The Raised Sixth in Minor Tunes
The most commonly remarked difference between traditional singing and the notation of the Sacred Harp books occurs in minor-mode tunes, and involves the so-called "raised sixth."
Here is the relevant background. As taught to beginning musicians, the minor scale is said to take three basic forms, which are as follows.
Natural minor (also called "Aeolian mode")
Harmonic minor
Melodic minor
Most Sacred Harp songs are notated in the natural minor, as given above. However, in Sacred Harp singing, it is common to sing the sixth degree of the minor scale, wherever it may appear, one semitone higher than it is written. In musical terminology, the minor scale that results is called the Dorian mode. In the following notation, the notes that in Sacred Harp are called “raised sixths” are shown in red.
Singing minor-key songs in the Dorian mode instead of the natural minor is felt by some to give the music greater character and strength. The effect is usually subtle, however, because the sixth degree constitutes only a small minority of the notes in a typical minor-key Sacred Harp song. Indeed, some minor-key Sacred Harp songs use a so-called "gapped" scale, in which the sixth degree does not occur at all.
Read more about this topic: Performance Practice Of Sacred Harp Music
Famous quotes containing the words raised, sixth, minor and/or tunes:
“Though God hath raised me high, yet this I count the glory of my crown: that I have reigned with your loves.... And though you have had, and may have, many mightier and wiser princes sitting in this seat; yet you never had, nor shall have any that will love you better.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“The elephant, not only the largest but the most intelligent of animals, provides us with an excellent example. It is faithful and tenderly loving to the female of its choice, mating only every third year and then for no more than five days, and so secretly as never to be seen, until, on the sixth day, it appears and goes at once to wash its whole body in the river, unwilling to return to the herd until thus purified. Such good and modest habits are an example to husband and wife.”
—St. Francis De Sales (1567–1622)
“A child who fears excessive retaliation for even minor offenses will learn very early on that to lie is to protect himself.... If your child intuits that you will react very punitively to his wrongdoing, he may be tempted to lie and may become, as time goes on, a habitual liar.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)
“They sang, but had not human tunes nor words,
Though all was done in common as before;
They had changed their throats and had the throats of birds.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)