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Aeolian Mode Is a Minor Key
By Julian Dyer

I would suspect that the 'Aeolian accompaniment' in Uncle Tom's Cabin
is nothing more than an old-fashioned reference to playing in a minor
key!  The 'Aeolian mode' is described in the Oxford English Dictionary
as "an authentic mode represented by the ascending natural diatonic
scale from A to A: the basis of the modern minor key".

This is all rather prosaic after the suggestions of the wind blowing
in the trees, or an aeolian harp in the window!  If the book was a
little later we could imagine the writer doing a Rick Wakeman trick,
with one hand playing a piano and the other an Ochestrelle.  That I
would like to see!

Julian Dyer


(Message sent Thu 29 Apr 1999, 09:25:17 GMT, from time zone GMT+0100.)

Key Words in Subject:  Aeolian, Is, Key, Minor, Mode
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