Music/Scale/Dorian/Ukrainian

• Ukrainian Dorian Scale

  • Also called Romanian minor, Dorian ♯4 and, in klezmer, Mi sheberakh or Av harachamim. On C: C D E♭ F♯ G A B♭. Steps in semitones: 2 1 3 1 2 1 2. The fourth mode of Music/Scale/Minor/Harmonic.

  • History

    • The scale belongs to the folk and liturgical music of Ukraine, Romania and Moldova and the Ashkenazi Jewish communities that lived among them. Klezmer musicians named it after the Sabbath prayer Mi sheberakh, whose cantorial setting uses it.
    • The Western names are descriptive labels from twentieth-century scale catalogues. Practitioners name it by its prayer or by the genre that uses it.

  • Use

    • Klezmer doinas, the free-rhythm improvisations that open a suite, often sit in this mode, as do many Romanian and Ukrainian dance tunes.
    • The augmented second ♭3–♯4 is the mode's signature figure. Melodies circle around ♯4 and resolve it up to 5 or down to ♭3.

  • Quirks

    • The name says Dorian, and the only change from Music/Scale/Dorian is the raised fourth. Its pitches still come from harmonic minor a fifth below: C Ukrainian Dorian uses the notes of G harmonic minor.
    • Over a tonic minor triad, the ♯4 and 6 together outline a diminished-seventh sonority (F♯ A C E♭), which gives a static tonic a strong pull toward the dominant.