The word
Aeolian, like the names for the other ancient Greek
tonoi and
harmoniai, is an ethnic designation: in this case, for the inhabitants of
Aeolis (), a coastal district of
Anatolia. In the
music theory of
ancient Greece, it was an alternative name (used by some later writers, such as
Cleonides) for what
Aristoxenus called the Low Lydian
tonos (in the sense of a particular overall pitching of the musical system—not a scale), nine semitones higher than the lowest "position of the voice", which was called
Hypodorian. In the mid-16th century, this name was given by
Heinrich Glarean to his newly defined ninth mode, with the
diatonic octave species of the natural notes extending one octave from A to A—corresponding to the modern natural minor scale. Up until this time, chant theory recognized eight
musical modes: the relative natural scales in D, E, F and G, each with their
authentic and
plagal counterparts, and with the option of B instead of B in several modes. In 1547,
Heinrich Petri published
Heinrich Glarean's
Dodecachordon in Basel. His premise had as its central idea the existence of twelve
diatonic modes rather than eight, including a separate pair of modes each on the finals A and C. Finals on these notes, as well as on B, had been recognized in chant theory at least since
Hucbald in the early tenth century, but they were regarded as merely transpositions from the regular finals a fifth lower. In the eleventh century,
Guido d'Arezzo, in chapter 8 of his
Micrologus, designated these transposed finals A, B, and C as "affinals", and later still the term "confinal" was used in the same way. In 1525,
Pietro Aaron was the first theorist to explain polyphonic modal usage in terms of the eightfold system, including these transpositions. As late as 1581, Illuminato Aiguino da Brescia published the most elaborate theory defending the eightfold system for polyphonic music against Glarean's innovations, in which he regarded the traditional plainchant modes 1 and 2 (
Dorian and Hypodorian) at the affinal position (that is, with their finals on A instead of D) as a composite of species from two modes, which he described as "mixed modes". Glarean added
Aeolian as the name of the
new ninth mode: the relative natural mode in A with the
perfect fifth as its dominant,
reciting tone, reciting note, or
tenor. The tenth mode, the plagal version of the Aeolian mode, Glarean called
Hypoaeolian ("under Aeolian"), based on the same relative scale, but with the
minor third as its tenor, and having a melodic range from a
perfect fourth below the tonic to a
perfect fifth above it. Scholars for the past three centuries have regarded the modes added by Glarean as the basis of the
minor/
major division of
classical European music, as
homophonic music replaced Renaissance
polyphony. Howard S Powers considers this to be an oversimplification, since the key of
A minor is as closely related to the old transposed modes 1 and 2 (Dorian and Hypodorian) with finals on A—as well as to mode 3 (Phrygian)—as it is to Glarean's Aeolian. In modern usage, the Aeolian mode is the sixth mode of the major scale and has the following formula: :1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 The Aeolian mode is the sixth mode of the major scale, that is, it is formed by starting on the sixth degree (
submediant) of the major scale. For example, if the Aeolian mode is used in its all-white-note pitch based on A, this would be an A-minor triad, which would be the submediant in the relative major key of
C major. : {\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c' { \clef treble \time 7/4 \hide Staff.TimeSignature a4^\markup { A Aeolian scale } b c d e f g a2 } } == Aeolian harmony ==