Modal music

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani approaches modal music through the first meaning of the word "mode": the scale. From this he draws a structural thesis: tonal music is only a particular case of modal music, keeping just one or two of its modes1. He also stresses how widespread it is: in history as in geography, almost all the world's musics are modal2. He describes it as a traditional and "substantialist" music, the oldest and the most widespread on the planet3. To make heard what separates it from Western music, he gives the example of archaic progressions comparable to the trumpet calls in sword-and-sandal films4. He draws from this a remark on modernity: for him, the use of the modal in Debussy or in jazz is an "odd innovation", since it goes back to an earlier stage, that of almost all the musics of the planet5.

1. 1Musicosophie 11. Musiques modales et tonales24 Jan 2021 · 7:34
2. 2Musicosophie 11. Musiques modales et tonales24 Jan 2021 · 32:39
3. 3Musicosophie 11. Musiques modales et tonales24 Jan 2021 · 1:53:13
4. 4De la voix perdue à la voie de la modernité • De la musique modale à la musique tonale • D Pagani23 May 2021 · 7:48
5. 5De la voix perdue à la voie de la modernité • De la musique modale à la musique tonale • D Pagani23 May 2021 · 10:41

Summary produced automatically from 5 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.