Mode and Key
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Modality is probably most obvious when you hear a minor- |
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| 0:00 | pp | A melancholy melody in the minor mode. Listen to the first violin above the rustling accompaniment in the lower stringed instruments. |
| 0:47 | The beginning of the melody returns, changed to the major mode. | |
| Listen to more of the Schubert quartet for a change in key: | ||
| 1:04 | ff | Agitated; back in the minor mode. Lower instruments alternate with the solo violin. |
| 1:39 | p | A quiet cadence, still in the same key, but followed by modulation |
| 1:56 | p | Reaching a new key, for a new theme. This theme is in the major mode, calm and sunny. |
| For a series of modulations to several different keys, listen to the passage from Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, the “Emperor” Concerto. Here the key changes stand out clearly because the modulations are carried out so abruptly — a Beethoven specialty. | ||
| 0:00 | Lively music for the piano, f, followed by a f response from the orchestra | |
| 0:28 | Modulation (French horns) | |
| New key: Similar music for piano, but pp, followed by the same orchestral response, f | ||
| 1:03 | Similar modulation (French horns). The music seems to be searching for a place to settle. | |
| Another new key: piano, p, and orchestra, f, as before | ||
| 1:36 | The piano bursts in, f, in the same key but in the minor mode. It begins modulating to further new keys in a more complicated way than before. | |