Modes, The Ecclesiastical

MODES, THE ECCLESIASTICAL. One of the most prominent features in Greek music was the division of the Diatonic Scale into certain regions called Modes. The musicians of the Middle Ages, who confessedly derived their idea of the scale from Hellenic sources, adopted an analogous peculiarity into their own system, in which it at once took root, though its development was very gradual. At first, four forms only were recognised, in the newer method—the Authentic Modes of Saint Ambrose. To these—if tradition...