Modal frame (music) - Definition and Overview

In music a modal frame (Van der Merwe 1989) is one of "a number of types permeating and unifying African, European, and American song" (Middleton 1990, p.203). Types include floor note, ceiling note, central note, chant tunes (Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues"), axial tunes ("A Hard Day's Night", "Peggy Sue", Marvin Gaye's "Can I Get A Witness", ando Roy Milton's "Do the Hucklebuck"), oscillating (Rolling Stone's "Jumpin' Jack Flash"), open/closed ("Hey Bo Diddley"), terrace, shout-and-fall, and the ladder of thirds. The modal frame of The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night features a ladder of thirds axially centered on G with a ceiling note of Bb and floor note of Eb (the low C being a passing tone): (ibid)

A_Hard_Day's_Night_modal_frame.PNG
A Hard Day's Night modal frame

See also tune-family.

Other songs with modal frames indicated:

• "A Day in the Life"
• "My Generation"
• "Peggy Sue"

Source

• Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.
  • Van der Merwe, P. (1989). Origins of Popular Style. Oxford.