In this video you can hear me playing an improvisation which I named Cassandra. In Greek mythology, Cassandra is a prophet cursed to never be believed. Apollo was vengeful about her rejection of him after he gave her the ability to see the future, and cursed her to never be taken seriously, as if her prophecies, including her foretelling of the fall of Troy, were the utterances of a madwoman. There is darkness and turbulence in this piece, representing the tragedy of Cassandra’s fate, as well as hints of light, representing her clear perception of the truth. Several interrupted cadences in the music represent the swerve away from the truth that Cassandra is trying to tell — an interrupted cadence is where the ear is deceived into expecting a resolution but instead the harmony takes a different turn.
A mournful resolution at the end feels a bit like the fall of Troy that Cassandra predicted, and the sadness of the belated realisation that her prophecies were right after all.
I started this piece of music in F Dorian, and cycled through both F Dorian and D flat Lydian a few times. The Dorian mode has melancholy in its minor 3rd degree, and a hopeful lift in its major 6th degree. The Lydian mode is brighter and more expansive, but when juxtaposed against the wistfulness of the Dorian mode, I felt it became more bittersweet than cheerful.
Along the way, I moved into the darker F Phrygian and F Dorian sharp 4 modes — with their major quality supertonic chords providing a shaft of light cutting through the prevailing shadow of each of these predominantly minor flavoured modes.
I used a Neapolitan 6th a few times, taking the music into F harmonic minor. A Neapolitan 6th (aka Phrygian II) is a major chord in first inversion built on the flattened supertonic within a minor key. It was found in Baroque and Classical music, then used with even greater dramatic intensity in Romantic era music. It has the darkness of the Phrygian flattened 2nd degree, alongside the brightness of its major quality chord, creating ambiguity. The deceptive brightness is literally rooted in darkness — the root of the major chord is that dark flat 2. These Neapolitan 6ths preceded the aforementioned interrupted cadences, which acted as a pivot back into D flat Lydian — symbolising the idea of Cassandra moving towards the truth, but a distracting and deceptive light keeps pulling the music away from the expected resolution.
At the end, a Neapolitan 6th used for the last time, finally led to a resolution with a perfect cadence in F minor. A perfect cadence is the dominant chord followed by the tonic chord — in this case I specifically used ic—V—I, which was a common way to use a perfect cadence in Baroque, Classical and Romantic music. Learn more about Roman numerals in chord symbols.
Modes/Scales Used, Note Names and Parent Scales
| Mode/Scale | Scale Degree | Parent Scale | Note Names | Modal Relationship |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F Dorian | II | E♭ Major | F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D, E♭ | 2nd Mode |
| D♭ Lydian | IV | A♭ Major | D♭, E, F, G, A♭, B♭, C | 4th Mode |
| F Phrygian | III | D♭ Major | F, G♭, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, E♭ | 3rd Mode |
| F Harmonic Minor | I | F Harmonic Minor | F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, E♮ | Parent / Root |
| F Dorian ♯4 | IV | C Harmonic Minor | F, G, A♭, B, C, D, E♭ | 4th Mode |
Interval Formulas (Structure List)
- F Dorian: 1 — 2 — ♭3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — ♭7
- D♭ Lydian: 1 — 2 — 3 — ♯4 — 5 — 6 — 7
- F Phrygian: 1 — ♭2 — ♭3 — 4 — 5 — ♭6 — ♭7
- F Harmonic Minor: 1 — 2 — ♭3 — 4 — 5 — ♭6 — 7
- F Dorian ♯4: 1 — 2 — ♭3 — ♯4 — 5 — 6 — ♭7
- Neapolitan 6th (in F minor): ♭II6 (G♭ Major chord in first inversion: B♭ — D♭ — G♭)
Further Reading and Listening
Learn more about modes: Complete Guide to Modes of the Major, Melodic Minor, and Harmonic Minor Scales
Where Forget-Me-Nots Grow — Improvisation in D, G & C Aeolian, E♭ Lydian, G Phrygian, G Dorian ♯4
A Small Flame — Improvisation in G Phrygian Dominant, B♭ Lydian & D Aeolian
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