Performed by The Jolly Rogers:
key: D Dorian
mode: D E F G A B C
melody: D r m f s l t d r'
form: strophic with refrain and chorus
meter: duple
English function names: tonic subtonic
Tagg (modified): home counterpoise (away)
Riemann: t dP
Scale degrees: i VII
Chords: Dm C
Dm C
|/ / / / |/ / / / |
Dm C Dm
|/ / / / |/ / / / |
In our previous post, we talked about "true" minor versus "minor adjacent" or "minor-ish" modes and whether we need to name them specifically or just say it's minor. Yes? I mean… Yes! What we now call the dorian mode is one of the minor-ish modes that sounds more distinctly like its own flavor, whereas aeolian is much closer — more adjacent? — to "true" minor. We even say that the "true" minor comes in three forms, one of which is the aeolian mode,1 and the other two are considered modifications thereof. We teach this because that's how they often appear in notated music. And we learn scales to make learning the music a bit faster and easier, even though scales often are synonymous with drudgery. In classical music, dorian has become relegated to the "exotic," but the scale has found a secure home as the standard minor flavor in jazz.
What is a scale or mode anyway? It is simply the set of pitches used in a song — both in the melody and the harmony — put in stepwise order, with the most important pitch (the tonic) at the beginning and end. And as we musos know, you can take the same set of pitches, put them in a different stepwise order and you get a different mode! Strange, but true. Emphasize different pitches in the set and you get a different flavor.2
In terms of form, on the phrase level this song starts as a shuttle (even time spent on each harmony, going back and forth), then becomes a sandwich (the subtonic "filling" between two slices of tonic "bread") so that we can end each section on the home chord. Also of interest is that this song is strophic but has both a refrain and a chorus.
A strophic song has the same melody for every section over and over again, as the words change. It is the form of choice for ballads, which we now think of as slow, romantic songs,3 but originally were simply story-songs, including ones of unrequited love. Having the same melody over and over puts more of the focus on the lyrics. The challenge is having one "set" of music that fits as the emotional arc of the story develops. In one sense it's easy (just one tune!) and in another it's quite hard (not just any tune!). This song is both a ballad, in the sense that there's the narrative of what we are going to do with this guy, and a work song, as it's a sea shanty for timing collective movement like rowing, hauling, heaving, and tacking.
Often, refrain and chorus are used synonymously, and perhaps that's due in part to other languages only using the term "refrain" for any part that keeps coming back. Technically they are different — or at least we differentiate them in English: A refrain is a line, maybe two, that comes back at the end of each section or verse. "Early in the morning" is sung at the end of every section and is therefore a refrain. A chorus is a discrete section of its own that comes back between verses. Most of the time, the chorus has a different melody too, but in this case it has the same melody4 and the refrain as well.
other recordings:
The Longest Johns, Written in Salt, self-released. D dorian.
Schooner Fare, Day of the Clipper, Outer Green Records. E dorian.
The Irish Rovers, Drunken Sailor, Rover Records. E dorian.
Bill Dempsey, Shanty Man, self-released. A dorian.
Aeolian is now what Classical folk call "natural" minor, which is rather amusing — you can almost hear David Attenborough… "Here is the minor mode in its natural habitat!"
We could get into the specifics of scale vs mode, too. There's a lot of historical baggage which has contributed to the confusion around these things. Perhaps a different post. Ethan Hein likes to visualize musical phenomena in circles, which you can check out here:
https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2011/intro-to-minor-keys/
and here:
and here:
Are "power ballads" a thing anymore?
Same melody, but with slightly different rhythms, due to having fewer syllables: 10 in the verse, versus 7 in the chorus