Here is a video of a piece of music I improvised and named Where Dissolved Clouds Merge. It is about the idea of isolated and formless clouds drifting together to coalesce into a larger and more shaped whole. Like how fragmented, scattered musings can start to integrate into a more powerful realisation, given the right atmospheric conditions. The vapour flows freely and the fogginess transforms into a coherent state. The imagery also brings to my mind the idea of a combining of two worlds — the dissolved clouds are like two souls allowing the walls between them to become more permeable or melt away, letting their guards down, and meeting each other in a new space, like different cloud shapes combining their molecules to create a completely new formation. A collaboration of the elements of two souls creating a richer and more meaningful internal sky.
I started this improvisation in D Lydian — the Lydian mode has brightness in its major 3rd and raised 4th degrees, with the raised (or augmented) 4th destabilising the sound, leading to that distinct Lydian character of ethereal floatiness.
Next I moved to D Lydian Augmented, which is even more floaty and unstable due to the addition of a raised (augmented) 5th — which is open-ended and suspended sounding, and this can lend a formless, groundless atmosphere, and sometimes a sense of unease, like the potential of storm clouds.
The sorrowful shade of the B Aeolian mode was like rain clouds which gave way to a brightening in the return of the D Lydian mode, like sun breaking through the cloud.
Then a modulation to E Mixolydian flat 6 brought twilight and bittersweetness in its light major 3rd and shadowy minor 6th.
The A Dorian mode was almost like a mirror image, with its darkened minor 3rd and lifted major 6th, echoing that half-light feel, but in reverse, like changing the perspective and vantage point — first viewing the clouds from below, then from above, with the differing angles of sunlight and shadows that creates.
I then closed the piece with a return to the gravity defying lightness of the D Lydian mode.
Mode Table
| Mode | Note Names | Parent Scale | Modal Relationship |
|---|---|---|---|
| D Lydian | D – E – F♯ – G♯ – A – B – C♯ | A Major | 4th mode of A Major |
| D Lydian Augmented | D – E – F♯ – G♯ – A♯ – B – C♯ | B Melodic Minor | 3rd mode of B Melodic Minor |
| B Aeolian (Natural Minor) | B – C♯ – D – E – F♯ – G – A | D Major | 6th mode of D Major |
| E Mixolydian ♭6 | E – F♯ – G♯ – A – B – C – D | A Melodic Minor | 5th mode of A Melodic Minor |
| A Dorian | A – B – C – D – E – F♯ – G | G Major | 2nd mode of G Major |
Interval Formulas
D Lydian Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – 3 – ♯4 – 5 – 6 – 7
(Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Augmented 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th)
D Lydian Augmented Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – 3 – ♯4 – ♯5 – 6 – 7
(Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Augmented 4th, Augmented 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th)
B Aeolian Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – ♭3 – 4 – 5 – ♭6 – ♭7
(Root, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Minor 6th, Minor 7th)
E Mixolydian ♭6 Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – ♭6 – ♭7
(Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Minor 6th, Minor 7th)
A Dorian Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – ♭3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – ♭7
(Root, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Minor 7th)
Further Reading and Listening
Learn more about modes here: Complete Guide to Modes of the Major, Melodic Minor, and Harmonic Minor Scales
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