Ionian Mode
DescriptionThe Ionian Mode is said to have a happy, cheerful, merry, upbeat quality and is commonly used in nursery rhymes, rock, folk, country, jazz, and fusion jazz styles of music. This mode is also called:
The Ionian Mode is the first mode of the first authentic scale of ancient Greece and was named after the subgroup of people called the Ionians. The Ionians lived in various parts of the Peloponnesus (the southern peninsula of Greece). Before 1100 B.C. another group of Greeks called the Dorians invaded the Peloponnesus toward the end of the 1100's. To escape the invaders, many Ionians fled east to the section of Greece called Attica. Some of these Ionians became ancestors of people who lived in Athens when it developed into a great city-state in Attica. Other Ionians sailed across the Aegean Sea and occupied a region along the western coast of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). The area was known as Ionia. The people of Ionia organized a confederacy of 12 independent cities. The most famous cities were Ephesus, the site of the Temple of Artemis; and Miletus, the birthplace of some of the earliest Greek philosophers. The Ionians became cultural leaders of the Greeks in the 600's and 500's B.C. They originated what is known today as Western literature and philosophy. King Croesus of Lydia conquered Ionia in the mid-500's B.C. The Persians conquered it in 546 B.C., and it became part of the Persian Empire. The Persians invaded the Greek mainland in the early 400's B.C., but the Greeks turned them back. Ionia then rebelled and became allied with Athens. In 404 B.C., Sparta and its allies defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War. Ionia, without Athens' support, again fell under Persian rule. Alexander the Great freed Ionia in the late 300's B.C. However, first his successors and then the Romans dominated Ionia politically. Most of Greece is made up of many small islands and was the philosophical center of the ancient world. Since citizens could not easily travel from island to island, each island formed its own local government and had its own set of laws and unique culture. One ruler could not exact power over all the islands of Greece due to its geography and many islands. The culture of each island evolved independently as a Polis system. Poets, and philosophers thrived within the polis system since each could practice philosophy, teach students without fear of reprisal from a central ruler. Artists also thrived in the polis system since they could trade freely. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato (427 - 348 B.C.) believed that playing music in a particular mode would incline one toward specific behavior associated with that mode. Plato suggested that soldiers should listen to music in Phrygian or Dorian modes to help make them stronger, but avoid music in Lydian, Mixed Lydian or Ionian modes, for fear of being softened. Plato believed that a change in the musical modes of the state would cause a wide-scale social revolution. He also believed that by changing the mode of the national anthem of Greece a widespread social revolt would start.
Songs That Use This Scale |