The study of modes nowadays constitutes one of the most urgent
problems linked to the development of musical language, not only in Vietnam,
but also in many other countries in the world. This is due to the fact
that sice the XXth century, besides the major-minor system (according
to functional harmony) which has prvailed until now, other modal systems of
melody have come into being. These differ greatly from on another by
their nature and intrinsic character. Confrontation of modern music
with folk music poses to musicology the problem of specific characters
of musical language, among ohters, that of modes. The tendency to enhace the
role of polyphony in many modern musical works makes it necessary to
take into particular consideration the laws of modal thinking in "horizontal"
developments of musical figure and melody.
In musical practice in Vietnam, however, the problem does not
present itself in the same way.
In shaping of a music invested with a socialist content and a
marked national character, the critical study and research for a selective
assimilation of the quintessence of traditinal Vienamese music assumes and
exceptional and, so to speak, "strategic" importance.
The spirit of traditional art lies first and foremost in the tenor
of inspiring thoughts, feelings and pith and marrow of the works
concerned. It equally finds its expression in the forms and language of
art. The mode is one of the principal means of expression of musical
language. Any original national music must resort to language elements of
a specific character. Alongside formal and rhythmic melodic ideas, the
mode constitutes one of the essential elements participating in the
creation of those songs of the heart peculiar to our particularly rich
traditional music.
Since popular music (of which the folk-song is the fundamental
element) plays a major part in the constitution of any traditional
national music, the investigation into its artistic characteristics
amounts to the very first approach to the matter. This is particularly
true of the actual state of present-day Vietnam's musical life. During
the past half century, our nascent musicology has confined itself to some
"spade-work" attempts carried out under unfavourable conditions due to
shortage of resources, knowledge and experience.
Two methods are usually adopted for the study of modes. The first
consists in analyzing styles, i.e, in systematically investigating, and
describing the different concrete modal forms which constitute the
character of a certain kind of music. That is the method used in
monographs dealing with folk-songs. The second is a synthetic one aimed
at working out a general theory of modes. Leaving aside the
characteristics of particular modal forms, it seeks to bring out the
general laws and properties of modal structures belonging to all styles.
The present study of modes in the Vietnamese folk-songs adopts the
first method. However, in describing and scrutinizing the multiple
aspects of the scale and mode of Vietnamese folk-songs, we will take into
consideration the main principles of modern musicology, especially in the
field of study of modes in the folk music of different countries.
Any sound apperception is supposed to rely on two principles:
the sound in question must give a precise pitch and a definite tone, and
various sounds must be linked by some connection.
Consequently, the mode appears to be a system of sounds having
some qualitative connection between them. In this system, there is always
a basic tone on which depend one or several secondary fortones which form
an interval of a fourth or a fifth with the fosmer. These tones
constitute the axis of the mode.
The system of degrees of the mode (or scale) which does not go
beyond seven sounds within an octave, is arranged according to the natural
scale. Alterations may come to affect natural sound without creating new
degrees of the mode. Coming unexpectedly in a specific interval, they
have nothing in common with chromatic degrees of the European classical scale.
The mode stems from the movement of sounds and of the whole
melody. In each musical style, especially in folk-songs, the originality
of the mode is always intimately linked to that of the sound intervals.
Music develops in relation to changes in material and the
psychological conditions of society. The evolution of the people's music
is above all that of means of exprssion pertaining to the melodic element.
Comparison of present-day folk melodies with some ancient one
shows in the first place a difference in ambitus. The most ancient tunes
usually present a narrow ambitus and a limited number of sounds (sometimes
restricted to two or three). With the development and extension of the
melodic progression, the scales and modes grow richer, the differentiation
of tones more apparent, and stable and unstable tones make their
appearance in the system.
The pentatonic mode - used in the music of many countries- is
generally considered an essentially unique sound structure having no
relation to the major and minor modes of European classical tonal thought.
Melodies of the pentatonic system are included in the long and imprtant
general evolution of the mode. In this process, the pentatonic scale may
follow either of the two following directions: the major-minor tonal one
of 7- note type or the mixed one. In the first case, alongside
pentatonic modes having no semitones, there are pentatenic modes with
semitones showing a clearer propensity to the major-minor expression. In
the second case, different shades of musical sentiment are expressed
through variations circumscribed within the framework of a dominant
musical figure. With the so-called mixed mode the role of axial sounds
(the tonal one, in the first place) is subject to alteration, thus giving
now some notes, now some others belonging to the same system of scale. In
other words, the modal functions of notes vary according to whether these
latter are stable or unstable. The shift of stable and unstable regarded
as a grafting of two (rarely more) modal tonalities of the same
fundamental in the same melodic development. For instance, the major and
minor tonality of a fundamental or two major or minor tonalities
presenting a fourth-fifth interval connection.
The differentiation of the components of the mode in multi-sound
music has led to a conscious perception of the fundamental chords of the
mode (e.g., those of the tonic, dominant and sub-dominant).
This process can be equally observed in the evolution of
homophonic music including that belongin to the pentatonic system.
Examination of many popular melodies composed in the course of the last
centuries clearly shows a development of the harmonic type. One of the
great shorcomings which affects studies conducted so far on the mode in
Vientamese folk music results from the following preconceived theoretical
principle: the Vietnamese mode being pentatonic, all that remains is to
resolve and to know what form of scale the original modes of Vietnamese
music take and on what degree melodies generally end.
We do not deny the important inherent character of Vietnamese folk
music: not infrequently, it resorts to the pentatonic system (with or
without semitones). The present study, however, is not meant to
illustrate this "innate" theory but to bring to light the process of
development of various modal expressions of Vietnamese folk music, from
the simple to the more complicated forms. At what point does this process
settle down to become a generalized characteristic and give rise to a mjor
traditonal feature? And, from this checkpoint, in what directions do
these expressions extend, and what prospects are offered for their
development?
An important methodological problem claims our attention to study
the development of the scale and mode in the relations existing between
different layers of folk songs.
Until now, no research work has been carried out to elucidate
anything about the realtive dates of the latter. We are thus obliged to
use the comparative method for an attempt at classification.
Just as in archaelogical age determination, this method of
procedure consists in comparing and contrasting objects or groups of
objects: any upper statum is supposed to be chronologically subsequent to
those lying under them.
But, the folk-songs we are researching are not arranged in the
concrete order of the successive deposits of the earth's crust. They are
deeply buried in people's memory and in invisible sounds. A transcription
of them would give mere bunches of rather confused notes. The researcher,
then, finds himself reduced to availing himself of the intellectual
experience of musicology to determine consideration of them and, in many
an embarrassing case, the solution lies in the classification according to
the scale and mode whose degree of simplicity is directly proportionate to
the chronological antecedence of the songs or vocal expression in which
they manifest themselves.
On the basis of this principle, we have classified the Vietnamese
folk songs already collected and transcribed in different categories and
studied their scale and mode as from the connections existing between them.
To be continued...