Locrian mode

History#

Locrian is the word used to describe an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the three regions of Locris. Although the term occurs in several classical authors on music theory, including Cleonides (as an octave species) and Athenaeus (as an obsolete harmonia), there is no warrant for the modern use of Locrian as equivalent to Glarean’s hyperaeolian mode, in either classical, Renaissance, or later phases of modal theory through the 18th century, or modern scholarship on ancient Greek musical theory and practice. The name first came into use in modal chant theory after the 18th century, The final, as its name implies, is the tone on which the chant eventually settles, and corresponds to the tonic in tonal music. The reciting tone is the tone around which the melody principally centers, the term mediant is named from its position between the final tone and the reciting tone, and the participant is an auxiliary note, generally adjacent to the mediant in authentic modes and, in the plagal forms, coincident with the reciting tone of the corresponding authentic mode.

Modern Locrian#

In modern practice, the Locrian may be considered to be one of the modern minor scales: The natural minor with the step before second and the fifth scale degrees reduced from a tone to a semitone. The Locrian mode may also be considered to be a scale beginning on the seventh scale degree of any Ionian, or modern natural major scale. The Locrian mode has the formula: : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 The chord progression for Locrian starting on B is B, C, D, E, F, G, A. Its tonic chord is a diminished triad (B = B = , in the Locrian mode using the white-key diatonic scale with starting note B, corresponding to a C major scale starting on its 7th tone). This mode’s diminished fifth and the Lydian mode’s augmented fourth are the only modes that contain a tritone as a note in their modal scale.

Use in classical music#

There are brief passages in classical, especially orchestral, works that have been regarded as using the Locrian mode: * Sergei Rachmaninoff (Prelude in B minor, op. 32, no. 10). * Claude Debussy’s Jeux has three extended passages in the Locrian mode. * Paul Hindemith’s “Turandot Scherzo”, the theme of the second movement of Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber (1943) alternates sections in mixolydian and Locrian modes, ending in Locrian. * Benjamin Britten used the Locrian mode for “In Freezing Winter’s Night”, the ninth song in A Ceremony of Carols. * Evan Bennett, an American composer, composed his Gnossienne No. 1 in F Locrian in the Locrian mode, in homage to Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 1 (ca. 1890).

Use in folk and popular music#

The Locrian mode is almost never used in folk or popular music: : “In practical terms it should be said that few rock songs that use modes such as the Phrygian, Lydian, or Locrian actually maintain a harmony rigorously fixed on them. What usually happens is that the scale is harmonized in chords with perfect fifths and the riffs are then played over those chords .” Among the very few instances of folk and popular music in the Locrian mode: * The Locrian is used in Middle Eastern music as maqam Lami. In 24 TET, it is possible to create 12 TET scales, and Lami has the same intervals as Locrian. * Slipknot’s track “Everything Ends” uses an A Locrian scale with the fourth note sometimes flattened. Numerous other tracks by Slipknot use Locrian mode as well such as “The Shape”, “I Am Hated”, “Left Behind”, “New Abortion”, and “Duality”. backed by his concertina. The Locrian mode is not at all traditional in English music, but was used by Kirkpatrick as a musical innovation. * Björk’s “Army of Me” is dominated by a heavy bassline in C Locrian. * The song “Gliese 710” from King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s 2022 album Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava is in Locrian, following the album’s theme of basing each song around one of the Greek modes. * Gojira uses this mode on a few songs such as “From Mars” and “Oroborus”, both use an E Locrian scale. * Locrian mode is used in many places on the album The Last Will and Testament by Opeth.

Further reading#

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