Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek harmoniai or tonoi, based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; a modern musical mode or diatonic scale, related to the medieval mode.
(The Hypomixolydian mode of medieval music, by contrast, has no modern counterpart.)
The modern diatonic mode is the scale forming the basis of both the rising and falling forms of Harikambhoji in Carnatic music, the classical music form of southern India.
Greek Mixolydian
The idea of a Mixolydian mode comes from the music theory of ancient Greece.
The invention of the ancient Greek Mixolydian mode was attributed to Sappho, the  poet and musician.Anne Carson (ed.), If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), p. ix. .
Carson cites Pseudo-Plutarch, On Music 16.113c, who in turn names Aristoxenus as his authority.
However, what the ancient Greeks thought of as Mixolydian was very different from the modern interpretation of the mode.
In Greek theory, the Mixolydian tonos (the term "mode" is a later Latin term) employs a scale (or "octave species") corresponding to the Greek Hypolydian mode inverted.
In its diatonic genus, this is a scale descending from paramese to hypate hypaton.
In the diatonic genus, a whole tone (paramese to mese) followed by two conjunct inverted Lydian tetrachords (each being two whole tones followed by a semitone descending).
This diatonic genus of the scale is roughly the equivalent of playing all the white notes of a piano from B to B, which is also known as modern Locrian mode.
In the chromatic and enharmonic genera, each tetrachord consists of a minor third plus two semitones, and a major third plus two quarter tones, respectively.Thomas J. Mathiesen, "Greece", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, 29 vols., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001), 10:339.  .
Medieval Mixolydian and Hypomixolydian
The term Mixolydian was originally used to designate one of the traditional harmoniai of Greek theory.
It was appropriated later (along with six other names) by 2nd-century theorist Ptolemy to designate his seven tonoi or transposition keys.
Four centuries later, Boethius interpreted Ptolemy in Latin, still with the meaning of transposition keys, not scales.
When chant theory was first being formulated in the 9th century, these seven names plus an eighth, Hypermixolydian (later changed to Hypomixolydian), were again re-appropriated in the anonymous treatise Alia Musica.
A commentary on that treatise, called the Nova expositio, first gave it a new sense as one of a set of eight diatonic species of the octave, or scales.Harold S. Powers, "Dorian", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
The name Mixolydian came to be applied to one of the eight modes of medieval church music: the seventh mode.
This mode does not run from B to B on white notes, as the Greek mode, but was defined in two ways: as the diatonic octave species from G up one octave to the G above, or as a mode whose final was G and whose ambitus runs from the F below the final to the G above, with possible extensions "by licence" up to A above and even down to E below, and in which the note D (the tenor of the corresponding seventh psalm tone) had an important melodic function.Harold S. Powers and Frans Wiering, "Mixolydian", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, 29 vols., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, 16:766–767 (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001), 767. .
This medieval theoretical construction led to the modern use of the term for the natural scale from G to G.
The seventh mode of western church music is an authentic mode based on and encompassing the natural scale from G to G, with the perfect fifth (the D in a G to G scale) as the dominant, reciting note or tenor.
The plagal eighth mode was termed Hypomixolydian (or "lower Mixolydian") and, like the Mixolydian, was defined in two ways: as the diatonic octave species from D to the D an octave higher, divided at the mode final, G (thus D–E–F–G + G–A–B–C–D); or as a mode with a final of G and an ambitus from C below the final to E above it, in which the note C (the tenor of the corresponding eighth psalm tone) had an important melodic function.Harold S. Powers and Frans Wiering, "Hypomixolydian", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, 29 vols., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, 12:38 (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001) .
Modern Mixolydian
The modern Mixolydian scale is the fifth mode of the major scale (Ionian mode).
That is, it can be constructed by starting on the fifth scale degree (the dominant) of the major scale.
Because of this, the Mixolydian mode is sometimes called the dominant scale.Dan Haerle, Scales for Jazz Improvisation (Hialeah: Columbia Pictures Publications; Lebanon, Indiana: Studio P/R; Miami: Warner Bros, 1983), p. 15. .
This scale has the same series of tones and semitones as the major scale, but with a minor seventh.
As a result, the seventh scale degree is a subtonic, rather than a leading-tone.Arnie Berle, "The Mixolydian Mode/Dominant Seventh Scale", in Mel Bay's Encyclopedia of Scales, Modes and Melodic Patterns: A Unique Approach to Developing Ear, Mind and Finger Coordination (Pacific, Missouri: Mel Bay Publications, 1997): p.
33.   The flattened seventh of the scale is a tritone away from the mediant (major-third degree) of the key.
The order of whole tones and semitones in a Mixolydian scale is
whole, whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole
In the Mixolydian mode, the tonic, subdominant, and subtonic triads are all major, the mediant is diminished, and the remaining triads are minor.
The Mixolydian mode is common in non-classical harmony, such as folk, jazz, funk, blues, and rock music.
Klezmer musicians refer to the Mixolydian scale as the Adonai malakh mode.
In Klezmer, it is usually transposed to C, where the main chords used are C, F, and G7 (sometimes Gm).Dick Weissman and Dan Fox, A Guide to Non-Jazz Improvisation: Guitar Edition (Pacific, Missouri: Mel Bay Publications, 2009): p. 130. .
Notable music in Mixolydian mode
Traditional
"Old Joe Clark"Wendy Anthony, "Building a Traditional Tune Repertoire: Old Joe Clark (Key of A-Mixolydian) ", Mandolin Sessions webzine (February 2007) |(Accessed 2 February 2010).Ted Eschliman, "Something Old.
Something New ", Mandolin Sessions webzine (November 2009) (Accessed 2 February 2010).
"Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore" – A traditional Irish folk song.
"She Moved Through the Fair" – A traditional Irish folk song.
Classical
"Fughetta super: Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot" in G major from Clavier-Übung III, BWV 679 by Johann Sebastian BachWalter Piston.
Harmony (New York: W. W. Norton, 1941): pp.
29–30.
Piano Concerto in A minor, third movement, by Edvard Grieg
Concerto in modo misolidio, P 145 (1925) by Ottorino Respighi"Concerto in Modo Misolidio for Piano and Orchestra – Three Preludes on Gregorian Themes" by Adriano, English adaptation by David Nelson, Naxos Records cat.
8.220176 (1986)
Et resurrexit from Beethoven's  Missa solemnis
Popular
"You Really Got Me" by The Kinks
"I Feel Fine" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
"Royals" by Lorde http://www.rebelmusicteacher.com/blog/2016/3/23/mixolydian-mode-in-royals
See also
Harikambhoji, the equivalent scale in Carnatic music.
Khamaj, the equivalent scale in Hindustani music.
V–IV–I turnaround, a common modal chord progression when spelled as I–VII–IV
Backdoor cadence
References
Further reading
Hewitt, Michael.
Musical Scales of the World.
The Note Tree.
2013. .
External links
Mixolydian scale on guitar
