Mode (music)

Mode (music), in music, term that varies in meaning from a scale to a scale-based formula for constructing melodies. The eight modes of medieval and Renaissance music (often called church or ecclesiastical modes) were scale patterns that formed the foundations of Gregorian chant. Compositions written in these modes used these scale patterns and also had characteristic dominant and final tones. Except for two modes, known now as the major and minor scales, the church modes fell out of use in cultivated music in the 17th century; closely related scales, however, survived in folk music (see Scale).

Modes also form the basis of most Arabic and Indian music and of other music of the Middle and Far East. There, however, the concept of a mode is more comprehensive than it is in the West, encompassing scale formations, melodic types, and typical figurations.

The term mode also refers to the system of short rhythmic patterns used in 13th-century Western music. These patterns were repeated throughout a composition, the choice of mode being indicated by how the notes were grouped in the notation. The rhythmic modes fell out of use in the 14th century, when less rigid means of notating rhythms were devised. The longer, more complex, repeated rhythm patterns of Arabic and Indian music can also be termed rhythmic modes.