Phrygian mode

noun

Music.

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of Phrygian mode¹

First recorded in 1800–10

Example Sentences

But despite its hints at the shift from modes to keys, Miserere mei is still framed within the medieval Phrygian mode, often noted for its air of melancholy.

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Thus the key of E minor embraces nine notes - E, F#, G, A, B, C, C#, D, D# - and the key of E major adds a tenth note, G#, in contrast to the ecclesiastical Phrygian mode’s modest seven.

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Recurring throughout is an ascending phrase in the Phrygian mode – a scale Vaughan Williams detected repeatedly in English folk music.

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Bach's well-known choral, O Sacred Head now wounded also begins in the Phrygian mode, e.g.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

Phrygian mode, 23; Brahms's use of, 239. pianoforte, the, account of its characteristics, 189-195. plagal cadence, 55. polka, 75, 321. polonaise, 75. polyphonic, 10. polyphonic music, complete account of, 33-49.

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