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So, I’ve been working on this book of mine since August of 2021, and I’m basically going over everything that I know about Music Theory as it applies to Classical Music. My audience is for more college level Music Theory and people who can read sheet music, but in case there are those people who don’t know how to read sheet music, I have a Notation section at the start of my book.
These are the sections of my book:
- Notation
- Harmony
- Form
And here are the concepts for the Harmony section, which is what I’m deep into writing at the moment:
- Chord Types
- Non Chord Tones
- Diatonic Voice Leading
- Harmonic Function
- Functional Cycles
- Plagal Function
- Uses of the Submediant
- Cadences and Cadence Evasion
- Chromatic Voice Leading
- Applied Chords to V
- Applied Chords to IV
- Applied Chords to other chords(ii, vi, etc.)
- Neapolitan
- Augmented Sixth Chords
- Common Tone Diminished Sevenths
- Mode Mixture
- Chromatic Mediants
- Modulation(I will go over each subtype, such as Pivot Chord vs Pivot Note, Sequential vs Chain etc.)
- Common Chord Progressions in Classical Music
The concepts that I’ve highlighted in bold are the possible places for me to mention the Parallel Switch. The reason I am asking about this is because I have seen examples that could be argued to be modulation, like in a lot of Beethoven’s works for instance. I mean, would you consider the C major in the recapitulation and coda of the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth to be just mode mixture? I certainly wouldn’t, there’s too much C major for it to just be a case of mode mixture. And I’ve seen other examples where it’s clearly just modal mixture, such as in the Presto of Mozart’s A minor Piano Sonata, which also uses both C major and C minor, but the C minor is so brief as to just be modal mixture within a C major passage that modulates later to E minor.
Both Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Mozart’s A minor Piano Sonata use the parallel relation between C major and C minor. But Beethoven’s use is so much more fleshed out and clearly contrasting than Mozart’s(Beethoven has over 100 bars in both C major and C minor, whereas C minor only shows up for a few bars in the Mozart example). If Parallel Modulation is even a thing, I would say the Beethoven example is Parallel Modulation and the Mozart example is Mode Mixture. Albeit, there’s another instance of what I would consider to be Parallel Modulation in the Mozart example, but that’s between A minor and A major, not C major and C minor.
So anyway, where should I talk about this Parallel Switch in my book? Should I talk about it in the Mode Mixture section along with other things like the borrowed ii halfdim7 from minor in a major key? Or should I talk about it in the Modulation section as it’s own type of modulation? Certainly the examples I immediately think of when I hear Parallel Switch, most of them would be in this category of feeling more like a modulation than simple mode mixture(Beethoven mainly is what comes to mind when I hear Parallel Switch, as it’s so characteristic of his style).
Or should I mention it in both, going over the more brief instances of this switch(like in the Mozart example) in the Mode Mixture section, and the more fleshed out, contrasting, feels like modulation instances(like in Beethoven) in the Modulation Section? Any input on this would be helpful.
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Hi Anna,
This is a difficult question because it’s probably not black or white. Depending on whom you ask the question to, you will probably get different opinions!Let’s first make sure we use the same terminology:
– “Modal mixture” or “chord mixture” consists in borrowing chords from a parallel mode; for example, using a bIII chord in the context of a major key
– “Modal exchange” is the process of switching (more or less) permanently to a parallel mode; for example, leaving C major for C minor and staying in C minor. This is what you call “parallel switch”, I think.One of the reason your question is difficult is because a modulation normally involves a change in tonal center. But in a modal exchange (or parallel switch) the tonal center remains the same. So a modal exchange may not even qualify as a true modulation…
IMHO modal exchange (parallel switch) should be discussed in the section about modulation, not as a modulation per se, but rather as one of the possible ways to modulate to a distant foreign key.
For example: G -> D7 -> G -> Gm -> D7 -> Gm -> D7 -> Gm -> A7 -> Dm (Mozart, Piano Sonata in C Major K.545).
The last Gm chord is a pivot chord functioning as the i chord in Gm and iv chord in Dm. All in all, we have a modulation from G Major to D Minor, a distant foreign key.In the classical era, where modal exchange was usually from Major to Minor, the target key was often (but not always) bIII of the original key. Later, in the romantic era, when modal exchange from Minor to Major was much more frequent, the target key was often (but not always) vi of the original key (again.
From a stylistic standpoint, bear in mind that Mozart and Beethoven are two very different composers. The former is from the Classical era, whereas the latter is usually considered one of the first romantic composers. Therefore, it is not surprising that Mozart uses predominantly chord mixtures whereas Beethoven uses modal exchange extensively.
Later, by the end of the Romantic era, modal ambiguity became a trait of the period (see Wagner).Anyway. This is how I look at it.
But regardless of where you decide to discuss this technique, I wish you all the best with your book!-
I do see what you’re talking about as the parallel key, the modal exchange, being a pivot to target another key, at least in the Classical Era. I however, do not see this kind of chord targeting and pivot in Beethoven, at least not that often. I mean, take Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony First Movement. It never strays that far away from C in the Recapitulation and Coda, it’s just that the mode changes. It goes from C minor to C major at the second theme and stays in C major through to part of the coda. Then there’s this loud diminished chord in the coda that brings it back to C minor to finish the movement. There’s no sort of harmonic targeting that I hear in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, I just hear the modal exchange itself.
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This is exactly why I made that stylistic observation. Maybe I should have made it clearer.
Beethoven indeed primarily used modal exchange without necessarily leaving the minor key. Modal exchange as a device for remote modulation came later in the romantic era.
But I am certainly not a specialist of Beethoven!Another mundane example of modal exchange without real modulation can be found in “La Marseillaise”, the French national anthem, with a dramatic switch from G Minor to G Major for the call to arms (“Aux armes, citoyens!”). The reason I’m quoting this song is because it was composed in 1792 by Rouget de Lisle. Same period as Beethoven, same stylistic techniques.
In fact, there are probably thousands of examples of modal exchange without modulation. The romantic guitarist composer Tárrega used it a lot too.
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Why not simply have it as a subsection in both, with examples given. I don’t think there is a bright line on this. Another example in Mozart is in the second movement of his little C major sonata, K 545.
When you get to Rachmaninov, there is kind of an easy fluidity between parallel major and minor.
For an earlier example, clearly a modulation, there’s probably nothing better than the shift from D minor to major in Bach’s Chaconne.
There are some people who insist on treating every move like this as a modulation — it’s how Rick Beato talks for example. I was taught that it’s not a modulation until there is a feeling of a new home – a new tonal center.
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I see, so I could have examples like the Presto of Mozart’s A minor Sonata and I think K 333 also has it, a brief move to the parallel minor(or one chord really I think in the case of K 333), that are clearly mode mixture because they are too brief to be anything else in the section about Mode Mixture. And then include examples like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony First Movement or the Pathetique Sonata Rondo, where it feels like a modulation, even though the tonic note is the same, in the Modulation section.
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Yes. The idea of course is very similar, and what it is (in my opinion) depends upon what you are going to do with it. From the standpoint of a pure analysis, I don’t think there is a right answer. Beato, who sees everything as modulations, also teaches improvisation through a pure chord/scale theory approach. Using that, it makes sense to think of every minor change as a modulation, since you are switching the scale/mode that you will use on every single chord change.
There are other ways to address improvisation which would make one much more reluctant to call something a modulation. For example, Jimmy Bruno teaches you to learn pitch collections. You improvise around the set of notes that are common for a sequence. Using this idea, its much more likely that you would stay with the same pitch collection, basically, on a brief move from major to minor, but pay attention to the shift with the minor third and possibly the minor seventh.
For a composer, I would also think that the two ideas might have some very different implications.
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… Beato, who sees everything as modulations, also teaches improvisation through a pure chord/scale theory approach. Using that, it makes sense to think of every minor change as a modulation, since you are switching the scale/mode that you will use on every single chord change. …
Again, I think it depends on whether you loose the original tonal center or not; in that respect, the harmonic rhythm plays a very important role. center.
If the harmonic rhythm is fast and the chords are mostly diatonic, the tonal center is firmly established and it doesn’t make sense to view each chord change as a “modulation”.
(If you are interested, I have discussed improvisation strategies in another post called “Scales or arpeggios?”)
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Hi,
I fully agree with Duffy, and I was taught the exact same thing: a modulation is a lasting change in tonal center. If you don’t hear a change in tonal center, then it’s not a modulation.
A modal exchange is therefore not a modulation, no matter how much contrast it brings.But the line is fuzzy.
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This hurts my brain.
Me to that parallel switch just blew my circuitry even the lightbulbs gone
Out🤔🤐
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