19.1: Mode Mixture

Mode mixture typically consists of borrowing chords from the parallel minor during a passage in a major key. “Borrowed chords” refers to borrowing chords from minor and is synonymous with mode mixture. In the examples that follow, notice the lowered chromaticisms—♭6^ is most common but ♭3^ and ♭7^ also occur in borrowed chords.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Lennon-McCartney, “Blackbird” (1968)

Notice the emotional effect of switching to the minor mode.

A famous example that progresses from the major II chord immediately to the minor ii chord is Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra.

/

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Richard Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op.30 (1896)

Later during the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra, another borrowed chord occurs.

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Richard Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op.30 (1896)

The next three examples have the pattern 1^ –♭7^ –6^ –♭6^ in the bass line.

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Linda Perry, “Beautiful” (2002)

Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Hoyt Axton, “Joy to the World” (1970)

This same bass line can be found (in the same harmonic rhythm) in “Part of Your World.”

/

Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\): Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, The Little Mermaid, “Part of Your World” (1989)

In the next example by Radiohead, the iviv chord (borrowed from minor) is preceded by the major IVIV chord.

Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\): Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Philip Selway, Albert Hammond, and Mike Hazlewood, “Creep” (1992)

Mode mixture is also found in the music of the band Nirvana.

Figure \(\PageIndex{8}\): Kurt Cobain, “Lithium” (1992)

In the example above for “Lithium,” the Roman numerals are analyzed as triads instead of “5” chords because the third of the chord is either implied or occurs in the voice part (not shown).

In the next example from the third movement Brahms's Third Symphony, the IIchord alternates twice with a borrowed chord. There are three flats in the key signature because this movement began in C minor, but this section occurs later in the movement and is in C major.

Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\): Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90, III. Poco Allegretto (1883)

A similar alternation between the II chord and a borrowed chord (♭VIIVII7) happens in “Inchworm,” from the movie Hans Christian Andersen. Notice the special quality of the borrowed ♭6^ in the upper melody.

Figure \(\PageIndex{10}\): Frank Loesser, Hans Christian Andersen, “Inchworm” (1952)

A famous example of mode mixture occurs in the “Waltz of the Flowers” from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker.

Figure \(\PageIndex{11}\): Tchaikovsky, Nutcracker, “Waltz of the Flowers” (1892)

A similar melody occurs in “One Day I'll Fly Away,” which, though it has a different harmonization, still uses mode mixture.

Figure \(\PageIndex{12}\): Joe Sample and Will Jennings, “One Day I'll Fly Away” (1980)