Modes according to Milan ??

[John Sheehan]

 I am trying to understand modes in the light of Luis Milans 'El Maestro' and realize it has nothing in common with  the way I learned the  seven 'Modern 'modes in College. Can anyone help me  understand Milans titles to the pieces in El Maestro?

I am trying to understand this Gregorian system of modes and how it relates to Milans music.

I imagine this subject has been pondered somewhere at this site before  but I havent found a discussion of it .

 

[Scot Tremblay]

The Lute Society of America has a simple albeit good program as well.

 

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~lsa/download/FretPlacement2006.xls

[Scot Tremblay]

The human ear (brain) is an amazing organ. It only takes seconds for the internal adjustment to meantone to happen and all will sound normal.

 

[Andrew Hartig]

We have little (or no) evidence of Ren. masters using harmonics. Maybe because they are harder to tease out on a gut string? Besides, getting a harmonic above the 4th fret is no easy task...

 

The suggestion to move the 4th fret toward the nut would flatten it -- in some cases, considerably more so than in ET, in order to bring it more in tune with the pure major 3rd. Consider: An ET maj 3 is 400 cents; a pure 3rd is 386 cents -- a 14 cent difference!  (By comparison, an ET 5th is 700 cents; a pure 5th is 702. Almost no difference.)

[Andrew Hartig]

I could be wrong about gut being harder to produce a harmonic on. What do I know - I'm primarily a cittern player. We don't have record of it discussed though, to my knowledge. Maybe because of the unevenness of gut, harmonics were less dependable?

 

Regardless, I approve of your method. Anything moving toward meantone sounds better than ET, IMO!

[Jelma van Amersfoort]

Hi Andrew, I play romantic guitars with gut strings and producing harmonics is quite easy. Not much softer than on a modern guitar really, depending on the overall sound of the instrument.

And I think Martins fretting method sounds very elegant :-) I'll try that on my baroque guitar!

[Scot Tremblay]

Your transformation has begun...!

[David Tayler]

There is no consensus on modes in the renaissance, that is why you see so many different versions. Each renaissance writer on modes has a different definition. From a technical point of view, in the renaissance only (not middle ages) the mode is basically the final, that is, the final note. To draw a very strange, yet true, analogy, the mode is like the key. A piece in the "key" of G may or may not follow the rules of harmony, nor even begin on a G. But G is usually the final. Different composers treat these rules, or guidelines, quite differently.