While surfing the net for more information about modes I came across this 
site -

http://www.standingstones.com/modeharm.html

       which people might find interesting.

I was particularly pleased to find this -

>It was not until the early 20th century that researchers in traditional 
music 
>realized that traditional music used Renaissance modes. The pioneering 
>work of the likes of Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams was 
>greeted with statements along the lines of "How can you tell me that these 
>ignorant peasants are singing in the Mixolydian mode when some of our 
>finest music professors don't even know what it is?"

The point being that the "ignorant peasants" were perfectly capable of 
singing their songs without knowing anything about modes.  The modes were 
applied as decriptive classifications after the fact by middle class 
folklorists who were just the sort of classical musicians that some of the 
most dedicated supporters of modes on this list seem to despise.

Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams don't seem to have convinced the 
English Folk Dance and Song Society who never seem to use modes in their 
published music.

Bryan Creer

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