Greek Modes as Models
St. Ambrose built scales modeled on the old Greek modes and they were given Greek names, but somehow the names became mixed so that the mode called by Ambrose, Dorian (from D to D on the white keys of the piano) was the Greek Phrygian; and the Phrygian (E to E) of Ambrose was called Dorian by the Greeks; F to F is the Lydian mode; G to G, the Mixolydian. These were the four authentic Ecclesiastical or Church Modes.
St. Ambrose felt it his duty to make over the church music because popular street songs had crept in with the Hebrew Psalms and Greek and Roman chants! It was much the same effect as if you entered a church and heard the organ and choir performing “Yes, We Have No Bananas.” This is a funny comparison because it is said that a part of “Yes, We Have No Bananas” is stolen from Handel’s great “Hallelujah” Chorus from the oratorio The Messiah.
About this time, schools were formed to train singers in these new hymns and church services, and a way to write down the music composed by St. Ambrose and his followers was needed. The Greek letters had been used in Rome, but now a new system called neumes appeared; this word comes from the Greek and means “breath” and the neumes simply marked where one should breathe in chanting the hymns. There were eight signs with Latin names which gave full directions when to raise and lower the voice.
The system of Neumes notation looks like our present day shorthand and was a help, though, should we use it now we would think it anything but a help.
While the Neumes writing showed how to mark the time, it had a serious shortcoming, because it did not outline the melody exactly. It indicated whether the melody rose or fell, but just how much was a question not definitely shown. An unfamiliar chant could not be sung until the notation had been worked out. It took five years for a choir singer to be able to sing the music!
When the singers sang solos, they ornamented the songs and sang anything they pleased! This made variety but it must also have caused much confusion! The people may have learned this ornamental singing of the Arab, from The Gloss. (Page 59.)
The next step was the Gregorian chant which even today is sung in the Roman Catholic Churches.
To the four authentic scales of St. Ambrose, St. Gregory who was Pope from 590 to 604 added four more called plagal. He did not invent these scales but based them on the old Greek and Ambrosian modes. To each authentic scale, he added a plagal scale starting four tones below it, and to the name of the authentic mode is added the prefix hypo.
Each authentic mode and its hypo are related.