Young People's Concert: "What is a Mode?" / Bernstein · New York Philharmonic

Young People's Concert: "What is a Mode?"
with the New York Philharmonic
Written and conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Introduction by John Lithgow
Leonard Bernstein discusses scales, intervals, and tones, and analyzes several pieces, including Debussy's "Fêtes", Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade", and music from the Kinks and the Beatles, to illustrate different modes. An excerpt from Bernstein's ballet "Fancy Free" is also performed.
In this excerpt, Bernstein discusses the Mixolydian mode.
Original CBS Television Network Broadcast Dates: 23 November 1966
Produced and directed by Roger Englander
Available through KulturVideo.com: www.kulturvideo.com/Leonard-Be...
© 1990, 1993 The Leonard Bernstein Office Inc.

[@davecook8378]

Lenny sang the Kinks. My life is complete.

[@andrespalacios1122]

Lenny... and Lemmy Kilmister too!!!

[@ClaudioLaureano936]

Bernstein was the Carl Sagan of music.

[@pnocella]

Gee-I thought Carl Sagan was the Leonard Bernstein of science!

[@MCO18]

3:10 Leonard Bernstein plays the Kinks

[@andrespalacios1122]

I'm really surprised. But I wonder if Ray even knows about this?

[@servernotfound3260]

3:30 yay! I’m going to clap!

[@sinsofthemartyr]

wish i had seen this sooner

[@switch1e]

John Lithgow was not someone I expected to be here

[@lucyfoster4082]

Bear with me. I’ve got a classical background and was taught about church modes. Later my son had a jazz teacher who taught him (and me) about the use of modes in jazz. I believe Ray Davies was actually introduced to the “You Really Got Me” mode through jazz (he started out in a jazz band and he and Dave both listened to “trad jazz”). He also stated in his book XRay that at the time he wrote YRGM he had been sort of thinking about Gregorian Chant he had been introduced to in school. I guess my question is, was modal Jazz borrowed from church modes, or did it arise independently?

[@susankennedy5739]

"Modes" came from ancient Greece, they are variations on scales. What we think of now as Major and minor scales are two of the seven modes. Gregorian chants came out of ancient Greek modes, but some folk musics around Europe also are modal. So Jazz musicians have heard modal music from a variety of sources and just naturally absorbed it - same as rock composers.

[@brunoalves3958]

The Trinity Killer!

[@DanielMendesguitar]

lol

[@SharonDuBoisMusic]

very Eurocentric view of music theory... not cool.

[@tensacross]

"theory" is transphobic. smh. educate yourself.

[@pnocella]

Maybe not cool-but accurate considering that many/most countries seem to have"westernized" their own local/traditional music(s).

[@susankennedy5739]

Thank you, I was writing a similar comment and deleted it, thinking of when, and by whom, this talk was being given. I especially didn't like his use of the terms "normal" and "abnormal" related to pitches in, or not in, a major scale.

[@katrinat.3032]

Oh my God, you people overthink everything

[@conchuirbrown]

Not really. Most non-western music is modal so knowing what modes are can help one understand the structure of many kinds of music.