ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MINOR 215 



o) h) e) 



Major 



a) 





Minor 



This introduction by melody of the products of one 

 mode into the other at once exhibits the union in 

 melody of perfect freedom with perfect adherence to 

 law and order, but in modern music has assumed such 

 proportions and created such an apparent modal 

 muddle that each of the two modes seems well-nigh 

 to have lost its identity. The modal identity is how- 

 ever always asserted and reported by the modal 

 major or minor tonic-consonances. This self-report 

 so obvious and definite in simple homophonic melo- 

 dies is less obvious but not less definite in the com- 

 plex melodies of polyphony and chorded music with 

 their intricate chromatic harmonies and manifold 

 modulations. As we progress in tracing the evolution 

 of melody and the consequent concurrent evolution 

 of tonality and of the tone-system, it will become 

 increasingly clear that our conceptions of mode, 

 tonality and scale or system require considerable 

 modification. In order to maintain our clearness of 

 view as we gradually enter into these apparent com- 

 plexities we will continue to focus our attention upon 

 melody, the voice which has gradually discovered and 

 exploited the wide realm of tones as represented by 

 the enharmonic scale with its boundless potential 

 relations and harmonies, our only source and reporter 



