Simon Furey wrote:
> 
> > I'm not sure about those, but "Norwegian Wood", certainly makes the most of
> > being mixolydian.
> >
> > Dorothy
> 
> Certainly it's modal, but I make it Dorian. But who am I to carp, having
> just made a fool of myself with my own previous examples??  ;oD
> 
> I think (and someone correct me please if I'm wrong) that if we play these
> various tunes on the white notes of a piano we determine the mode from where
> we end up. So, we end up finishing on D with Norwegian Wood (hence Dorian).

The mode as demonstrated on the white keys are correct; however, it is
not the whole story.  For instance, each mode also has two scales -
tonic to tonic ("authentic") and fifth to fifth ("plagal"); the kind of
music written for each, and the effect, is quite different, particularly
if a note or two is left out (hexatonic or pentatonic, the "gapped"
scales).  In the latter case, the notes used may fit more than one mode,
and which it really is depends on determination of the location of the tonic.

(Played on the white keys) "Norwegian Wood" seems to home on the G
("good"); although it starts and ends on the D, neither of them feels
like the tonic.  HOWEVER, I can't be sure that isn't an artifact of our
preoccupation with major scales (and the fact that they played it in G
major) and unfamiliarity with the sounds of the modes.  If G is the
tonic, it's Myxolidian which simply starts and ends on the fifth - or
more properly Hypomyxolidian, the plagal Myxolidian scale.  If D is the
tonic, it's Dorian.  As I say, I'd vote for the G, but I'm hardly an expert.


> If we do the same with "Please Please Me" we end up on G (hence Mixolydian).

"Please Please Me" on the white keys is in straight C Major.  Feel the
effect of the F chord - it's a IV - and note the finality when it lands
on the C at the end of "Please please me, oh yeah, like I please _you_".
 C is the tonic.

> However, with "Yellow Submarine" we have a gapped scale, so we have two
> possible start (and end) points. We can start on B and end on G (Mixolydian)
> or start on E and end on C (Ionian - or the ordinary major key).

C Major again on the white keys.  It's not gapped; all the notes are
there if you just keep playing and include the band's part.  Feel how it
arrives home on the third "yellow submarine" on C.

In both the latter cases, there's full major chordal accompaniment. 
This isn't possible in normal modal tunes.  Classicists will fit any
chord which doesn't violate the scale; guitarists will use a minor chord
and the major below (e.g. Am and G, Em and D) - neither case is
appropriate; they change the music into something it isn't.  Shady Grove
may sound fine in Am when Chesapeake does it - and it's a gorgeous
version - but you only have to listen to a fiddle and clawhammer banjo
playing the melody, then try to add guitar, to realize that the chords
simply don't belong.  When you put chords to it, it's a different piece
of music; Bronson was absolutely correct when he described the modes as
being resistant to modern concepts of harmony (my paraphrase) and equal temperament.

> Carrying on
> with this we find that "Yesterday" ends on E and is thus Phrygian.

Nope - C major again.  Note that you can't play it on the white keys -
it's full of accidentals.  It starts D to C - and the C has the finality
of the tonic.  Then it goes to an E chord (Bm7 to E7), so you have to
use an F# and a G# to play the next phrase.  It ends on E, but that's
the third, leaving it faintly unresolved for effect.  The starting and
ending notes don't necessarily define the tonic - the final chord is a
better indicator, although it's not always the I.
 
> Whatever, my point is that there are modal tunes to be found in the Beatles'
> music, which I think addresses the original topic of this thread!

The only one so far cited is "Norwegian Wood" - and that's far from
certain.  For Norwegian Wood, they played it in G and used that chord as
a drone (reinforcing the idea that G is the tonic, but maybe that's just
because that's the way I've always heard it), adding an Am7, a C, and a
D7 during various transitions.  In the bridge, they switched to Gm -
again as a drone - and flatted the B to make it work.  In fact, the
difference between a straight G major and the scale they apparently used
is the F natural - which *could* be construed as the standard flatted
7th of the I chord; it might be just a melodic device like the B-flat in
the bridge.

-Don Duncan


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