Re: [Harp-L] Why is C not named A?

["mOx" <mox1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If your harp student is still around after all the precedent information,
try the following :

The ancient Greeks are credited with having the earliest form of scales.
These were named after their most important tribes -the Dorian, Phrygian,
Lydian and Myxolydian. They all contained eight notes (including the octave)
which were equivalent to the notes on the white keys of a keyboard, and they
were written in descending order. The Dorian scale descended from E, the
Phrygian from D, the Lydian from C, and the Myxolydian from B.

In the Middle Ages, these scales were adopted by musicians in the Christian
Church. But, for an obscure reason, they introduced various changes: first,
they reversed the order, so that the scales ascended: second, they changed
the notes from which they started; and, third, they substituted the term
"mode" for "scale". This meant that the Greek Dorian scale became the Dorian
Mode and went up from D to D, the Phrygian Mode went up from E to E, the
Lydian Mode went up from F to F, and the Myxolydian Mode went up from G to
G.

Furthermore, the old Greek Lydian scale, which had originally descended from
C, now ascended from C and was renamed the Ionian Mode. And the Greek
Myxolydian scale, which had descended from B, now ascended from B and was
renamed the Locrian Mode. The scale that began on the note A was called the
Aeolian Mode.

This meant that there were now seven modes - one for each of the white
notes.

The characteristic sound of any scale or series of notes is determined by
its step-pattern of tone or semi-tone "intervals". Since each mode has its
own step pattern, each mode has its own sound.

In the Middle Ages. the modal system was the source of melody. However, by
the early sixteenth century, the increasing complexities of "polyphony"
(music containing two or more harmonized melody lines) was leading to the
breakdown of the modal system

By the seventeenth century, a new harmonic language had been developed. The
idea of "tonality" was expanded to include the key system. All music was
written with a "key signature" which identified the tonic (or first) note of
the scale as the "key-center" or "home key". The intervals between notes
were fixed by their distance from the tonic note or key-center.

At the heart of the key system lay the concept of diatonic major and minor
scales.

And this is where the harmonica comes in.

Oh excuse me theres no time left for the lesson.


Hope this helps
Mox

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