A modal frame in music is "a number of types permeating and unifying African, European, and American song" and melody. It may also be called a melodic mode. "Mode" and "frame" are used interchangeably in this context without reference to scalar or rhythmic modes. Melodic modes define and generate melodies that are not determined by harmony, but purely by melody. A note frame, is a melodic mode that is atonic (without a tonic), or has an unstable tonic.
Modal frames may be defined by their:
- floor note: the bottom of the frame, felt to be the lowest note, though isolated notes may go lower,
- ceiling note: the top of the frame,
- central note: the center around which other notes cluster or gravitate,
- upper or lower focus: portion of the mode on which the melody temporarily dwells, and can also defined by melody types, such as:
- chant tunes: (Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues") alternating notes a third apart, most often a neutral, see double tonic
Shout-and-fall
Shout-and-fall or tumbling strain is a modal frame, "very common in Afro-American-derived styles" and featured in songs such as "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "My Generation".
"Gesturally, it suggests 'affective outpouring', 'self-offering of the body', 'emptying and relaxation'." The frame may be thought of as a deep structure common to the varied surface structures of songs in which it occurs.
They are "commonplace in post-rock 'n' roll popular music – and also appear in earlier tunes".
See also
- Melodic motion
- Tune-family