A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Æolian Mode
ÆOLIAN MODE. The Æolians, who migrated from Greece to Asia Minor in the 12th century B.C., have the credit of improving the system of the Greek music by the addition of another tetrachord. Very great uncertainty obscures this subject; indeed from the earliest records we can find, it would seem that from time to time the Greek modes experienced those changes, regarded by some as deteriorations, by others (probably) as improvements, to which all living art is necessarily subject. Whether they owed their original impressiveness to the varieties of their intervals, or to some kind of prosodaic time peculiar to each, or to the combination of both, we read the following eulogy on their native energv, and also a lament over their too general neglect, in a quotation cited by Dr. Burney from Heraclides of Pontus, a contemporary of Plato and Aristotle (about 335 B.C.). Describing what he then styled the three most ancient modes, he says, 'the Dorian is grave and magnificent, neither too diffusive, gay, nor varied; but severe and vehement. The Æolian is grand and pompous, though sometimes soothing, as it is used for the breaking of horses, and the reception of guests; and it has likewise an air of simplicity and confidence, suitable to pleasure, love, and good cheer. Lastly, the Ionian is neither brilliant nor effeminate, but rough and austere; with some degree however of elevation, force, and energy. But in these times, since the corruption of manners has subverted everything, the true, original, and specific qualities peculiar to each mode are lost.' (Dissertation on the Music of the Ancients, 4to., p. 60). But there is no doubt that whatever may have been the nature of the Greek modes, we have their counterparts and, as it were, their living descendants in the Ecclesiastical Modes which still bear their names, and are, most likely, if not the same, yet the legitimate inheritors of their peculiar lineaments; nor to fit audience in the present day are they found destitute of their parents' varied and attractive characteristics.
The authentic Æolian mode—or, as it is often called, the Hyper-Æolian—as we now know it, is the ninth of the church modes, scales, or tones, as they are variously called. Its notes range thus—as in the modern minor scale, though without any accidentals in ascending:—
1. The Hyper-Æolian Mode. Authentic.
and its melodies are contained within the octave from A to A. The division of the scale is 'harmonic,' i.e. the diapente (A to E) is below the diatessaron (E to A). Thus the final is A, and the dominant E.
Its plagal mode is called the Hypo-Æolian, and has the 'arithmetical' division, i.e. the diatessaron below the diapente. Here the final is A, and the dominant C:
3. The Hypo-Æolian Mode. Plagal.
with its diatessaron and diapente:—
The melodies in the Hypo-Æolian mode range from the fourth below to the fifth above the final A. The dominant is C in this plagal mode, according to the rule that 'the dominants of the plagal modes are always the third below the dominants of the relative authentic, unless this third happens to be B, when the nearest sound C is substituted for it,' as appears, for example, in the eighth mode.
The pitch of the authentic Æolian scale being higher than is convenient for many voices led to its being often transposed a fifth lower by the use of the B flat. The scale will thus begin on D, and the semitones (as in our modern minor scales) will fall in the same places as before, viz. between the second and third, and fifth and sixth notes of the scale.
In this position the Æolian mode is apt to be confounded with the Dorian, or first mode, with which, when thus transposed, it corresponds, except in the upper tetrachord, the semitone of which in the Dorian mode falls between the sixth and seventh notes of the scale. The transposed final is D, and the dominant A, as in the first mode, but the semitones fall (as in the untransposed position) between the second and third of the scale (E and F), and between the fifth and sixth (A and B♭).
The service-books contain hymns, antiphons, etc., which, though belonging originally to this Æolian mode, are sometimes ascribed to the two Dorian modes; and the scale of the Hypo-Dorian is the same as that of the Hyper-Æolian, but an octave lower, and having of course its own plagal character and treatment, and thus differing from the authentic Hyper-Æolian.
Examples of the Æolian mode may be found in the chorales 'Puer natus in Bethlehem,' No. 12, and 'Herzliebster Jesu,' No. 111, of Bach's '371 Choralgesänge.' The latter is from the St. John Passion. Mozart's Requiem may be said almost to begin and end with the Æolian scale, for the 'Te decet hymnus' and 'Lux Æterna' which form so prominent a feature in the first and last movements are given in the melody of the 'Tonus Peregrinus,' which is founded directly on this scale.
It may be well to state here that from the earliest date of any kind of counterpoint the ancient tones have been harmonised both in the organ accompaniment, and, for some portions of the divine service, in vocal parts; and although, from the vast quantity of Gregorian music used in the antiphonars, psalters, hymnaries, etc., of the Western churches, it is found expedient to use vocal unisons (or octaves) with organ accompaniment in all ordinary services, yet the psalm tones have for centuries been sung in the Sistine Chapel (where there is no organ nor other instrument) with vocal harmonies in three parts, to which Baini added a fourth part for the soprano. Gafforius arranged them in the 15th century, and the style of vocal accompaniment called Faux-Bourdon, in which he set them, had grown up gradually and very generally in the churches, most probably from the first invention and subsequent improvements of the organ. Some intimations of this are contained in the 'Micrologus' of Guido Aretino, written in the latter part of the 11th century.