Inspired by the beautiful music of Danish pianist and composer Jacob Ladegaard, the following visualisation is a foray into musical composition using modal harmony, or as my New York improvisation tutor Ron Drotos would say, ‘an alive way of writing music’. This first piece is simple. It draws on the notes of the E flat ionian and mixolydian modes with the sustain pedal used to add a soft modal harmony texture. A soothing sound for jangled nerves …

Notes re. Modal Music

Although modal music can be written in any mode, my ear was drawn to sounds and textures from the major modes. Notes from the scale are put together in any combination. And whereas chords have an important function in tonal harmony (ie. functional harmony), in modal harmony all chords are considered equal. The goal is to retain a tonal centre, but because there is no need for resolution, each (broken) chord cluster can just float there by itself.

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