Pythagorean Modes Coming Down Through History
I'll bet you didn't know that Pythagoras was such an accomplished guy! Far from being just a mathematician, he was into the whole science of combining astrology with musical modes to promote inner harmony and peace.
This may all sound a little weird and a lot of people might dismiss it as being a bit airy-fairy. But actually, for what we're going to be doing, it doesn't matter whether we believe in Astrology or not!
... Or in the power of ancient healing music!
When Pythagoras said that Saturn brings a particular influence upon the mind and it can be rectified by listening to the hypomixolydian mode, then that was a matter of clinical observation. Listening to the mode will help to create mental balance whether or not we believe in the power of Saturn.
If we have problems rationalizing Astrology as a serious science we just have to remember that Pythagoras was a scientific genius who just happened to speak the " starry language" of his day.
So ...
They composed their healing music in a number of different musical scales (or modes) which had (and still have) varying effects on the mind. The modes perpetuated and were eventually inherited by Western European musicians in the Middle Ages. They then became known as the Medieval Modes.
The medieval musicians did not, however, utilize the modes specifically as healing music. Instead, being primarily artists and not therapists, they gradually extended the boundaries of modal composition until the modern major and minor tonalities evolved. This permitted the discovery of the rich harmonies of the 17th century and their further evolution into the 19th and 20th/21st centuries.
