Today is the final lesson in this series on the components of healing music.\u00a0 The component I’ve chosen is similar to yesterday’s lesson on Major and Minor but goes back in time hundreds if not thousands of years!<\/p>\n
In the 800-700’s BC, the music played in ancient Greece was not played in major and minor scales, Greece, Rome and other cities and civilizations used scales that sound very different to our ears.\u00a0 In those times, every physician knew about the healing powers of music and rhythms and instruments and often times a prescription for healing, also had a musical prescription as part of it!<\/p>\n
There are seven basic Greek modes that are easy to hear or play if you have a piano:<\/p>\n
Aeolian is A-A<\/p>\n
Locrian is B-B<\/p>\n
Ionian is C-C<\/p>\n
Dorian is D-D<\/p>\n
Phrygian is E-E<\/p>\n
Lydian is F-F<\/p>\n
Mixolydian is G-G<\/p>\n
Each mode was thought to have specific healing powers and if a person was depressed, for example, the physician might suggest that the listen to a lute for an hour or so in the evening, playing in the Dorian mode.<\/p>\n
Many modern English composers such as Vaughn-Williams, Elgar, Holst and Delius have written beautiful pieces that have a distinctly modal flavor and are exceptionally healing and calming to me. I’ll add a YouTube video of one of my favorites now!<\/p>\n