On Miles and The Modes

On Miles and the Modes
Author(s): William Thomson

Source: College Music Symposium, Vol. 38 (1998), pp. 17-32
Published by: College Music Society
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On Miles and the Modes
William Thomson
with conviction about the musical substance of times long past is not easy.
Speculating about how that music may have been experienced by its contemporaries
is even more difficult, and thus musicology's most astute figures have warned repeatedly
of imposing our own cultural biases on to artifacts of earlier eras, other cultures, even
with the best of intentions. Theorizing about matters left unexplained (or even unmen-
tioned) by contemporaneous observers is at best risky, at worst fatuous. In this sense,
even our West-European musical heritage is a foreign country, a body of artifacts whose
remote ethnicity defies our understanding them as natives. Historians Leo Treitler1 and
Frederick Bashour,2 and historian-theorist Carl Dahlhaus3 are but three of many promi-
nent scholars who have insisted that after-the-fact theories of remote musics are high-
risk ventures. When those theories lack corroboration in the conceptual underpinnings
provided by concurrent writers they play dubious (if not damaging) roles in our struggle
to understand. The larger ontological/historical issue, as it pertains to music, has been
argued in some depth from several perspectives.4
That Dahlhaus-Bashour-Treitler reading of history does not take kindly to theory
makers who find modern wines in ancient vessels (nor vice-versa, for that matter). For
example, those who detect deposits of such things as major or minor scales or major
triads, in music vinted before their time, are prisoners of the worst strain of stylistic
myopia. The formulation is simple: If it wasn't conceptualized, the story goes, then
nobody perceived it.5
Speaking directly to that issue, historian Thomas Christensen warns against infer-
ences of "tonal traces" in "pre-tonal musics." We risk "projecting our own culturally
biased conceptions of tonality - however defined - upon a repertoire for which it has no
conceptual basis."6 And he sharpens that general warning three pages later in a passage
that speaks directly to the condition of tonality in earlier music. Music theorists risk
anachronism when they interpret earlier musics by norms consolidated much later.
'"Music Analysis in an Historical Context," CMS Symposium 6 (1966), 75-88.

Treitler's main concern is with later writers who, like Heinrich Besseler, find tonality, even a very "basic form" of it, in the
music of a composer such as Dufay.
2 Frederick Bashour, "Toward a More Rigorous Methodology for the Analysis of the Pre-Tonal Repertory," CMS
Symposium 19 (1979): 140-53. He argues (especially 141-43) the determining role of normative tonal relationships, as they
can be inferred today, experiential expectations grounded in the auditor's culture.
Mn Studies on the Origin of Harmonic Tonality, trans. Robert O. Gjerdingen (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1990). A sample of Dahlhaus's inflexibility on similar issues is his refusal to recognize what he calls "harmonic tonality"
in music that doesn't conform to his definition of Riemannian functional ism.
4For instance, Naomi Cumming, "Musical Analysis and the Perceiver: A Perspective from Func-tionalist Philoso-
phy," Current Musicology 54 (1993), 38-53; the exchanges of Paul M. Churchland and Jerry A. Fodor, brilliantly reported
in Mark Debellis in "Is There an Observation/Theory Distinction in Music?" in Current Musicology 55 (1993): 56-87; and
Peter Schubert's "Authentic Analysis ? The Journal of Musicolosy 12 (1994), 3-18.
5Or what I prefer to call the "No-Concept/No-Percept fallacy. "
flIn his reviews of Carl Dahlhaus's Studies in the Origin of Harmonic Tonality and Joel Lester's Between Mode and
Key,94.
1 8 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM
It is a kind of "geneticist" fallacy to pull out of

composition or theory text and posit them as to
they may empirically correspond to features that
interpreted as clear tonal signs.7
Suspicions of culpability aren't even confined to

sion find incriminating evidence even in the wri
finds cause to censure Pietro Aaron, for example
scheme onto music that had not necessarily been
mind."8
Professor Christensen is right, of course. One
care. The brand most favored by influential historia
from descriptions formulated during the milieu of t
in this epistemological bias is not hard to find, t
earlier music. Patricia Clark reaffirms it when sh
tonal wherewithal of a Dufay motet. In her judgmen
The basic principles of structure in this music,

which it is elaborated, can best be understood .
concepts of the time in which it was composed.9
And historian Leeman Perkins struggled to curb a

cades ago, saying that
... a few cautious voices have raised question

analytical method that could apply to the compo
cepts and standards that came to be formulate
centuries . . . 10
The operational norms of modern musicology corr

conclusion Professor Perkins draws from these conce
is to assess any work of art "against the intellectual
sprung."11 And this phrase flashes with the unall
first thought, at least.
Let us grant that the fear of imposing flawed
prudent. Peerless reasoning is mere sophistry wh
same time, however, we must note that such a hard
exclusivity voiced on its behalf, comes at a high pric
tially true inference with a void of arid nominalism.
7Ibid.
8Dolores Pesce, The Affinities and Medieval Transposition (Bloomineton: Indiana University Press. 1987V 115
9Patricia Carpenter, "Tonal Coherence in a Motet of Dufav " Journal ofMusir Then™ 1 7 n o/n\ £?
10In"ModesandStructureintheMusicofJosauin.".//4A/4S'26n973V 189-239: 189
"Ibid., 191.
ON MILES AND THE MODES 19
sor Christensen seems to be saying are dubious a

that meaningful perception demands an establish
"empirical correspondences" are automatically nul
ries no confirming verbal report.12
My interest of the moment is much narrower in
vast can of epistemic worms. It has to do more w
might (or might not) stack up against stated int
question is a simple one: How much stock may on
of musical events, especially when they appear to
dence? And related but separate: What do we actu
between a creator's professed conceptualizations a
that composers (or theorists) of remote eras were
influences on the compositional choices of the day?
thoroughly and with precision the background aural
motion? Would it not also be prudent to recall L
effect that we often overlook the most obvious feat
are so much a part of our conventional understan
Perhaps those who vouch for ultimate authority
verity and thoroughness, on the part of those repor
It's a truism of life that our revealed best intenti
arejiot always realized in quite the way our reports
one of human veracity as it is knowing with clarity
the creation of music as it is in any other hum
believe that our ancestors could have been as rem
tions of conditions, causes, and effects as we are
after-the-fact; it's our good fortune that we can
conceptualizations and actualizations; we can bear
tions with artifactual result.
Provocative comparisons of conceptualization a
own musical milieu. This is especially true in claims
basis for the creations of some of our revered jaz
both acclaim today that this resource has flourish
invigorating new raw material of jazz compositio
edge there has been no critical study of the musi
shed light on this matter of intent and result, conc
There are several reasons to be tentative in ac
l2Briefly, as for the first, we perceive and feel some of the

another, for one) before the flimsiest conceptual underpinning
dismissive of the epistemology of empiricism to deserve our att
ages.
I3I can't find the original source. Oliver Sacks quotes it (without
Hat (New York: Simon & Schuster. 1 970). 42.
l4To my knowledge, the earliest formal incursion of modal conce
The Lydian Chromatic (Cambridge, MA: Concept Publishing, 195
Prentice-Hall, 1972) contains an authoritative discussion of modes
general as well as artists' productions, as we shall note presently.
20 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM
made for jazz. One reason is that widespread co

cians about just what modes are, in what respect
the major scaled And if a musician has no firm
from the non-modal (say the major/minor of
thing meaningful to result? But that easy con
jazz musicians, as a class, have as firm a purc
making, as did their medieval counterparts. Pe
much of the pitch-hierarchic conditions that,
cies and cadence preferences guided their musi
Whatever our sense of those questions - ev
proof of the pudding resides not in the alleged co
product reveals, how that may tally with alleg
whether other descriptive paradigms can descr
After all, a composer might sincerely claim last w
rhythmic decisions made for a piece. But whethe
dently discoverable in the sonic result must rema
ago,16 creative ideations (how it was done) are
(what it is) quite another. Claims of modal inco
turn out to be little more than composerly shopt
light on this question that otherwise goes unaske
And this, at long last, is where the music of M
THE MILES DAVIS QUINTET: KIN
The late Miles Davis is frequently mentioned as

in his music. One of the revered of modern jazz,
commentaries about it, made by him and his f
today. His much-heralded quintet album of 195
compositions based on the modes, so it provides a
play with Davis on that recording, Bill Evans, Joh
well known for their infusions of modality in th
For the first track of that album, So What, jaz
the conventional AABA pop-tune phrase layo
monic basis. He then explains the unconvention
The players are assigned only the notes of
15To this day, I hear mature musicians define Dorian mod

"5 up to 5," and so on. Most of the successful jazz colleagues
of pre- and post-Glarean distinctions of modes: A mode'
Listening to Jazz (Prentic-Hall, 1978) contains the followi
modal tunes, structured like a major scale that has been
example, a 'D' dorian scale uses the notes of a 'C major sc
l6In a well-known letter to violinist Rudolf Kolisch, dated July
t7ColumbiaLP 1355 and the later CD, CK 40579.
ON MILES AND THE MODES 2 1
piano scale D to D) as melodic and harmonic ma

(the same scale a half step up).18
Although Williams is clearly misguided about the

and Phrygian modes, his description nonetheless
"playing in the modes." It also corresponds with
What in his 1978 primer, Jazz Styles}9 Gridley's
pitch basis incorporates some of the conventions
and i*>minor seventh chords) to augment the les
to have been paramount in the work's creation.20
8 bars 8 bars 8 bars
Dml - 3m - Dml
["£>" Dorian] ["3 " Dorian]
Our concern, let us recall, is not with t

the sincerity of their motivations. It is r
described, are evident as controlling pa
can help us determine whether the produ
modal.
And why is the answer cogent? Because

paradigm, then this particular pre-fact
And it is my contention that master
guides to their music as master musicians
A transcription of Davis' s opening solo
begins with the best of Dorian intentions
that encloses a confirming dominant (s
18N.B. that in the record liner notes pianist Ev

l9(Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 2nd ed., 19
20From Jazz Styles, 423 .
Ilustration 1 : Miles Davis solo, So What2]
1^ "r r piJ'-JjniH if
hp'jj' I I'gilji'W
iffii'MiJ'iijjt i^jjiiiin
ir ' '- 1 inTi h 1 1 1 1
irH)1 r'i'iPr pf ?i i"i

1" 1 N|i|i iiHiiiiTi i i
i<l>J j jii ii>J-f F c p 1 J1
ifrrf/ir if'i'crr^pir r CT1

. 0 n> - KK. l [Coltrane}-3,
8va
2 'My tr
To be thorough, however, we must go back to

pianist Bill Evans and the ensemble before the Dav
ive for a D'ness of any kind. A simple two-chord pat
two pentachords (Illustration 2) do indeed contain th
But correspondences of tonal morphology end the
As medieval choristers discovered in singing chant,
this pattern, the b - a that caps the fetching two-ch
a fictive D> - a if one harbors notions of projecting
Dorian aura - especially so in the near-presence of F.
the ambitus for his solo's admirable Mode 1 , the C-
cast.22
Illustration 2: Chordal Background Motif, So What
W%- i j'l • %-M'\ ' f- jj i] ' 1

[Repeat 8 times] [Repeat 8 times] [Repeat 8 times]
M- fjl - IPnV - 1- pjl d

Even Davis's methodical Dorian gamut begins to wither away by m. 1 7. A semitona
sidestep there modulates everything up to the alleged 3 Dorian. But something su
that octave as a potential B> Dorian template: The repeated rhythmic prominences
contoural windings about v^ (mm. 17-22). And this^ is embroidered by sufficient
as bottom of a 5th, to strengthen that latter pitch's claim as harmonic axis. This proje
tion is but confirmed at the phrase's end. (See m. 22, Illustration 1 .)
Continuing Davis's solo, the third-phrase of the form's 8-bar modules slips
down to the D template in m. 23, bringing with it an explicitly demarcated C4 - G45th
This frame has encroached onto the tonal presence by mm. 30-37, and on through
continuing arpeggiations. Note that the contoural extensions of these Ctriadic outlinin
in the solo, down into A4 and F 3, fill out an F 9th chord {fa c e g), leaving the phrase
cadence on A4 in measure 46, sounding more as an "added 6th" in C major than
dominant of Z)-Dorian.23 All of this persistent C 'ness of Miles' broadly contoured
makes m. 30-38 sound like the fleshing-out of a conventional jazz sonority of th
1950s, the subdominant 9th chord (f-a-c-e-g). Like a reformed sinner confronting
temptations, he backslides into more familiar behaviors.
"Perhaps the B - F tritone embedded in the background figure is crucial here as a tonal marke
Richmond Browne, Helen Brown, and David Butler have argued.
23" Added 6th" refers here to the cliche" tradition in 20th-century popular music and jazz which added a major 6
(above a designated root) to a major triad. The sonic result is distinctive, readily associated with the pop/jazz repe
from around 1925. It is unrelated to Rameau's "Grande Sixte" (a.k.a. "ii6/5"), although the two share the same son
The second bridge of Davis's solo (beginning w

shifts the preceding C4*G4 frame up a semitone.
top A4 and bottom i>4. The phrase's terminatio
contradict that image. So the earlier persistence o
Illustration 3: Pitch Frame, mm 49-55
Finally, nothing in the close of this solo except th

an enduring engagement with D as a prevailing nucl
Coltrane's solo (Illustration 4) settles in on G3 an
3rd of a prevailing C hierarchy were stressed i
ensemble's background chords.
Illustration 4: End of Davis, Beginning of Coltran
A [m. 63] ' [Coltrane]
SO IS IT DORIAN?
A judicious summary of the Davis solo must concur that it is initially suggestive
Dorian. Fastidiously so. But thereafter and overall until the ending, the C - G and D> - A
framings, a veritable 5th leitmotif for Davis, impose something more formatively urge
on the proceedings. Unresolved supertonic functions seem to guide things; plain o
major lurks imposingly in the background as prevailing tonal frame. Whatever Davis ma
have conceived as guiding tonal images before and during his playing, the musical p
uct - once past his first two phrases - is most accurately described as alternating betwe
patternings within C and D>. The extended melismas that outline C and /> major tr
(mm. 30-38, 47-50, 55-60) contradict any global centrality for D or 3 that may b
projected by his solo's beginning and ending phrases. So here, as in many plainso
tunes, there's a bit of tension between initium, finalis, and what comes in the mid
I find this an instructive case of conceptual and perceptual dissonance for a num
of reasons. Improvising artists may well predetermine that their playing shall be limite
the collection d, e,f, g,ab,c (and alternately &fgd>b>cd>\ but this can't ensure th
D and 3 Dorian will ensue as actualized hierarchies. It takes more than pitch content
So What the sense of a prevailing D nucleus - projected octave divisions (authent
plagal), interior cadential preferences and finals

namics pertinent to modal attribution are eviden
concert become aurally compelling.
Or we can generalize more positively by sayin
wares within a restricted pitch pool over several ph
the 5th C - G) is consistently outlined (and with
pitches such as G's or C's), there's a good cha
community of C ' ness. This occurs not because
occurs because c - c ' and/or c-g provide a vecto
everything "toward" chroma C
To say that So What as a whole is more in "unreq
mode" is in no way to demean it, in no way to s
kinds of pitch structuring of nursery songs, comm
rightfully explicable as C major. It is far more fasc
hierarchy, never wholly fulfilled, never explicitly c
thesis/non-tonic- ►tonic cadence. Indeed, the evasi
reminds me of Schoenberg's coinage 'suspended'
not precisely fit the conditions he designated in Sk
So What is not music of tonal ambiguity nor of
grancy." Instead, it is music of emphatically implie
tive chords providing the supportive backdrop.
I have deep roots in jazz improvisation, so I k
cesses at work in such performances. Having per
am directly aware of its most comfortable potentia
of improvisation. Even when struggling to "think
resistance is the kind of matrix outlined in Illus
chords erected above D and &. Knowing of the
formers, who learn early to "play the changes,"
modus operandi is not eccentric. It may well h
colleagues, despite best-laid plans; it engages a m
description that invokes a history-bound modality.
sidemen were focused on a limiting pitch content,
pitch collection per se doth not a mode maketh.25
24Schoenberg first used aufgehaben (Harmonielehre), then

tions of Harmony). By the former he meant fluctuating, w
suspended. The conditions he had in mind involved definable c
a posited key's boundaries, as in a string of remote secondary
25The harmonic product, a prolonged supertonic chord, is basic
Copland's 1 95 1 song "The World Feels Dusty" (no. 4 of Twelve Po
Ilustration 5: A More Probable Pitch Matrix, So W
Dn E-flat 11
But can we generalize from only one

was a mere fluke misfire in conception/
A SECOND TEST OF JAZZ MODALITY: ALL BLUES
If So What is less than convincing as a purveyor of Dorian markers, another tr

corded by the same musicians on the same date shatters hope for proof of a defe
modality, in the ecclesiastical sense, in jazz. Explanations of the pre-performanc
ceptualizing of All Blues are even more robust and complex than those offered
What.26 Once again, Mark Gridley's description of the music's modal skeleton c
our point of departure.
. . .the sextet followed a preset sequence of five modes. Each mode served
as the harmonic guide for improvisation as long as a soloist wanted to use it
Then, whenever he wanted a change, he moved to the next mode. . .In fact, most
soloists used each mode for four measures and then moved to the next.27
Gridley later28 outlines the modal/formal mappings for individual solos.
Phrase. 1, 4 mm., C Ionian : 2, 4 mm., A Ionian : 3, 4 mm., 3 Ionia

4, 8 mm., D Phrygian : 5, 4 mm., G Aeolian
26Copy material in the original Columbia LP album suffered an unfortunate title-switch between A
and a piece called Flamenco Sketches. While writing this chapter I learned that some of my jazz friends
many years played a piece erroneously called All Blues which, according to the Bill Evans's notes on the
Columbia recording, is Flamenco Sketches. For correct matching of names and music, Flamenco Sketch
a medium-tempo six-eight, All Blues in an extremely slow four. The error was enormously compounded
book of pop tune chord changes (a "fake" book) entitled The Real Book (space disallows explanation of t
here) was published carrying the incorrect designation. (The Real Book, The Realbook Press, Syosset NY
["totally revised ed."l, p. 13.)
27Gridley, 219. My reader who knows jazz history will note the influence of Ornette Coleman in this seren
plan. In his record jacket notes, Bill Evans refers to "series of five scales," these "to be played as long as the
wishes until he completed the series [of 51."
™Ibid., 221. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz gives two outlines that differ in details from Gridley's a
themselves mutually contradictory. In that source's Miles Davis entry we read that the piece (misnamed F
Sketches, remember) "contains choruses of variable length in the form a b c d e" and that "each section is iden
a different scale and tonality . . . (including the dorian and mixolydian)." But in the later entry Forms (273) we are
the form consists of five segments, the first and third of which are "... in static major keys, which some anal
preferred to call the ionian mode, and the second and fifth suggest others of the ecclesiastical modes. The fourth se
on the other hand, is based on a flamenco-like scale (D E^ Ft G A Bl» C/Ct ) . . . "
Observe that each of the five phrases except the fou

attend primarily to the improvised solos of Davis an
both solos are representative of the whole piece (
ball Adderly and Bill Evans and a brief reprise by
Five different modes in twenty-four measures! Q
actually play, presumably with this plan in the co
the potential frailty of excessive conceptualizing
pitch schemes for jazz improvisation. Note that t
the basis for the improvisations that ensue.
Illustration 6: The Many Modes of All Blues
fj ♦ • * "
C Ionian A-flat Ionian B-flat Ionian
1^ ,\.
D Phrygian G Aeolian
Even before listening, two puzzlements arise for p

passing familiarity with modal theory, with medieval
musical reality. They might well ask: What in a comp
than major? Is there something to identify it with what
adopted the designation for his expanded modal system,
second, it does seem quaint that the final three modes fo
and G Aeolian), imposing though the succession seems
cal pitch collection (D3FGA3C). And this circumsta
ment: What degree of identifying contrast can one squee
of the same pitch content into just sixteen measures?
A pitch analysis of the solos played by Davis, Julian Ad
(tenor) raises more questions than confirmations for the
Ilustration 7: Miles Davis Solo, All Blues (trans.
[sempre legato] ^^^S^S
ljH>pn I- I I' ^ ^
Ill'1 I I'JJJiJ^I^I'i i U
ill v v.hn | j i | i [u^^

-J 1 I I I
20 ^
Follo
(Ionia
else f
Davis
on hi
then
easy
Gee.)
Ilustration 8: Pitch/Meter Outline, Beginning of
F#^' ' ,' 2 «, ' ' . ' 4 II

(q) o o o # *y
As music, it's a beautifully brooding crea

aesthetics. Any prevailing C-ness comes fr
What he plays helps to immortalize Charlie
the notes up higher in the chord."29 Note fur
discomfiting conceptually if we gauge it by
without its chordal accompaniment, an alleg
plete with Q>s that would be a bit outre in a r
Fi s sounded within the "Phrygian" phrase pro
obviously created for Bill Evans the sound
mon-practice (which in effect contradicts the
4).
Let us recall the principal reason for taking this extended look at the claim of a jazz-
modality. It comes from questioning our unblushing reliance on coeval description for
our understanding of remote musics. Careful study of these mid-20th century passages
leads me to the conclusion that perhaps musicians' accounts are not always without
blemish. Allegations of modal content in the parts of the music examined is overstated.
Overall, there is an apparent disregard for properties that are critical for making a mode
a mode, at least for those who trafficked in them most. Pitch collection alone seems to
satisfy the mode attributions for these mid-century incarnations, and even that criterion
suffers occasional passings/eta. Taken at face value, these jazz masters didn't put their
music together in quite the way stated intentions lead us to expect. Imposed "modes"
appear to serve only a negative goal: Limiting the pitch pool rather than providing endur-
ing structural templates.
There is no hard evidence that Miles Davis had instruction in formal aspects of
music theory, especially those of medieval modes.30 He was nonetheless respected for
his intellectual curiosity and his continual attempts to infuse his music with elements he
discovered in the broader world of music. It is clear that he was acquainted with the
basic nomenclature of modality, with the elemental aspects of their pitch content, and
how they differentiate a musical substance from non-modal structures. Anecdotal evi-
dence substantiates that he was prime mover in assembling the pitch/rhythm schema for
both of these works. As Bill Evans tells us in his liner notes, "Miles conceived these
settings only hours before the recording dates and arrived with sketches which indicated
29In which case Davis emphasizes the 9th and major 7th of C major throughout this solo. Reasonable or
not, the line he plays is inconceivable as the projection of a C tonic (or finalisl).
•*°The goal of his move to New York City in 1944 was to seek out and perform with Charlie Parker, not
to attend Juilliard or the School of the Arts.
to the group what was to be played." But Miles

tensions. In the heat of creation he reverts to "old
paradigms that channeled his playing from earlie
issue in jazz performance.
If Miles Davis and Bill Evans were fooled in th
they were creating a piece in the Dorian mode, t
erring hold for us? How can it help us to better gr
that may have prevailed in the minds of tenth-cen
tury) musicians? When a pre-Renaissance priest
what were the total ingredients of the pitch contex
fixed for his imaging? What was the auralized a
Can we believe that it was wholly consistent with w
call to mind today when we think of "the Phryg
Ilustration 9: Sanctus, Gregorian Christmas Mass
w V*-T T*^~
Is this tun
numerous
*C pattern
some contr
it all as en
Since our l
questions,
say probab
major, giv
Phrygian
find highly
of rather l
3lIf I may be
as mat condit
ON MILES AND THE MODES 3 1
its internal patterning, project an unequivocal struct
Ilustration 10: Pitch Analysis of the Sanctus
^ ♦ rj ~_
Seen in this impious light,

modes" in 1 958 quite as autho
parably astute musicians who
ciance, whose Planet Earth o
whose genes were transmitt
that any of those wondrous th
The Liber usualis runneth
asking, melodies with unequiv
do with any extant mode ta
interpretation, burying the f
interior trajectories do nothin
Am I suggesting that writer
ism of today be invoked, ev
chimera whose content twists
Of course not. When they
they are indispensable, provid
the sweaty air of real life but
last point is crucial; it remind
we, reported what they found
were as skewed, unintention
day's most treasured artifacts
behind those traces of mus
because Machuat (or de Vitry
them - or even mention them.
A parting word is in order a

than what I find in the two
spontaneously without fuss or
been an integral ingredient
medieval genre, most of it wi
especially evident in the jazz r
33The seminal role of these Miles D

in his Listening to Jazz (143): "a tune
harmonic rhythm), and is treated as
14Both Bruno Nettl (Folk and Tradition
and J.H. KwabenaNketia (African Music
the prevalence of "blues" 3rds and "Mixo
Miles Davis, and John Coltrane were enunciate

tive presence. Commercial recordings from early
tation of their presence. It is no exaggeration to
tal improvisations are hard to find that are not he
And anyone who lived through the 1960s kno
lously authentic Dorian in their Scarborough F

On Miles and The Modes

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On Miles and the Modes

Author(s): William Thomson

'"Music Analysis in an Historical Context," CMS Symposium 6 (1966), 75-88.

It is a kind of "geneticist" fallacy to pull out of

Suspicions of culpability aren't even confined to

The basic principles of structure in this music,

And historian Leeman Perkins struggled to curb a

... a few cautious voices have raised question

The operational norms of modern musicology corr

sor Christensen seems to be saying are dubious a

l2Briefly, as for the first, we perceive and feel some of the

made for jazz. One reason is that widespread co

THE MILES DAVIS QUINTET: KIN

The late Miles Davis is frequently mentioned as

The players are assigned only the notes of

15To this day, I hear mature musicians define Dorian mod

piano scale D to D) as melodic and harmonic ma

Although Williams is clearly misguided about the

8 bars 8 bars 8 bars

["£>" Dorian] ["3 " Dorian]

Our concern, let us recall, is not with t

And why is the answer cogent? Because

18N.B. that in the record liner notes pianist Ev

Ilustration 1 : Miles Davis solo, So What2]

irH)1 r'i'iPr pf ?i i"i

i<l>J j jii ii>J-f F c p 1 J1

ifrrf/ir if'i'crr^pir r CT1

To be thorough, however, we must go back to

Illustration 2: Chordal Background Motif, So What

W%- i j'l • %-M'\ ' f- jj i] ' 1

M- fjl - IPnV - 1- pjl d

The second bridge of Davis's solo (beginning w

Illustration 3: Pitch Frame, mm 49-55

Finally, nothing in the close of this solo except th

Illustration 4: End of Davis, Beginning of Coltran

A [m. 63] ' [Coltrane]

plagal), interior cadential preferences and finals

24Schoenberg first used aufgehaben (Harmonielehre), then

Ilustration 5: A More Probable Pitch Matrix, So W

But can we generalize from only one

A SECOND TEST OF JAZZ MODALITY: ALL BLUES

If So What is less than convincing as a purveyor of Dorian markers, another tr

Gridley later28 outlines the modal/formal mappings for individual solos.

Phrase. 1, 4 mm., C Ionian : 2, 4 mm., A Ionian : 3, 4 mm., 3 Ionia

Observe that each of the five phrases except the fou

Illustration 6: The Many Modes of All Blues

C Ionian A-flat Ionian B-flat Ionian

Even before listening, two puzzlements arise for p

Ilustration 7: Miles Davis Solo, All Blues (trans.

[sempre legato] ^^^S^S

ill v v.hn | j i | i [u^^

Ilustration 8: Pitch/Meter Outline, Beginning of

F#^' ' ,' 2 «, ' ' . ' 4 II

As music, it's a beautifully brooding crea

to the group what was to be played." But Miles

Ilustration 9: Sanctus, Gregorian Christmas Mass

its internal patterning, project an unequivocal struct

Ilustration 10: Pitch Analysis of the Sanctus

Seen in this impious light,

A parting word is in order a

33The seminal role of these Miles D

Miles Davis, and John Coltrane were enunciate

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