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{{about|modal frames in music|the concept in [[modal logic]]|Kripke semantics#Basic definitions}}
{{Redirect|Focus (music)|other uses|Focus (disambiguation)#Music}}

A '''modal frame''' in [[music]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music|last=van der Merwe|first=Peter|author-link=Peter van der Merwe (musicologist)|year=1989|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-316121-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/originsofpopular0000vand/page/102 102–103]|url=https://archive.org/details/originsofpopular0000vand/page/102}}</ref> is "a number of types permeating and unifying [[Music of Africa|African]], [[Music of Europe|European]], and [[Music of the United States|American]] [[song]]" and [[melody]].<ref name="Middleton">{{harvnb|van der Merwe|1989}}, quoted in Richard Middleton (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music'', p. 203. Philadelphia: Open University Press. {{ISBN|0-335-15275-9}}.</ref> It may also be called a '''melodic mode.''' "Mode" and "frame" are used interchangeably in this context without reference to scalar or rhythmic modes. Melodic modes define and generate melodies that are not determined by [[harmony]], but purely by [[melody]]. A '''note frame,''' is a melodic mode that is [[Atonality|atonic]] (without a [[tonic (music)|tonic]]), or has an unstable tonic.

Modal frames may be defined by their:

*'''floor note''': the bottom of the frame, felt to be the lowest note, though isolated notes may go lower,
*'''ceiling note''': the top of the frame,
*'''central note''': the center around which other notes cluster or gravitate,
*'''upper''' or '''lower focus''':<ref>adapted from Ekueme, Lazarus. cited in Middleton (1990), p. 203.</ref> portion of the mode on which the melody temporarily dwells, and can also defined by melody types, such as:
**'''[[chant]] tunes''': ([[Bob Dylan]]'s "[[Subterranean Homesick Blues]]")<ref name="Middleton"/>
**'''axial tunes''': ("A Hard Day's Night", "[[Peggy Sue (song)|Peggy Sue]]", [[Marvin Gaye]]'s "[[Can I Get a Witness|Can I Get A Witness]]", and [[Roy Milton]]'s "[[The Hucklebuck|Do the Hucklebuck]]")<ref name="Middleton"/>
**'''oscillating''': ([[Rolling Stones]]' "[[Jumpin' Jack Flash]]")<ref name="Middleton"/>
**'''open/closed''': ([[Bo Diddley]]'s "[[Hey Bo Diddley]]")<ref name="Middleton"/>
**'''[[melodic motion|terrace]]'''
**'''[[#Shout-and-fall|shout-and-fall]]'''
**'''[[#Ladder of thirds|ladder of thirds]]'''

<score sound=1>\relative c'' { \repeat volta 1 {  \time 2/2  \tempo 2 = 60 \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t c2 a ^"↓" c a ^"↓"} } \addlyrics { Chel -- sea Chel -- sea } </score>
"Chel-sea" football crowd [[chant]]: minor third.

Further defined features include:
*'''melodic dissonance''': the quality of a note that is modally unstable and attracted to other more important tones in a non-harmonic way
*'''melodic triad'''{{anchor|Melodic triad}}: arpeggiated triads in a melody. A '''non-harmonic arpeggio''' is most commonly a melodic triad, it is an [[arpeggio]] the [[note (music)|notes]] of which do not appear in the [[harmony]] of the [[accompaniment]].{{sfn|van der Merwe|1989|p=321}}
*[[level (music)|level]]: a temporary modal frame contrasted with another built on a different [[foundation note]]. A change in levels is called a [[level (music)|shift]].
*'''co-tonic''': a melodic tonic different from and as important as the harmonic tonic
*'''secondary tonic''': a melodic tonic different from but subordinate to the harmonic tonic
*'''pendular third''':<ref>adapted from Nketia, J. H. cited in Middleton (1990), p. 203.</ref> alternating notes a third apart, most often a [[neutral third|neutral]], see [[double tonic]]

==Shout-and-fall==
{{anchor|Shout and fall}}

'''Shout-and-fall''' or '''tumbling strain''' is a modal frame, "very common in [[Afro-American]]-derived styles" and featured in [[song]]s such as "[[Shake, Rattle and Roll]]" and "[[My Generation]]".<ref name="Middleton S&f">[[Richard Middleton (musicologist)|Middleton, Richard]] (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music'', {{page needed|date=June 2011}}. Philadelphia: Open University Press. {{ISBN|0-335-15275-9}}.</ref>

"Gesturally, it suggests 'affective outpouring', 'self-offering of the body', 'emptying and relaxation'." The frame may be thought of as a [[deep structure]] common to the varied surface structures of songs in which it occurs.<ref name="Middleton S&f"/>

[[File:Shout-and-Fall example.PNG|thumb|center|upright=2|Shout-and-fall example.<ref name="Middleton S&f"/>[[File:Shout-and-Fall example.mid]]]]

==Ladder of thirds==
[[File:Thirteenth chord inversions.png|thumb|[[thirteenth|CM13]], [[first inversion]] = e13({{music|b}}9), [[second inversion]] = G13... Eventually seven chords along a ladder of thirds.[[File:Thirteenth chord inversions.mid]]]]

A '''ladder of thirds''' (coined by [[Peter van der Merwe (musicologist)|van der Merwe]] 1989,{{sfn|van der Merwe|1989|pages=120ff}} adapted from [[Curt Sachs]]) is similar to the [[circle of fifths]], though a ladder of thirds differs in being composed of thirds, [[major third|major]] or [[minor third|minor]], and may or may not circle back to its starting note and thus may or may not be an [[interval cycle]].

[[Triadic chord]]s may be considered as part of a ladder of thirds.

It is a modal frame found in [[Blues]] and [[Music of the United Kingdom|British folk music]]. Though a [[pentatonic]] scale is often analyzed as a portion of the circle of fifths, the [[blues scale]] and [[melody|melodies]] in that scale come "into being through piling up thirds below and/or above a [[Tonic (music)|tonic]] or central note."<ref name="Ladder">[[Richard Middleton (musicologist)|Middleton, Richard]] (1990). ''Studying Popular Music'', p. 203. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-335-15275-9}}.</ref><ref>van der Merwe (1989), p. 125.</ref><ref>Hein, Ethan (2014). "[https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2014/blues-tonality/ Blues tonality]", ''The Ethan Hein Blog''. Accessed: 14 August 2019.</ref>

They are "commonplace in post-rock 'n' roll popular music – and also appear in earlier tunes".<ref name="Ladder"/> Examples include [[The Beatles]]' "[[A Hard Day's Night (song)|A Hard Day's Night]]", [[Buddy Holly]]'s "[[Peggy Sue (song)|Peggy Sue]]" and [[The Who]]'s "[[My Generation]]", [[Ben Harney]]'s "You've Been A Good Old Wagon" (1895) and [[Ben Bernie]] et al.'s "[[Sweet Georgia Brown]]" (1925).

===Example===
The modal frame of [[The Beatles]]' "[[A Hard Day's Night (song)|A Hard Day's Night]]" features a ladder of thirds axially centered on G with a ceiling note of B{{music|flat}} and floor note of E[{{music|flat}}] (the low C being a [[passing tone]]):<ref name="Middleton"/>

{{Image frame|content=<score>
\new PianoStaff <<
  \new Staff \fixed c' {
    \partial 2 r8 g g f |
    g2 4. 8~ | 2 r8 g g f g bes~ 4. g4 f8 | g16( f e8~ 4) r8 e f e | \break
    g2 4. 8~ | 2 r8 g g f g bes~ 4. g4 f8 | g16( f e8~ 4) r8 g g gis | \break
    a aes g f~ 8 aes a ais | b bes a g~ 8 e f e | g( c4.) ees8( f4.) | ees4 r
  }
  \addlyrics {
    It's been a hard day's night and I've been work -- ing like a dog It's been a
    hard day's night I should be sleep -- ing like a log But when I
    get home to you I find the things that you do will make me feel all right
  }
  \new Staff \fixed c' {
    \partial 2 r2 |
    g2 g | g1 | g2 bes | f1 |
    g2 g | g1 | g2 bes | f1 |
    a2 f | b g | g ees | ees
  }
>>
</score>|caption="A Hard Day's Night" modal frame.<ref name="Middleton"/>}}

According to [[Richard Middleton (musicologist)|Middleton]], the song, "at first glance major-key-with-modal-touches", reveals through its "Line of Latent Mode" "a deep kinship with typical [[blues]] melodic structures: it is centred on three of the notes of the minor-[[pentatonic scale|pentatonic]] mode [on C: C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat] (E{{music|flat}}-G-B{{music|flat}}), with the contradictory major seventh (B{{music|natural}}) set against that. Moreover, the ''shape'' assumed by these notes – the modal ''frame'' – as well as the abstract scale they represent, is revealed, too; and this – an initial, repeated circling round the dominant (G), with an excursion to its minor third (B{{music|flat}}), 'answered' by a fall to the 'symmetrical' minor third of the tonic (E{{music|flat}}) – is a common pattern in blues."<ref>Middleton (1990), p. 201.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Melodic motion]]
*[[Tune-family]]

==References==
<references/>

{{Melody types}}

[[Category:Modal frames| ]]
[[Category:Musical techniques]]
[[Category:Melody]]