Dorian Inversion

So I decided to write my "Shetland Gue Improvisation" in Dorian mode. For no particular reason. D Dorian, which is basically the related minor of C Maj, only with that major sixth.

That is to say, it is the white-note scale (only starting one pitch up). Since my soprano and tenor recorders are pitched in C Maj, I get the D Dorian just by starting on the second hole from the bottom (if you are wondering what the Dorian mode sounds like, think Scarborough Fair). My penny whistles are a little more troublesome. The D whistle starts on that D, but plays in D Maj. My low Bb whistle comes closer; starting from the second hole it plays C (which is in D Dorian), then the D, then...Eb. And there's no fork fingering for E♮ -- it can only be played with the more difficult half-holing.

Things get more intriguing with my two lyres. The Gue should probably be tuned with the melody string on D, being the root of the D Dorian scale. The fourth is strong with this one in the Dorian mode and traditional for the interval to the drone anyhow, bringing it to a G natural. Which, funny thing, is the pitch of my other two recorders, the alto and the sopranino, as members of the recorder family are pitched a fifth apart.

The downside to this idea is that the drone is (sort of by definition) always sounding, so it really should be tuned to the tonic. This is one of the dirty secrets of modes, really all modes (including major and minor). You are playing from the same collection of twelve notes. The only things that define your composition as being a Maj or it's related Minor or some other mode entirely is the relative frequency of major versus minor triads in the harmony and what note the composition ends on (and neither of these are cut-and-dried).

Oh, yes. And because of the design of the Gue, traditional playing style gives you only five scale tones. If you are tuned a fourth up (to the G) the highest you can reach is the root at an octave. There's no way to play the root of a II or III chord. (not to mention that drone D isn't in the II or III triad -- it only shows up in in a II7.)

My 3/4 size Sutton Hoo lyre has only seven strings. Typical is to tune diatonic, say tuning in C Maj but starting up a third. Remember what I said about wanting to be able to play the IV, or or V chord? Well, if the root of the chord is already on the fourth string, you can only play the second degree of the chord before you run out of strings, having to flip around to the first inversion for the top of the triad. If your bottom note is already the third degree of the scale, you can play all the way up to the V chord and still be in root position.

But again that means you can harmonize to a melody in D Dorian but you can't play it: not without jumping the octave for the root, second, and the leading tone below the tonic -- which the C recorders play quite easily, of course.

Yah. Music theory is another one of those places where a seemingly simple set of starting axioms turn out to lead to a giant set of contradictions.