I'm wading through the stacks of papers, and notes, and pictures, and pamphlets, and business cards…all acquired at Pennsic.
Kind of depressing having no money and not being able to drop $500 on the books I want now. ILL is not quite useful enough. Oh well, it's not like I've exhausted the books I have or finished all the projects I've got materials for.
Had lovely music geekage last night at ensemble.
I got there a bit early, and dumped a pile of questions on Master Octavio, which he seemed to enjoy. Our practice then revolved around one of the topics of my questions, "modes". Which are not "keys". A mode, as I understand it, is a different pattern of scale, as measured in the order of whole steps and half steps from note to note.
For example, a modern C scale goes:
C D E F G A B C, all natural (no sharps or flats). So, looking at a piano, a whole step is one with a black key in the way, and a half has none. So C major goes: whole (C to D)-whole (D to E)-half (E to F)-whole (F to G)-whole (G to A)-whole (A to B) – half (B to C). WWHWWWH.
Dorian is a mode that can be described by a scale that begins and ends at D, and is composed of all naturals. D E F G A B C D. So that's WHWWWHW. You'd think just by looking at the notes, that this should sound the same…it doesn't. "O Come O Come Emmanuel", one of my favorite Advent hymns, and 12thc, is composed in the Dorian mode, ending in D. (That's how they're described, apparently, not as "Key of D" – because that would have sharps, and be modern scale, and go WWHWWWH.)
Apparently there's a bunch of these modes, and they have interesting names. E natural scale describes Frigian, G: Mixalydian. B describes Lochrian, "the devil's mode." Ooooh. I want to learn what goes with where and who.
We all had some fun identifying modes out of a hymnal, and Octavio says he'll have a handout and more about modes for us next week. In the meantime, I need to spend more time practicing recorder for Alle Psallite Cum Luya (a very pretty round), La Tricotea sa Martin, Pase el Agua, and Cantiga de Santa Maria no. 166. I'm very close to being able to really hold down my soprano part for all of these, and thank goodness the damn cough has abated enough to sing a bit.