Hypolydian mode

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The introit Requiem aeternam, from which the Requiem Mass gets its name, is in Hypolydian mode (Mode 6).

The Hypolydian mode, literally meaning "below Lydian", is the common name for the sixth of the eight church modes of medieval music theory.Template:R The name is taken from Ptolemy of Alexandria's term for one of his seven tonoi, or transposition keys.Template:R This mode is the plagal counterpart of the authentic fifth mode.

In medieval theory the Hypolydian mode was described either as (1) the diatonic octave species from C to the C an octave higher, divided at the final F (C–D–E–F + F–G–A–B–C) or (2) a mode with F as final and an ambitus from the C below the final to the D above it. The third above the final, A—corresponding to the reciting tone or "tenor" of the sixth psalm tone—was regarded as having an important melodic function in this mode. The sequence of intervals was therefore divided by the final into a lower tetrachord of tone-tone-semitone, and an upper pentachord of tone-tone-tone-semitone. However, from as early as the time of Hucbald the Hypolydian mode—even more than the corresponding authentic mode, the Lydian—was characterized by the predominance of BTemplate:Music instead of BTemplate:Music as the fourth degree above the final.Template:R The melodic centering on F and A, as well as the use of BTemplate:Music instead of BTemplate:Music, is illustrated in the accompanying example from the Requiem Mass introit, "Requiem aeternam".

Finer distinctions among the scale degree are sometimes made, with the D below the final called the "mediant", the lowest note, C, the "participant" (a tone functioning as an auxiliary to the mediant), the G, B, and BTemplate:Music the "conceded modulations" (subsidiary degrees), and the lowest C, the final, F, and (rarely) the D the "absolute initials".Template:R

Further reading

• Gissel, Siegfried. 1997. "Glareans Tonarten Lydius und Hypolydius und ihre Berücksichtigung durch die Theoretiker/Komponisten bis etwa 1650". Musica Disciplina 51:73–102.
• Marzi, Giovanni. 1973. "Il papiro musicale dell' Oreste di Euripide (Pap. Vindob. G 2315)". In Scritti in onore di Luigi Ronga, 315–29. Milan and Naples: Ricciardi.
• Ruhnke, Martin. 1992a. "Glareans lydischer und hypolydischer Modus bei Dulichius". In Festschrift Hubert Unverricht zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by Karlheinz Schlager, 221–29. Eichstätter Abhandlungen zur Musikwissenschaft 9. Tutzing: Hans Schneider. Template:ISBN.
• Ruhnke, Martin. 1992b. "Vorbereitung der Edition eines Jahrgangs Evangelien-Motetten von Philipp Dulichius". In Musik des Ostens: Ostmittel-, Ost- und Südosteuropa. XII, edited by Hubert Unverricht, 95–113. Musik des Ostens: Ostmittel-, Ost- und Südosteuropa 12. Kassel: Bärenreiter. Template:ISBN.