For this improvisation, I have chosen the title “Anemone.” This felt right to represent a recurrent theme that I ended up using throughout this improvisation — polyrhythms, or cross rhythms (in this case, 6s against 4s), as well as the feel of the combination of modes and textures. The name comes from the Greek word anemos, meaning wind. In many traditions, the anemone is a flower of bittersweet beauty, representing both loss and hope. In Greek myth it is said to have sprung from Aphrodite’s tears shed for the loss of Adonis. In addition, these flowers can symbolize fragility, but also the protection against dark forces and illness: closing up at night or when a storm approaches, only to reopen when it is safe. They also represent anticipation for change, and acceptance of the fleeting nature of so many things in life. My recurring use of 6:4 polyrhythms throughout this piece felt like it reflected the idea of the wind fluttering through the tepals of the anemone flower (tepals are like petals, and anemones often have 6) and the way they don’t move in unison but slightly out of phase; as polyrhythms create a kind of interference pattern. My transitions between unrelated modes with their different colours and shifting brightness felt like the wind changing direction.

I started in B Dorian, first with a simple single-line melody, then with the aforementioned polyrhythms — sextuplet semiquavers in the right hand with standard quaternary semiquavers in the left hand — resulting in 6 against 4. These rhythms were often in the form of arpeggios and broken chords of minor 7th, 11th and add 9 chords. These polyrhythm sections alternated with passages where the quaternary left hand semiquavers continued but the right hand broke from the fast sextuplets to play a simple melody. 

I cycled between this B Dorian idea; a similar texture and feel in G Aeolian (which featured 9th chords as well as add 9 chords and m7 chords); and one occurrence of a section in G major (Ionian), where I played a lot of octave bass notes and four part broken chords with inner voice movement, featuring more add 9 chords. The G major section was the only section where the cross rhythms didn’t occur. 

Modes used

Mode	Notes	Parent scale	Modal origin
B Dorian	B C♯ D E F♯ G♯ A	A major	2nd mode of major
G Aeolian	G A B♭ C D E♭ F	B♭ major	6th mode of major (natural minor)
G Ionian (G major)	G A B C D E F♯	G major	1st mode of major

Interval formulas:

B Dorian: 1 2 ♭3 4 5 6 ♭7

G Aeolian: 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7

G Ionian: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Read more about modes in general here: Complete Guide to Modes of the Major, Melodic Minor, and Harmonic Minor Scales

Listen to more Aeolian mode improvisations

More Dorian mode improvisations

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