Dictionary of Music - Birding America

cimbalom 77church modes A system of scales on which allchurch music and most secular (nonreligious) musicwas based throughout the Middle Ages. These scaleswere supposed to have been based on those used bythe ancient Greeks. However, the medieval theoristsmisunderstood the Greek system, and the churchmodes thus have little in common with those of theGreeks except for their names. Unlike the modernmajor and minor modes, the church modes prescribedpatterns of intervals that made it difficult tomove a melody to different pitches (to accommodatea singer, for example). Until the sixteenth centurythere were eight church modes, each with a range(called AMBITUS) of about one octave. Each modeconsisted of the eight tones of the present C-majorscale. Four of them, called the authentic modes,began and ended on D, E, F, and G, respectively; thisnote, called the final, was the note on whichmelodies in these modes had to end. In the otherfour modes, called the plagal modes, which startedon A, B, C, and D, melodies ended on the note afourth above the starting note, that is, on D, E, F, andG. As can be seen in the accompanying chart (inwhich the final is printed in bold type), the plagaland authentic modes differed from one another onlyin the position of their ambitus; otherwise they wereidentical. (Later writers identified the church modesby Roman numerals, which are also shown in thechart. The underlined note is the tenor of the PSALMTONE for that mode.)In the sixteenth century four more modes wereadded, two authentic modes (the Aeolian modebeginning on A and the Ionian mode beginning onC, identical to the MINOR and MAJOR modes respectively),and two plagal modes (the Hypoaeolianmode beginning on E and the Hypoionian modebeginning on G). There was also a mode based on B,the Locrian mode, but it was not used in compositionbecause the interval between the final and thefifth note was a diminished fifth instead of a perfectfifth, the so-called devil’s tritone, a practice notpermitted.By 1800 the church modes had been whollyreplaced in art music by the major and minor modes(derived from the Ionian and Aeolian modes), butthey reappeared in the nineteenth century whencomposers began to take an interest in various kindsof folk music, much of which is based on scalesother than the present major and minor scales.church sonata Another term for sonata da chiesa(see under SONATA).chyn (chēn) Chinese. Also, ch’in. An ancient,seven-stringed zither of China that dates back atleast two thousand years and is still played today.The chyn consists of a long, narrow, hollow board,over which are stretched a number of strings madeof silk, which are all the same length but vary inthickness. The instrument is held flat, on the groundor in the player’s lap. The player uses the fingers ofthe right hand to pluck the strings, while the lefthand stops (holds down) the single melody string.The stopping positions are marked not by frets as inlutes and guitars but by thirteen small studs (disks)inlaid in the soundboard under the melody string.Music for the chyn is written in a kind of shorthandthat tells the player which string, stopping position,hand, finger, and direction of plucking to employ.cimbalom (chim′bə lom).(see under DULCIMER).fig. 63 p/u from p. 81A kind of dulcimerCHURCH MODESAuthentic modesPlagal modesI. Dorian D E F G a b c d II. Hypodorian A B C D E F G aIII. Phrygian E F G a b c d e IV. Hypophrygian B C D E F G a bV. Lydian F G a b c d e f VI. Hypolydian C D E F G a b cVII. Mixolydian G a b c d e f g VIII. Hypomixolydian D E F G a b c d