The beginnings and development of a New Zealand music: The life ...

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heard from bars 10-15 is the note D with the result that the modal
flavour of this passage ~s dorian. At bar 16 the tonic shifts firmly
to C. No chromatic change is made to the scale notes with the result
that the bars following are based on C major.
Bars 20-4 are based on an A pedal. This shift of tonal centre
from C to A at the end of bar 19 marks a shift in the ordinal index of
mOdality from C major to A aeolian (the relative 'natural' minor of C
major). At bar 21, the appearance of an F-sharp accidental marks a
shift in the lateral index of modality from A aeolian to A dorian.
The A pedal that helped establish the tonal centre of A from bars
20-4 shifts to G at bar 25. As no change is made at this point to the
accidentals (one-sharp) in the texture, this marks a further shift in
the ordinal index of modality, from A dorian to G major.
A tabulation of the harmonic modal content of this introduction
should help to clarify the nature of these shifts within ordinal and
lateral indices:
Table 1: Aotearoa Overture bars 1-25, shifts within indices of modality.
Bars 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 I 1 12
prdinal Index Two-flats ~~ No accidentals
?
Tonic B-flat C D
Mode major Idorian dorian
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
(no accidentals " )
one sharp'
*'
(D) C A G
(dorian) major aeo- dorian ma-
- lian jor
*' *'
+
*'
= shifts within the ordinal index of modality.
+ = shifts within the lateral index of modality.
*+ = simultaneous shift within both the indices: a
'traditional' modulation.
Advocates of the conventional major-minor method of analysis
would insist that, to give but two points of dissension, bars 10-15 are
based on chord ii (specifically II~) of C major, and that the A pedal of
bars 20-4 is firstly (bar 20) based on chord vi of C major, and secondly