MUSICAL COMPOSITION

TECHNIQUE 19To the inexperienced listener who does not understandthe modal scales this movement sounds as if itwere written in C major and ended in F (the subdominant).To one who has thoroughly mastered thecharacteristics and nature of modal scales it will soundas if written in F, with the B natural proper to themode, and ending on its correct and satisfying final.A step towards assimilating this very difficult fact maybe made by playing the example given above, first withall the B's flattened, and immediately afterwards as itis written with B natural, clearly remembering thatthe B natural is the fourth degree of the Lydian modeand has nothing to do with the seventh (leading noteto C).Until the student of modal writing can appreciateeach scale for itself, he is not a master of this part ofhis craft. [There can be no better study recommendedin this branch of counterpoint than theMagnificats of Palestrina which are written in all themodes.] As soon as he does appreciate it, he will findthat the weapons of his armoury are multiplied bythree, and that he will have many additional sourcesof diatonic treatment to vary his conceptions beforehe need call upon chromatics. It will teach himto be able to stay in one key without producing a.