I chose the title of this improvised piece of music based on the fact that for me the F Lydian sharp 2 mode feels very light and bright, unreal, suspended and enigmatic. Modulating to the very distant and completely unrelated mode B flat Mixolydian felt a bit like being between two realities — a lucid dream where the mind is aware that reality isn’t actually real, everything is a bit surreal, and the shadows don’t quite seem right, and just when you think you’ve grasped hold of something, it drifts away and fragments into the ether. The more grounded Mixolydian mode was like a false awakening, with the modulation back to F Lydian sharp 2 revealing it to be just another layer of the dream. The music stepped outside its own rules by modulating between unrelated keys like this, just like how dreams don’t quite seem to follow the rules of waking life. This idea of the music sidestepping its own rules went one tiny step further with a little chromaticism in the closing few notes of the melody.
The F Lydian sharp 2 mode tends to feel suspended and unresolved, as well as bright due to its strange augmented 2nd (the sharp 2) and Lydian raised 4th. This can feel quite dream-like and floating, with some paradoxical darkness due to that harmonic minor augmented 2nd.
The B flat Mixolydian mode is generally more stable with a hint of softening and melancholy due to its flat 7 (compared with the resolute leading note of the major scale). In this piece of music, the sudden change of colour to the less unreal-sounding Mixolydian mode reminded me of those times when a lucid dream is no longer lucid, and you’re convinced you’ve already woken up, only to find you were actually dreaming. We realise the groundedness of the Mixolydian sound was just a paradoxical trick of unreality when we drift back to the surreal Lydian sharp 2 sound.
Mode Table — Note Names and Parent Scales
| Mode | Notes | Parent Scale | Relationship |
| F Lydian ♯2 | F G♯ A B C D E | A Harmonic Minor | 6th Mode of Minor Scale |
| B♭ Mixolydian | B♭ C D E♭ F G A♭ | E♭ Major | 5th Mode of Major Scale |
Interval Formulas
- F Lydian ♯2: 1 – ♯2 – 3 – ♯4 – 5 – 6 – 7
- B♭ Mixolydian: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – ♭7
- Chromatic Ending: G♯ (♯2) → G♮ (♮2/Non-Scale) → F (Tonic)
Further Reading and Listening
Complete Guide to Modes of the Major, Melodic Minor, and Harmonic Minor Scales
Elegy on a Shore — Improvisation in D & F Phrygian, E♭ Dorian, F Aeolian, A♭ Major, D♭ Lydian
