Dorian mode

American  

noun

Music.

1. an authentic church mode represented on the white keys of a keyboard instrument by an ascending scale from D to D.

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Example Sentences

We ended with Riley, who used the Dorian mode in “Sun Rings” for out-of-this-world access.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2020

In this case the inspiration for the music wasn’t the wine itself, but rather a Parthenon-style building in the vineyard, which led the composer to use the Greek Dorian mode in his composition.

From BusinessWeek • Jan. 9, 2012

This is an example of Dorian mode in “Scarborough Fair,” an English folk song.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

The boys bore cymbals and tambours; the pipers struck up a brisk marching note in the rugged Dorian mode.

From A Victor of Salamis by Davis, William Stearns

There was little or no classification of tones, and the entire twenty-four letters were applied in regular order to the diatonic series of the Dorian mode.

From A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present by Mathews, W. S. B. (William Smythe Babcock)