Looking for a book on Composition
  • Moses
    Posts: 12
    I am looking for a book dealing specifically on composition in the Eight Church Modes. I have read Dom Ferretti's "Esthetique Gregorienne" and was very impressed with the material, but unfortunately, he only gives a detailed breakdown and analysis of Mode 1. Are there any books which address all 8 Modes in the same detail as Dom Ferretti does? For my purposes, Saulnier's "The Gregorian Modes" was far too general a survey to aid in composition. I welcome any sugesstions. Thank you.
    Thanked by 4Adam Wood CHGiffen ClemensRomanus E_A_Fulhorst
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    I'd look at books on Renaissance polyphony in general; I'm partial to A. Tillman Merritt's book, because it's an analytic, non-species approach.Peter Schubert is also worthwhile. The problem with all of these books is that they don't tend to focus on individual modes. There are a number of books on modal history and theory (in terms of affects particularly), but they aren't compositionally based. For example, Smith, Anne, 1951- __The performance of 16th-century music : learning from the theorists__ New York : Oxford University Press, c2011. Has valuable information about affect in the modes, from a performer's point of view.


    The problem is that "composition in the 8 modes" is historicist by definition, and historicist composition has always had a bad odor. And I don't know of much material from the common-practice and post-common-practice periods. The late-19th c. French were the ones steeped in this, so perhaps there's something in D'Indy's Cours (only the 1st volume of which has been translated into English, AFAIK.) Post-Renaissance modal writing tends to treat the modes as scales rather than modes, abandoning the species of 4th/5th model, and tend to be flexible with modal mixture and tonicization. I think the main question is, "What are you trying to do, and why?"...then maybe I can find something a little more concrete.
    Thanked by 1Moses
  • Moses
    Posts: 12
    My goal, put simply, is to "compose" stylisticly typical melodies, in each of the 8 ecclesiastical modes, to be used in the eastern rite services, ie Vespers, Matins, Divine Liturgy etc. For the daily services, I would like to use simple, repetitive melodies in the same way as the Russian "Obikhod" melodies are used, i.e. 3 different melodies in each mode - one each for Troparion, Stikheron and the Daily Matins Canon. And, all of this sung in standard vernacular English. I do want the modality of each melody to be strictly following each "theoretical" mode, as I plan to have the chant accompanied by the "ison" or "organum" drone - as Marcel Peres of Ensemble Organum calls it - and wandering modality would ruin the purity of this effect. That's it in a nutshell, Jeffrey. (As you may have guessed, I am Orthodox.)
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    Isn't Orthodox music based on a different set of eight modes than "Western" Gregorian chant?
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    Adam is right, the eight eastern modes are different from those in the west.
  • SamuelDorlaque
    Posts: 318
    You might want to contact J. Michael Thompson. I believe he teaches at an Eastern Rite
    Seminary back east. He has done some very beautiful works in English based on, or at least inspired by. the eastern chants. He would be a great source of information. Years
    ago I heard him lead his Schola of St. Peter's in the Loop in a program of Easter music
    based on Byzantine, Russian & other Slavic chants. It was quite a mystical experience.
    Thanked by 1Charles in CenCA
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Over all, that Schola when in Chicago was the pre-eminent USA Catholic ensemble in the last decade of the century. Also heard them live a couple of times, oh.....
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    JMT, Pittsburgh.
  • Moses
    Posts: 12
    So, lets see if I can be more clear about what I am doing. It is true that the Eight Byzantine Modes are different than the Eight Gregorian Modes. But that is the whole point, I not trying to compose Byzantine or Slavic music, but am trying to compose chant following the Eight Western Modes - the classic medieval Gregorian chant loved by everyone in the West. I am trying to learn and compose strictly in Gregorian, in the Eight Modes of the West, not in the Byzantine Modes. The eastern rite has a liturgical cycle of Eight modes, one for each progressive week. This cycle naturally lends itself to having a different set of eight musical modes applied to it. This is why I need stylistic examples in each of the Eight western modes. I'm not interested in any way whatsoever in Slavic influenced music, apart from notion of the Russian practice of using simple repetitive melodies for the bulk of its music. I want to compose Gregorian music, in English, for use in the Orthodox liturgical year. And, of course, this means a cappella. If J. Michael Thompson composed in Gregorian, then I might be interested in what he has come up with for the eastern rite, but if its just more Byzantine or Slavic music, then that's just precisely what I am trying to get away from.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    If you're looking for examples, get a Graduale.
    Every chant has it's mode noted in Roman Numerals, I - VIII.

    I don't want to be one of those people who responds to a question with an unhelpful side issue, but I can't help but wonder why you want to use Western music in an Eastern Rite. Many of us here are constantly extolling Gregorian Chant within the Roman Rite precisely because it is the music of our heritage and is native to the Rite. I should think that in an Eastern context, it would also be preferable to use the music that is native to that liturgy. Music and words often grew up together in both traditions, and I'm somewhat confused at the desire to mix and match.

    Just curious.
    Thanked by 2E_A_Fulhorst CHGiffen
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