Is Rimsky writing modal music here?

[Enrique]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iPn1GbUUU[/YOUTUBE]

If you look at 27:14 (violins, sempre con sordini) you'll see the tonic is C here (tonality= C). But he is making consistent use of D flat. The question is this: is D flat the lowered second degree or is it the second degree itself? If the latter then the scale here begins C-D flat-other notes and we are having one of the famous eight modes (don't remember which).

The passage is magical and it may be the employment of modal writing makes it so. Or perhaps some oriental scale.

NOTE: Something went wrong. See post #4 for the score.

[Peter]

If you look at 27:14 (violins, sempre con sordini) you'll see the tonic is C here (tonality= C). But he is making consistent use of D flat. The question is this: is D flat the lowered second degree or is it the second degree itself? If the latter then the scale here begins C-D flat-other notes and we are having one of the famous eight modes (don't remember which).

The passage is magical and it may be the employment of modal writing makes it so. Or perhaps some oriental scale.

I agree it is a magical passage (as is the whole score!), but I think the tonality is actually flirting with F minor and the passage is in the dominant (C) of that key. Over to Quijote on this one!

[Enrique]

Ah! D flat= F minor 6th degree.

[Enrique]

I don't understand. Where in the movement is F minor? The fundamental key is G major, and just before the pasage we are in G minor!

[Peter]

I don't understand. Where in the movement is F minor? The fundamental key is G major, and just before the pasage we are in G minor!

F minor is hinted at, not arrived at which is why I said 'flirted'. I'm thinking of the C chord at the end as the dominant of F minor rather than the tonic of C.

[Enrique]

Ahhh!

[Peter]

Likewise I think the following passage that starts 27'32 is flirting with Bb minor ending on its dominant, F. This is just my interpretation and I was hoping Quijote would be around to shed some further light!

[Enrique]

The youtube score has no measure numbers. IBut the score is in imslp.org. They have only one. Would you mind seeing it and pointiing to me the exact bar number where that second instance starts?

[Peter]

The youtube score has no measure numbers. IBut the score is in imslp.org. They have only one. Would you mind seeing it and pointiing to me the exact bar number where that second instance starts?

Not sure about the legality issue here in the uk, so I haven't downloaded that. The phrases are 4 bars long so the second instance starts 8 bars after the first.

[Enrique]

Yes, the 2nd instance is exactly like the first save it is a fifth below. Peter, about the seriousness of the International Music score Library Project there can be no doubt about there legality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intern...ibrary_Project