# Modal frame

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{{Short description|Recurring pattern of modes or scales that shapes a piece's tonal color}}
{{about|modal frames in music|the concept in [modal logic](/source/modal_logic)|Kripke semantics#Basic definitions}}
{{Redirect|Focus (music)|other uses|Focus (disambiguation)#Music}}

A '''modal frame''' in [music](/source/music)<ref>{{cite book|title=Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music|last=van der Merwe|first=Peter|author-link=Peter van der Merwe (musicologist)|year=1989|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-316121-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/originsofpopular0000vand/page/102 102–103]|url=https://archive.org/details/originsofpopular0000vand/page/102}}</ref> is "a number of types permeating and unifying [African](/source/Music_of_Africa), [European](/source/Music_of_Europe), and [American](/source/Music_of_the_United_States) [song](/source/song)" and [melody](/source/melody).<ref name="Middleton">{{harvnb|van der Merwe|1989}}, quoted in Richard Middleton (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music'', p. 203. Philadelphia: Open University Press. {{ISBN|0-335-15275-9}}.</ref> It may also be called a '''melodic mode.''' "Mode" and "frame" are used interchangeably in this context without reference to scalar or rhythmic modes. Melodic modes define and generate melodies that are not determined by [harmony](/source/harmony), but purely by [melody](/source/melody). A '''note frame,''' is a melodic mode that is [atonic](/source/Atonality) (without a [tonic](/source/tonic_(music))), or has an unstable tonic.

Modal frames may be defined by their:

*'''floor note''': the bottom of the frame, felt to be the lowest note, though isolated notes may go lower,
*'''ceiling note''': the top of the frame,
*'''central note''': the center around which other notes cluster or gravitate,
*'''upper''' or '''lower focus''':<ref>adapted from Ekueme, Lazarus. cited in Middleton (1990), p. 203.</ref> portion of the mode on which the melody temporarily dwells, and can also defined by melody types, such as:
**'''[chant](/source/chant) tunes''': ([Bob Dylan](/source/Bob_Dylan)'s "[Subterranean Homesick Blues](/source/Subterranean_Homesick_Blues)")<ref name="Middleton"/>
**'''axial tunes''': ("A Hard Day's Night", "[Peggy Sue](/source/Peggy_Sue_(song))", [Marvin Gaye](/source/Marvin_Gaye)'s "[Can I Get A Witness](/source/Can_I_Get_a_Witness)", and [Roy Milton](/source/Roy_Milton)'s "[Do the Hucklebuck](/source/The_Hucklebuck)")<ref name="Middleton"/>
**'''oscillating''': ([Rolling Stones](/source/Rolling_Stones)' "[Jumpin' Jack Flash](/source/Jumpin'_Jack_Flash)")<ref name="Middleton"/>
**'''open/closed''': ([Bo Diddley](/source/Bo_Diddley)'s "[Hey Bo Diddley](/source/Hey_Bo_Diddley)")<ref name="Middleton"/>
**'''[terrace](/source/melodic_motion)'''
**'''shout-and-fall'''
**'''ladder of thirds'''

<score sound=1>\relative c'' { \repeat volta 1 {  \time 2/2  \tempo 2 = 60 \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t c2 a ^"↓" c a ^"↓"} } \addlyrics { Chel -- sea Chel -- sea } </score>
"Chel-sea" football crowd [chant](/source/chant): minor third.

Further defined features include:
*'''melodic dissonance''': the quality of a note that is modally unstable and attracted to other more important tones in a non-harmonic way
*'''melodic triad'''{{anchor|Melodic triad}}: arpeggiated triads in a melody. A '''non-harmonic arpeggio''' is most commonly a melodic triad, it is an [arpeggio](/source/arpeggio) the [notes](/source/note_(music)) of which do not appear in the [harmony](/source/harmony) of the [accompaniment](/source/accompaniment).{{sfn|van der Merwe|1989|p=321}}
*[level](/source/level_(music)): a temporary modal frame contrasted with another built on a different [foundation note](/source/foundation_note). A change in levels is called a [shift](/source/level_(music)).
*'''co-tonic''': a melodic tonic different from and as important as the harmonic tonic
*'''secondary tonic''': a melodic tonic different from but subordinate to the harmonic tonic
*'''pendular third''':<ref>adapted from Nketia, J. H. cited in Middleton (1990), p. 203.</ref> alternating notes a third apart, most often a [neutral](/source/neutral_third), see [double tonic](/source/double_tonic)

==Shout-and-fall==
{{anchor|Shout and fall}}

'''Shout-and-fall''' or '''tumbling strain''' is a modal frame, "very common in [Afro-American](/source/Afro-American)-derived styles" and featured in [song](/source/song)s such as "[Shake, Rattle and Roll](/source/Shake%2C_Rattle_and_Roll)" and "[My Generation](/source/My_Generation)".<ref name="Middleton S&f">[Middleton, Richard](/source/Richard_Middleton_(musicologist)) (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music'', {{page needed|date=June 2011}}. Philadelphia: Open University Press. {{ISBN|0-335-15275-9}}.</ref>

"Gesturally, it suggests 'affective outpouring', 'self-offering of the body', 'emptying and relaxation'." The frame may be thought of as a [deep structure](/source/deep_structure) common to the varied surface structures of songs in which it occurs.<ref name="Middleton S&f"/>

[[File:Shout-and-Fall example.PNG|thumb|center|upright=2|Shout-and-fall example.<ref name="Middleton S&f"/>File:Shout-and-Fall example.mid]]

==Ladder of thirds==
[[File:Thirteenth chord inversions.png|thumb|[CM13](/source/Thirteenth_(interval)), [first inversion](/source/first_inversion) = e13({{music|b}}9), [second inversion](/source/second_inversion) = G13... Eventually seven chords along a ladder of thirds.File:Thirteenth chord inversions.mid]]

A '''ladder of thirds''' (coined by [van der Merwe](/source/Peter_van_der_Merwe_(musicologist)) 1989,{{sfn|van der Merwe|1989|pages=120ff}} adapted from [Curt Sachs](/source/Curt_Sachs)) is similar to the [circle of fifths](/source/circle_of_fifths), though a ladder of thirds differs in being composed of thirds, [major](/source/major_third) or [minor](/source/minor_third), and may or may not circle back to its starting note and thus may or may not be an [interval cycle](/source/interval_cycle).

[Triadic chord](/source/Triadic_chord)s may be considered as part of a ladder of thirds.

It is a modal frame found in [Blues](/source/Blues) and [British folk music](/source/Music_of_the_United_Kingdom). Though a [pentatonic](/source/pentatonic) scale is often analyzed as a portion of the circle of fifths, the [blues scale](/source/blues_scale) and [melodies](/source/melody) in that scale come "into being through piling up thirds below and/or above a [tonic](/source/Tonic_(music)) or central note."<ref name="Ladder">[Middleton, Richard](/source/Richard_Middleton_(musicologist)) (1990). ''Studying Popular Music'', p. 203. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-335-15275-9}}.</ref><ref>van der Merwe (1989), p. 125.</ref><ref>Hein, Ethan (2014). "[https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2014/blues-tonality/ Blues tonality]", ''The Ethan Hein Blog''. Accessed: 14 August 2019.</ref>

They are "commonplace in post-rock 'n' roll popular music – and also appear in earlier tunes".<ref name="Ladder"/> Examples include [The Beatles](/source/The_Beatles)' "[A Hard Day's Night](/source/A_Hard_Day's_Night_(song))", [Buddy Holly](/source/Buddy_Holly)'s "[Peggy Sue](/source/Peggy_Sue_(song))" and [The Who](/source/The_Who)'s "[My Generation](/source/My_Generation)", [Ben Harney](/source/Ben_Harney)'s "You've Been A Good Old Wagon" (1895) and [Ben Bernie](/source/Ben_Bernie) et al.'s "[Sweet Georgia Brown](/source/Sweet_Georgia_Brown)" (1925).

===Example===
The modal frame of [The Beatles](/source/The_Beatles)' "[A Hard Day's Night](/source/A_Hard_Day's_Night_(song))" features a ladder of thirds axially centered on G with a ceiling note of B{{music|flat}} and floor note of E[{{music|flat}}] (the low C being a [passing tone](/source/passing_tone)):<ref name="Middleton"/>

{{Image frame|content=<score>
\new PianoStaff <<
  \new Staff \fixed c' {
    \partial 2 r8 g g f |
    g2 4. 8~ | 2 r8 g g f g bes~ 4. g4 f8 | g16( f e8~ 4) r8 e f e | \break
    g2 4. 8~ | 2 r8 g g f g bes~ 4. g4 f8 | g16( f e8~ 4) r8 g g gis | \break
    a aes g f~ 8 aes a ais | b bes a g~ 8 e f e | g( c4.) ees8( f4.) | ees4 r
  }
  \addlyrics {
    It's been a hard day's night and I've been work -- ing like a dog It's been a
    hard day's night I should be sleep -- ing like a log But when I
    get home to you I find the things that you do will make me feel all right
  }
  \new Staff \fixed c' {
    \partial 2 r2 |
    g2 g | g1 | g2 bes | f1 |
    g2 g | g1 | g2 bes | f1 |
    a2 f | b g | g ees | ees
  }
>>
</score>|caption="A Hard Day's Night" modal frame.<ref name="Middleton"/>|align=center}}

According to [Middleton](/source/Richard_Middleton_(musicologist)), the song, "at first glance major-key-with-modal-touches", reveals through its "Line of Latent Mode" "a deep kinship with typical [blues](/source/blues) melodic structures: it is centred on three of the notes of the minor-[pentatonic](/source/pentatonic_scale) mode [on C: C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat] (E{{music|flat}}-G-B{{music|flat}}), with the contradictory major seventh (B{{music|natural}}) set against that. Moreover, the ''shape'' assumed by these notes – the modal ''frame'' – as well as the abstract scale they represent, is revealed, too; and this – an initial, repeated circling round the dominant (G), with an excursion to its minor third (B{{music|flat}}), 'answered' by a fall to the 'symmetrical' minor third of the tonic (E{{music|flat}}) – is a common pattern in blues."<ref>Middleton (1990), p. 201.</ref>

==See also==
*[Melodic motion](/source/Melodic_motion)
*[Tune-family](/source/Tune-family)

==References==
<references/>

{{Melody types}}

Category:Modal frames
Category:Musical techniques
Category:Melody

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Modal frame](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_frame) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_frame?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.