Re: Unanswered Question #1

"paramucho" <paramucho@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:47ff2872.50288010@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:18:02 GMT, "Steve Latham" <llatham@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>"paramucho" <paramucho@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>news:47fda8d2.38731472@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>> but, interestingly, that's *not* the
>>> equivalent of our current day "minor", which is "moll" in German, but
>>> fits more closely terms "modus major" and "modus minor" in Walther's
>>> Musicalisches Lexicon", published in 1732.
>>
>>And modus minor is modus Dorian?
>
> A rough translation of his definitions:
>
>  Modus major means, 1. following the new modisten-language,
>  a Modum musi*** whose key note has a major third (literally:
>  whose ground note has a sharp or large third).
>
>  Modus minor means, 1. a Modum musi*** whose key note has a
>  minor third.
>
> A separate presentation is given at the end of the article on Modus
> Musi*** where he describes "Modi minorus" and "Modi majoris". He again
> defines them in terms of the minor and major third, but also a table
> which uses a set of conventions used in the period to define essential
> and incidental notes etc. Modi minorus reads:
>
> Finalis: D
> Chordae Essentiales:  D F A
> Chordae Naturales:    C# c# Bb
> Chordae Necessariae:  E G
> Chordae Elegantiores: Eb G# B C
> Chordae Periginis:    F#
> N. Fin.               d
>
> Since "Chordae Essentiales" lists the notes which are *not* part of
> the mode (except in certain cir***stances), modi minorus is neither
> Aeolian nor Dorian, but rather corresponds to the harmonic minor.
> However, there is an extended commentary on the table which I haven't
> even begun to decode.
>
> That said, I'm not sure what your point is.


This is all cool stuff which I find highly interesting, so hopefully you 
will decode the rest and discuss it at some point in the future - I've
found 
that this sort of "transition" material is under-represented in music 
theory.

Did Mozart call it "G Major", or did he call it "G Dorian"? You're
responses 
seem to imply the latter - not him specifically, by "many" people. The 
answer could vary greatly but my point is, I think we, today, are
justified 
in both calling, and conceptualizing the major/minor key music of
composers 
like Mozart as being separate and distinct (but not unevolved from, or 
unrelated to, etc.) from other modal practices.

Steve