​Musical Links Investigation
Links between Classical Music And Modal Jazz Using Examples.
By Anupama Rijhwani
​
Dorian mode in Miles Davis' So what
In the genre of modal jazz, ‘So What’ is set in the Dorian mode and consists of 16 bars of D Dorian, followed by eight bars of E♠Dorian and another eight of D Dorian. Like Beethoven, Miles Davis makes significant use of the D Dorian. This is shown from the first bars:
Here in the bass we see a D natural note, and we also see a B natural, which is similar to the first part of the 'Et Incartnatus' of Credo, and a C Natural, which is also constituted by the second part of the 'Et Incartnatus'.
This shows that it is the D Dorian mode used in this intro. We can see this from the scale of D Dorian. Therefore, like Beethoven, we can see that Miles Davis shows a clear indication of the utilisation of the D Dorian.
This indication is continued with the denotation in the chords which are repeatedly played in the intro by the piano. D-G-B to C-F-A are most of the notes consisted in the D Dorian scale. This pattern is repeated throughout the first section and the rhythms are even used in the E flat Dorian section which comes next in bar 18.
We can see here that the rhythm has remained the same even though the key signature and the notes have changed. The E flat dorian is Eb F Gb Ab Bb C Db Eb. Therefore, the utilisation of the key signature with 5 flats, cover these 5 flats in the Eb dorian. We know that it is the Eb Dorian because it moves in the same way as section A, but the notes are one semitone higher (D to Eb). This shows contrast to what is used by Beethoven in Credo: he solely uses the D Dorian to highlight the 'Et Incarnatus' section of the movement.
The key signature moves back quickly to the D Dorian in the 26th bar:
