I did find a grit of sand! The whole story on Beethoven op132 is that the piece is in A minor -- So technically it is F Lydian off of A minor. So. As in the original question (E versus A) if the base key were actually C# minor (like Beethoven example) -- in that case: The A Lydian would have 4 sharps!
GJB ________________________________ From: Christopher Smith <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 10:12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Finale] OT: Key sig for Lydian mode On 11-Dec-13, at 11-Dec-13 9:55 PM, Douglas Brown wrote: > I am going to disagree with the list. > > If I have a piece of music in A Minor mode, I would use no sharps > or flats, not 3 sharps and then lower every F, C, and G. If your > performers do a simple analysis of your piece and realize that it > is in A Lydian mode, then the four sharps are justified. Give them > the theoretically correct key. I wouldn't count out the > intelligence of your performers... they are musicians, after all. Douglas, with respect, I think you misunderstood the proposal. MINOR modes (those with a minor third) would use a minor key signature. MAJOR modes (those with a major third) would use a major key signature. Only the notes that made the mode different from the parallel major or minor would have to be altered, which never gives more than one alteration in the Church modes, except for locrian, which requires two (the flat 2 and flat 5.) In our tonal world, I think many musicians think of modes as altered major or minor scales, rather than a major scale starting on a different note. Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
