modes and the arranger

Do you know the difference between a scale and a mode? At least colloquially, we usually call major and minor scales "scales," whereas we call other Western scales "modes." Not very scientific, but that's just how it is. The major scale is, for instance, all the white keys starting from C to the next C. The minor scale is, for instance, all the white keys starting from A to the next A.

Generally, classical music and church hymns and what you might throw in the barrel of "traditional" music is in a scale. Might not be white keys, but it'll all be either major or minor. The thing is that that's relatively recent. In older days — not too long before, say, Bach — you could go from D to D or G to G on all white keys and it sounded just great to their ears. We call them the "modes," and there's a name for each one of them. (Those last two are the Dorian mode and the Mixolydian mode.) Nowadays it sounds great to modern ears, because we can use those modes in jazz or rock and it works. But it most definitely doesn't sound like a classical song or a great old hymn. It sounds older or newer than that.

So, for instance, play a fun game here: take the same passage, and play it in G-major, then play it again in G Mixolydian. The first one sounds just as classical as can be. Mozart or Haydn would just love it. The second sounds like something from the Renaissance Fair. All because of a single dang note!

Crazy, yes?

Anyway, I was thinking about all this when preparing "What Child Is This" for a church service. The melody, "Greensleeves," is one of the oldest we've got. It was all the rage when Shakespeare was writing, which is why his characters get snarky about its popularity. (Some things never change.) So, when played in its natural way, in the Dorian mode, it sounds very Renaissancy. Usually, though, in hymnals, it gets "corrected" to a simple minor scale. The result is that you're used to hearing it both ways, and either way sounds just fine. The only question is which way are you gonna do it this time?

Here's the "fixed," classical way:

Here's the original, Dorian way:

This is where I come in as an arranger. What if you could make everyone sing it one way or the other? Well, you can. Any tune can have any number of different chord structures, different harmonies to surround the melody and give it context. With those harmonies, you can lead people to the next note. Have you ever been in one of those churches where all they give you is words, and you notice that some songs end up being easier to catch on to than others? The arrangements are a big part of it.

Naturally, once I'd formulated that What If, I had only one choice: to do an arrangement that makes people sing it both ways, one right after the other. The melody repeats itself: why not do it once with a C-natural and once with a C-sharp? Better yet, make it so that people don't even know they're doing it.

Here's what I came up with. Try it on someone. It absolutely works, with people who know music and people who don't. I've now done this in 4 different church settings, and never once has anyone — even music geeks — mentioned that we're actually singing the melody differently each time. It just goes down easy.

This, this is why I love music.