What is a Mode?
My first interaction with the musical term modes was Leonard Bernstein\u2019s brilliant Young People\u2019s Concert, also called What is a Mode? In that show, Bernstein showed how\xa0modes are an essential part of what makes modern music, meaning pop and rock music, tick. This was central to Bernstein\u2019s point during this amazing show, which is available on Youtube, and he punctuated his discussion with multiple examples of pop music from the time that used modes. Today, on this Patreon sponsored episode, I was asked to go through all of the modes and show how they have been used in classical music. Much of my show today is modeled on and takes its inspiration from that Bernstein Young People\u2019s Concert, and I\u2019ll be peppering clips from that show throughout my own exploration. As Bernstein says, the common practice period of classical music, starting with Haydn and ending sometime early in the 20th century, didn\u2019t feature a lot of modal music, though that doesn\u2019t mean it was completely absent. So today I\u2019ll explain what modes are, and we\u2019ll go through each of the so called church modes, explaining their characteristics, and then showing you examples throughout musical history of exactly how these modes were used by the great composers. This show might seem a bit technical, but I think there\u2019s a lot of really interesting and fascinating stuff here, so stick with me, and let\u2019s explore modes together. Join us!