian mode

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Hypolydian mode on F (only with B instead of the usual B )Play.
The introit Requiem aeternam, from which the Requiem Mass gets its name, is in Hypolydian mode (Mode 6).

The Hypolydian mode, literally meaning "below Lydian", is the common name for the sixth of the eight

plagal counterpart of the authentic fifth mode
.

In medieval theory the Hypolydian mode was described either as (1) the

psalm tone—was regarded as having an important melodic function in this mode. The sequence of intervals was therefore divided by the final into a lower tetrachord of tone-tone-semitone, and an upper pentachord of tone-tone-tone-semitone. However, from as early as the time of Hucbald the Hypolydian mode—even more than the corresponding authentic mode, the Lydian—was characterized by the predominance of B instead of B as the fourth degree above the final.[1]
The melodic centering on F and A, as well as the use of B instead of B, is illustrated in the accompanying example from the Requiem Mass introit, "Requiem aeternam".

Finer distinctions among the scale degree are sometimes made, with the D below the final called the "mediant", the lowest note, C, the "participant" (a tone functioning as an auxiliary to the mediant), the G, B, and B the "conceded modulations" (subsidiary degrees), and the lowest C, the final, F, and (rarely) the D the "absolute initials".[3]

References

  1. ^
    Harold S. Powers
    .
  2. Harold S. Powers
    .
  3. ^ Rockstro, William Smyth. 1880. "Modes, the Ecclesiastical". A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450–1880), by Eminent Writers, English and Foreign, vol. 2, edited by George Grove, 340–43. London: Macmillan and Co. p. 342.
  • .

Further reading