How are the different modes in modes in music theory used in actual music?

1 comment to How are the different modes in modes in music theory used in actual music?

suhwahaksaeng

June 10th, 2009 at 12:40 am

They are used just like the major and minor scales.
The melody is centered around the first note in the scale, and that tone is usually the last note of the melody.

The main theme from the first movement of the Grieg piano concerto, starting at ms. 6, is sometimes used as an example of the Phrygian mode:

Here is the Tennessee State Song, which is in the Mixolydian mode:
as is the song Old Joe Clark:

Shady Grove does not used the sixth tone of the scale,
so we don’t know whether it is Aeolian or Dorian:

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