Tually, we had a test in MDT class today, which I breezed through, so I have more free time than expected.
So, as I was saying, consider the seven modes all starting on the same note (let's go with F) like so:
F lydian is, of course, all white keys starting on F. Notice that, with each successive step downward on the above image, a single note in the scale is flatted. We now have the logical sequence of modes. Lydian is the most major, being the brightest and happiest, Locrian is the most minor, being the darkest and scariest, and the other five lie on a spectrum in between. I will therefore rename each of the modes to reflect this spectrum, like so:
Lydian - Hypermajor
Ionian - Major
Mixolydian - Hypomajor
Dorian - Hypominor
Aeolian - Minor
Phrygian - Hyperminor
Locrian - Diminished
Recall from page 13 of this conversation:
me said:
You also mentioned seeing little numbers used to denote the chords. My guess is you're referring to the figured bass symbols. Roman numerals are used to indicate diatonic triads, (so the first is 1, the second is 2, etc.). Uppercase indicated major, lowercase indicates minor, uppercase with a plus sign indicates augmented, and lowercase with a degree sign indicates diminished. So the figured bass symbols used to indicate the diatonic triads of an Aeolian (minor) scale are: i, iiº, III, iv, v, VI, VII.
By taking this pattern and "rotating" it, we get the other 6 modes:
Ionian: I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viiº
Dorian, i, ii, III, IV, v, viº, VII
Phrygian: i, II, III, iv, vº, VI, vii
Lydian: I, II, iii, ivº, V, vi, vii
Mixolydian: I, ii, iiiº, IV, v, vi, VII
Aeolian: i, iiº, III, iv, v VI, VII
Locrian: iº, II, iii, iv, V, VI, vii
It's getting irritating to have to either open character map or copypasta from a previous post every time I want to type the º symbol, so we're just gonna use a minus sign from now on. Reordering the list I quoted in the new spectrum, with the new names, we have:
Hypermajor: I, II, iii, iv-, V, vi, vii
Major: I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii-
Hypomajor: I, ii, iii-, IV, v, vi, VII
Hypominor: i, ii, III, IV, v, vi-, VII
Minor: i, ii-, III, iv, v, VI, VII
Hyperminor: i, II, III, iv, v-, VI, vii
Diminished: i-, II, iii, iv, V, VI, vii
As the name implies, music written with MIT is not bound to a particular mode at any point in time, since it's mode-independent, but it is still tonal, so it is bound to a particular key at any point in time. For example, rather than saying that a piece is in the key of E-flat major or minor, as you would in MDT, you simply say it's in the key of E-flat (in theory at least - in practice it's often convenient to attach the major or minor label anyway, for reasons I'll mention later). What this means is that, at any point in time, we can choose from any of the seven diatonic triads of any of the seven modes of the key we're in. At first this might lead you to believe we have a palette of 49 chords to choose from, but this is incorrect, as there are many duplicates within the 7x7 grid. To quantify this duplicity, consider the following:
Between any two consecutive modes on the modal spectrum, exactly one note of the scale is changed. For example, between Hypermajor and Major, the 4th scale degree changes (in the key of F, as in the above image, between B-natural and B-flat). Since one scale degree is changed, three of the seven diatonic triads are changed (one which uses the altered scale degree as its root, one which uses it as the 3rd, and one which uses it as the 5th) while the other four remain unchanged. In our example, changing the B-natural in F Hypermajor to the B-flat in F Major changes the B diminished (iv-) to B-flat major (IV), the G major (II) to G minor (ii), and the E minor (vii) to E diminished (vii-). We can continue this process with each other pair of consecutive modes, getting three new chords with each transition. So, to summarize, we start with the 7 diatonic triads of the Hypermajor mode, and then add 3 new triads for each of the 6 transitions, giving a palette with a total of 7+6*3=25 chords, like so:
Hypermajor: I,
II,
iii, iv-,
V, vi,
vii
Major: ii, IV, vii-
Hypomajor: iii-, v, VII
Hypominor: i, III, vi-
Minor: ii-, iv, VI
Hyperminor:
II, v-,
vii
Diminished: i-,
iii,
V
Note that there is nothing magical about Hypermajor that you have to start there. I just chose to start there for convenience. Also, it is a mistake to assume that each of these chords "belongs" to the mode it's listed under, since many chords belong to multiple modes. In fact, if I had started on a different mode, we would still have the same set of 25 chords, but they would be grouped differently.
Each of the above 25 chords is different. However, the way they are currently named, there are four duplicate names (II, iii, V, and vii, shown in bold). To resolve this, we'll keep the four on the major end of the spectrum named the same, and change the names of their four counterparts on the minor end of the spectrum. As it happens, MDT has already given us a name for the II chord: Neapolitan (we'll abbreviate this as "Npl"). In continuing this pattern, I've decided to name the vii, V, and iii chords Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry, respectively (abbreviated "Vnl", "Chc", and "Str").
So, to summarize, we have major, minor, and diminished variants of chords with roots on each of the seven scale degrees, giving us 21 chords, plus the 4 ice cream chords, for a total of 25 chords in our palette.
I think that's enough for now.
". In MIT, on the other hand, one can simply drift freely between each of the seven modes without it being a big deal.