This article examines Age of Chivalry, a bonus track from my debut album Christendom Reborn, as a study in modal writing for the electric guitar. Based on a Renaissance lute piece, Age of Chivalry moves outside the framework of functional harmony while maintaining a strong tonal center. The material is especially useful for guitarists aiming to deepen their grasp of modal phrasing, non-functional melodic writing, and interval-based construction. Age of Chivalry also serves as a focused study in expressive vibrato.
1. Key and Tonal Center
The piece is centered on A, functioning as a modal final rather than a tonic in the sense defined by the common-practice tonal system. There are no dominant–tonic cadences, and the seventh scale degree is G natural—not G♯—throughout the first 49 measures. This reinforces the modal quality and separates the piece from tonal idioms. Instead, the melodic line establishes A as the center through phrase cadence, registral emphasis, and rhythmic arrival points, following the logic of pre-tonal modal music. This approach is emphatically distinct from both common-practice tonality and modern atonality.
In modal contexts like this, the concept of a final rather than a tonic shifts the listener’s expectations. Instead of resolving dominant tension, the phrases settle through return and emphasis. This creates a sense of stability without requiring functional closure—one of the hallmarks of authentic modal expression.
2. Modal Language
The modal color alternates between A Dorian and A Aeolian. The Dorian flavor emerges clearly from the use of F♯ in several phrases, imparting a lifted, bright character. Other sections use F natural, which gives the Aeolian mode its characteristic somber tone. The modal ambiguity is a hallmark of Renaissance-influenced writing, and the piece exploits this by allowing the sixth scale degree to toggle between F♯ and F♮ depending on the expressive need of the line.
In particular, the oscillation between Aeolian and Dorian evokes the Renaissance practice of melodic flexibility within a modal framework. This reflects a pre-tonal understanding of mode as a dynamic field rather than a fixed scalar pattern. The appearance of F♯ in ascending figures (e.g., leading to E or G) often creates a feeling of uplift, while F♮ tends to anchor descending or cadential motion, heightening the expressive contrast.
3. Melodic Writing
Rather than outlining harmonic progressions, the melodic writing is intervallic and horizontal. Phrases develop by repetition, inversion, and contour variation. Much of the material remains in position and emphasizes diatonic intervals, melodic sequencing, and resolution through motion toward A. Melodic development here functions more like rhetorical elaboration than harmonic voice leading.
One illustrative technique is the use of contour inversion, where an initial phrase ascends and its answer descends by similar intervals. This can be seen in early phrases that pivot around A, moving outward and then inward symmetrically. The effect is both rhetorical and architectural, as if the line were carved from intervallic cells.
4. Harmonic Texture
There is no functional harmony in the traditional sense. The guitar part is monophonic, with occasional implied dyads or double-stops that reflect modal reinforcement rather than harmonic progression. The accompaniment (bass and drums) supports the phrasing rhythmically and registers the tonal center but avoids cadential motion. Harmony, if it exists at all, is the result of intervallic resonance rather than progression.
Even when two or more notes sound together, they serve to color or punctuate the melody rather than to imply a harmonic progression. Open fifths and fourths—intervals historically associated with modal resonance—are preferred over thirds and sevenths. The result is a harmonic language more akin to organum or drone-based accompaniment than to triadic chord changes.
5. Key Change at Measure 50
At measure 50, the key signature changes to three sharps, indicating A major (A–B–C♯–D–E–F♯–G♯–A). Unlike the previous modal material, this section uses G♯ consistently, reflecting a true tonal shift. The melodic gestures also become more symmetrical and emphasize scalar motion, aligning more clearly with tonal expectations.
This passage marks a notable shift in mood—brighter, more grounded, and less ambiguous. The move to A major doesn’t entirely discard the earlier modal flavor, but it reframes it in a more tonal light before the piece returns to its darker material in the closing measures. The shift functions structurally as a kind of episode or contrasting section within the larger modal framework. In a sense, it evokes the idea of a paratactic episode—a Renaissance-to-Baroque concept where a passage interrupts the prevailing mode not to modulate, but to ornament the larger form with rhetorical brightness before returning to the original ethos.
6. Final Remarks
Age of Chivalry offers guitarists an opportunity to study modal composition from the inside. It’s not merely modal in scale selection but modal in structure, motion, and phrase cadence. As such, it reflects the influence of pre-tonal traditions in a modern idiom. For players seeking to break free from functional harmony and explore melodic writing grounded in mode rather than chord, this piece is a valuable model. It inverts the usual compositional process: instead of starting with chord progressions and layering melodies on top, it builds outward from modal melody, allowing line and contour to generate their own harmonic color. That reversal invites a return to melody-driven invention, where line and shape dictate structure, and where harmonic flavor arises from the intervals themselves.
Buy the guitar tablature and backing track here.