How odd that I didn't have a label for "modes" until just now! I recall standing about ten feet away from Richard Taruskin many years ago at the annual American Musicological Society conference (it was in Baltimore that year) when he asked the Russian musicologist who was giving a talk on Tchaikovsky where one of the modes he had just mentioned could be found in the music. The Russian gave a moment's thought and said, "it is in volume two of the collected works, the choral piece such-and-such." Musicologists know all the details! In any case, I forget now exactly what mode that was, but it is certainly the case that Russians use a lot of weird modes not found elsewhere. Let's have a look at them, shall we?
I have mentioned the octatonic scale often enough here. It is a symmetrical scale that comes in two forms, a "minor" one and a "phrygian" one. Those are not the official names, I'm not sure they have official names. But one starts with a tone-semitone repeated, the "minor" form, while the other is reversed, starting with a semitone-tone repeated, hence "phrygian." I just call them that for my own convenience. Here they are:
I think the first time they were actually used in a musical composition was by Franz Liszt, but the scale really found a home with Russian composers, especially Rimsky-Korsakov and his students. In Russia it is known as the "Korsakov scale." Stravinsky used it a lot and so did Shostakovich. Russian musicologists have pointed out that Shostakovich used other modes as well and Russian musical history is particularly rich in weird modes. From the book Shostakovich Studies, p. 91, here are some other Russian modes:
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If the only Tchaikovsky you know is the Piano Concerto No. 1 played by Yuja Wang in an incredibly short skirt, then this piece by Tchaikovsky may surprise you: the Hymn of the Cherubim:
I wouldn't have the pitch sense to know why, but in a naive way I've always been pretty good at sensing "Russian" music even if I haven't heard it before. There is an exoticism I often feel that, in some ways comparable to medieval and arabesque music but different colors, if that's the right term. All of this seems an extension of the fascinating world of tunings and tempraments, and the very real differences in feel they bring.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, Russian music always seems to have an exotic quality to it.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I became interested in Mily Balakirev-- well, because Damian Thompson wrote that 'if the fish [he was given to eat] had perished on a hook, then he wouldn’t touch it but if it had been clubbed on the head, fine.' Someone at the New Criterion, I think, brought it up; that Isaac Sligh, in the occasional notes. Anyway, there appears to be some 'Russian modes' development of some sort or another in Balakirev, Glinka, and that lot, 'the Five', but your post is sufficiently informative for me.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia's version of the fish story-- quoting Rimsky-Korsakov-- is that a fish that died was edible but not one killed for the meal. That doesn't seem to be much calculated to provide the fish course at dinner with any predictability.
Thanks for turning me on to that fascinating Thompson article. Now I have to listen to some Balakirev!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard that Tchai piece. Beautiful. Reminds me a bit of Rachmaninoff's Vespers, a gorgeous work I didn't know existed until a few months ago. Amazing synthesis of Romantic choral music with a kind of Byzantine flavor.
ReplyDeleteSo, which Shostakovich Studies would the scales chart be from? I just noticed there's more than one book with that title.
ReplyDeleteJives, yes I was amazed as well by the Tchaikovsky. Never really thought of him as a choral composer.
ReplyDeleteWenatchee, the book I have is edited by David Fanning and published by Cambridge University Press. What is the other one?
Shostakovich Studies Volume 2 edited by Pauline Faircloughhttps://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-Studies-Cambridge-Composer/dp/0521111188/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Shostakovich+Studies%2C&qid=1603846977&sr=8-1
ReplyDeleteAh, there's a volume 2!
ReplyDeleteI've got just one CD of Byzantine chant but it is very beautiful and maybe is the origin for some of those Russian modes as an early absorption of Greek prior to western European influences. And one other little aside on the exotic oriental sounds in my listening...decades ago I bought an LP from Musical Heritage Society of film music of Ketelby, including something like Scene from a Persian Market etc...and probably again the modes (in this case Middle Eastern) must be how that music instantly takes a listener east. I liked that LP so much I have since found a CD version too.
ReplyDeleteThe rich and complex history of Russia has really fed into the influences on its composers.
ReplyDeleteBryan may have posted on this CD, 'Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia', because it was 'in the news' briefly due to the recording being done in such a way that, according to the producers, it replicates what one might hear in the Great Church itself. I've listened (via the 48/24 bit-- or is it 24/48?-- FLAC option) but alas haven't actually read the booklet which is downloadable at that link in pdf. The Capella Romana was to have performed Tchaikovsky's Liturgy of St John Chrysostom in Portland in March, with over 100 voices, but the plague and Governor Brown scared the chorale away; they ended up livestreaming it themselves (they are 16 voices, I believe). At their site, they have two score or more recordings of chants from the Byzantine liturgies available for free download.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do recall posting something about that project to recreate the acoustic of the Hagia Sofia using computer simulation. It was a couple of years ago, maybe? Thanks for the link, Marc. I don't see any audio files, there, though, just text and notation?
ReplyDeleteI misunderstood, mea culpa: the chant scores are there at the one page on their site. I think one has to buy Lost Voices and the Tchaikovsky: they did the livestream of the latter, and repeated it on a second date, but it's not available online permanently-- they want us to buy their CDs etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd so we should buy their CDs!
ReplyDeleteBut hey, if we have really good sight-singing skills and they put up the scores, we can just read them, right? Plus, they look very pretty.