The textbook deals with major and minor scales, but glosses over the related concept of mode. Mode is simply the primary quality of a piece, major or minor.

Suppose that you are attending a concert where a violinist is playing two sonatas, one--the program tells you--is a "Sonata in d minor"; the second is a "Sonata in D Major." The letters d tell you that in both sonatas the main note (or tonic, or tonal center) of the works will be the note d. Unless you have perfect pitch, though, you probably won't notice the difference between d and some other note as the tonic. Many fine musicians, in fact, can listen to a work without knowing what letter name the tonic is.

The words major/minor, however, give you some important information. They tell you, in effect, which pitches the composer will be using most frequently. The most structurally important, most stable sections of a work in the major mode will draw primarily on the pitches of the major scale, familiar from the syllables, do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti, do.

The minor mode is less straightforward. Composers tend to do different things depending on the context (the explanation on in the text oversimplies a bit). But one feature identifies, indeed almost defines a piece of music in the minor mode: the third step of the scale is lower than the corresponding note in the major scale.

That important difference, however, can be difficult to hear, and unfortunately, few pieces contain the words major and minor in the title. So for practice, first listen to the six excerpts of example I. They all employ a technique that many composers used: a switch from the major mode to the minor, or vice versa. Some of the examples juxtapose passages from different places in the work based on similar music; others contain a change of mode within a single passage. Identify whether the change is from major to minor or from minor to major.

Listen to the pairs of examples 1a-1e and identify whether the order is major-minor or minor-major

You should now be ready to try some trickier examples. Examples 2a-2d are written entirely in the major or minor mode. Identify which mode. Don't be discouraged if you find this difficult, a lot of students find this to be one of the toughest listening skills to develop; we'll practice more (and I'll give you some tips) in the next class.

Finally, listen again to "Ich grolle nicht," again, thinking about the questions from last time, along with mode: Is the piece in a major or minor key? Does it ever shift from minor to major or vice versa? Remember that some of the listening questions on the first exam will be based on this song.

*End of Listening Assignement #3*

Return to top
Go to Assignment #3 Answers