Details concerning the Major and Minor Modes
Introduction
As we have seen in our chapters on tonality, major and minor serve as equal polarities in the world of tonal music. At least, that is my experience. Some say that minor is a distorted, or "turbid" or "artfully contrived" form of the True Tonality, which is major. This school of thought has many adherents. But seen from a global perspective, where so much music tends towards a minor third at at least equal measures to the major third, I tend towards a view that sees major and minor tonalities as in equal balance, one to the other.
The theory of Harmonic Polarity makes this explicit, by positing an ascending series that gives rise to major harmonies, and a descending series that gives riese to minor harmonies. This has been explained on previous pages, both from a practical and a philosophical viewpoint.
It reamins in this chapter to look a little more deeply at how the polarity of major and minor play out in the real-life world of tonal composition.
The Major Scale and the "Three Minor Scales."
Those of you who are instrumentalists have no doubt played various scales on your instrument. If you have a consciencious teacher, you have likely learned to play the major scales, along with their corresponding minor scales. In serious studios, these minor scales are of two types: the so-called harmonic minor scale and the so-called melodic minor scale. Let's look at these in a little more detail.
The major scale and the natural minor scale are related to the major key with its relative minor. Thus C major and A minor share the same key signature, and the natural scale of C major is paired with the natural scale of A minor. This is, of course, analogous to the old modes of Ionian and Aeolian.
Expressed in the key of C, we can speak more directly about C minor as being the parallel minor of C major. Thus the natural scale of C minor uses the key signature of the relative major, in this case Eb major:
This natural minor scale is one of the three minors, but it is more of a modal scale, as it is identical to C aeolian.
The harmonic minor scale is the natural minor scale with its seventh step raised to create the same half-step leading tone that exists in the parallel major scale.
The melodic minor scale reflects the tendency of composers, when they create tonal melodies in the minor mode, to raise the 6th and 7th degrees of the scale when ascending to the tonic, but to lower the 6th and 7th degrees of the scale (that is, return them to their natural state) when the melody descends. Thus the melodic minor scale is different on the ascent than on the descent. This is similar to the function of many Indian ragas, by the way.
(The flats in parenthesis are just to reinforce what is already in the key signature.)
These scales represent procedures that composers used for centuries regarding chords within the minor mode. It's important to emphasize that the compositional practices came first, and the scales were then created to define what composers had long been doing.
Let's investigate.
Harmony in Natural Minor
We have seen that chords in the major mode are established as follows:
Tonic, Subdominant and Dominant are major, Mediant, Submediant and Supertonic are minor and the Leading Tone triad is diminished (and usually forms a part of the complete Dominant Seventh Chord).
The minor mode is the polar opposite of the major mode. In minor, the primary triads i, iv and v are naturally minor (we artificially make the V chord major in order to create the raised leading), while the secondary triads are major, with the addition of the one diminished triad, just as in the major key.
Thus both the major and the natural minor modes have three major triads, three minor triads and one diminished triad. They occur on different steps of the scale, and this is the primary (and extremely important) reason why the two modes sound so different from one another.
In the minor mode, the chords built on the third, sixth and seventh degrees of the scale are all major, and relate directly to the I, IV and V chords of the relative major key. (In C minor, the i chord is c minor and the III chord is Eb major, just as the relative major of C minor is Eb). The chord built on the second degree of the scale is diminished, just as the scale on the seventh degree of the relative major scale is diminished. Here are the same chords, with the labels below referring to the chords in C minor, and the labels above corresponding to the identical chords in Eb major, the relative major of C minor:
Please see this important connection between relative major and minor chords. A great deal about tonal harmony can be understood by simply grasping the implications of this correspondance.
Harmony using the Harmonic Minor Scale
This pictures becomes more complex, and more interesting, when the notes of the harmonic minor scale is introduced.
The harmonic minor scale is so-called for the explicit purpose of intoducing the raised leading tone into the minor mode, allowing for the creation of the same Dominant chord as occurs in the major key: that is, a major triad. Since the F is natural in both modes, the F can be added to the Dominant triad in minor to create the same Dominant Seventh chord as in major.
Thus allows for harmony in a minor key to progress in such a way that we create the same V-I cadence, with the raised leading tone, as in minor.
Please listen to this example to hear clearly the difference between these three cadences! Notice how the last measure begins on C minor but ends on C major. A common occurance at the end of minor music, especially in Baroque practice.
It is important to note that the "harmonic minor scale" is actually the bi-product of the need to create a major chord dominant chord within the minor key. Even in the earliest forms of harmonic thinking, during Renaissance times, the raised leading tone was used to create a cadence in an otherwise minor modality. This is why I call this the "so-called harmonic minor scale." The scale is really just a theoretical way to codify a standard practice: when in the minor mode, raise the leading tone of a dominant chord to create a major chord when resolving back to the harmony of the tonic triad.
The Modal Shift of the Subdominant chord
The melodic minor scale, with its ascending A natural in the key of C minor, exists because of what its name implies: it is a melodic device when a melody moves towards the tonic in a minor key.
But it also implies that the A natural could be used in a harmonic context, allowing the otherwse minor Subdominant triad to appear as a major triad. This is commonplace in the minor tonality. Thus in C minor, you could sometimes have a subdominant minor chord, F-Ab-C, but also a subdominant major chord, F-A-C, with an natural accidental on the A. Here's a short progression in C minor:
In terms of Harmonic Polarity, the reverse is also true. Since we can see the minor subdominant chord as arising from the descending reciprocal series, the minor version of the subdominant chord can equally arise during an otherwise major passage.
Thus the Subdominant chord becomes a harmony well-suited to modal shift The IV chord is normally major in a major key and minor in a minor key, but it can shift to its polar opposite. Consider this harmonic progression:
Listen to the two progressions, played back to back on this sound clip:
The Subdominant/Relative Subdominant seventh chord in minor
As a last point, and perhaps a more complex one, we need to look at the subdominant chord in minor and its relative chord, the ii7. This follows up on the discussion on the previous page regarding the diminished seventh chord.
We have seen that a standard motion in tonal music is for the tonic to swing downward to the subdominant, upwards to the dominant and then back to the tonic. This is the same whether the progression is seen in minor or major.
Another version of this progression subsitutes the ii chord (the Subdominant-Relative or S-R) for the IV chord. Notice that in minor, the ii chord becomes a diminished triad, due to the presence of the Ab in the key of C minor.
Astute observers might point out that the bass line and the soprano line are moving in parallel octaves in the final example. TRUE! Such problems will be fixed when we study chord inversions in the next chapter.
In Jazz and some Classical context, this two chord is given the added seventh, turning it into a ii7 chord. For this example, I have placed the F in the bass instead of the D, but if you look at the treble clef chord, you will notice that it spells out a complete ii7 chord: D-F-A-C.
The difference between these progressions are subtle, but give them a listen. All three are played back to back in this one soundfile.
Notice that in major, the ii7 chord is a minor seventh chord, while in minor, the ii7 chord is a half-diminished seventh chord, or in jazz terms, and "two-seven flat five." Both names refer to the same thing: this is a seventh chord with a minor seventh above the root, but a triad that is diminished ( in other words, in possession of a "flat-five."):
It's a little hard to see with the graphic, but the half diminished seventh chord is traditionally written with the symbol Ø. Thus we'd write iiØ7 for the two half-diminished seventh chord.
The close relationship between these ii chords and the subdominant chord is that in some theory discussions, the ii7 chord is not played with the D in the bass, but is played a subdominant chord, a F chord, with an "added sixth." In this way, the subdominant quality is maintained, and the additional note is an "added tone" to the basic subdominant triad. Note the how measures one and three and measures two and four have the identical notes. The only difference is that the first two chords are spelled as a stack of thirds, whereas the second two chords are spelled as triads with an added sixth. This may seem esoteric now, but it will become important in the next book, as you progess in your study of harmony.
Any way you look at it, this sonority is unique in music due to its quality. In all cases in tonal music, the ii chord or the ii7 chord proceeds to the V chord. If you go far in harmony, you will come to discover that this particular chord, the "half-diminished seventh chord" becomes a magical harmony that found all sorts of new expressions in the music of Wagner, Debussy, Ravel and others. That, of course, much down the road).
Two closing examples of the Major-Minor Polarity (Jazz Standards)
Bringing the world of major and minor together into a single composition was a commonplace activity among jazz composers. Phrases in the relative minor, followed by phrases in the relative major, are common place in jazz standards. A great, condensed example is the standard "Softly, as in a morning sunrise." The A section is in the key of C minor, and is a simple progression of the minor tonic, followed by the relative subdominant (the iiø7 or ii half-diminished seventh chord, followed by the dominant in minor). The B section then jumps up to the relative major and repeats a modified version of the same pattern: Tonic triad, followed by a movement to ii via the dominant of D, followed by a movement to V via the dominant of V. The B section concludes with a jump back to the relative minor by way of its dominant.
This is a lot of words. It's easier if you look at it, and most importantly, listen to it:
Here's me playing it:
Notice that the first part is in C minor, with a clear i, ii, V i progression. The second part, after the repeat, is in Eb major. it starts out ii V I in Eb major, then has a Dominant of the relative Subdominant (V7/ii) before reaching back to C minor through its V7 (the G7). Can you hear this harmonic shift while you listen to it?
Another good example is Autumn Leaves. Notice how the A section begins with a basic movement in major, followed by a similar movement in minor. The Roman numeral analysis shows that the only chord progression is a ii-V-I progression, in the relative major or minor. Study this carefully and listen to the playback. I have simplified the harmony to show the basic movement: it either goes ii-V-I in Eb major or it goes ii-V-i in the relative minor, C minor. The piece ends in C minor. This is a great example of the way music moves between relative majors and minors—a common practice in all tonal music.
Here's me playing it again, with the most basic harmonies:
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