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Compiling global examples of music in the Locrian Scale

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1-b2-b3-4-b5-b6-b7

(C-D^b-E^b-F-G^b-A^b-B^b)

o o • o • o o • o • o • o

• Locrian Scale: Sounds •

Real-world examples of the scale in action:

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• General: While some claim that the Locrian is almost never used in its ‘pure’ form (rather than as fleeting tonal colour elsewhere), a fair scattering of such instances can be identified. Examples hail from disparate genres: including modern trad-folk (accordionist John Kirkpatrick’s Dust to Dust), D’n’B (the outro of Mampi Swift’s Jaws VIP Mix), and experimental pop (Bjork’s Army of Me: although the root is somewhat ambiguous). Also hear a keyboard composition by Nathan Shirley, a piano ballad and solo piece by Fernie Canto, and a surprisingly melodious Icelandic rework of Happy Birthday – plus Adam Neely’s ‘Making the Locrian Sound Good‘ challenge, featuring efforts by Paul Davids, Ben Levin, Samurai Guitarist, & Nahre Sol.

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• Rock: Several guitar groups have turned to the scale’s unique instabilities, including The Strokes (Juicebox), Rush (YYZ: intro), Judas Priest (Painkiller), Seven Impale (Helix), King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (Gliese 710), and Metallica (Sad But True: main riff) – in fact, you could argue that the iconic intro to Enter Sandman is a Locrian match as well.

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• Classical: Used in Benjamin Britten’s In Freezing Winter Night, and appears near the start of Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp: II – as well as in the intro of Gabriel Fauré’s String Quartet in Em: II, and surfacing in several sections of Debussy’s Jeux and Paul Hindemith’s Turandot Scherzo (alternating with the Mixolydian). Also implied fleetingly in many other compostions, often as a modification of the Phrygian (e.g. in bar 8 of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Aleko: Introduction).

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• Soundtrack: As highlighted in 8-bit Music Theory’s excellent video ‘LOCRIAN doesn’t have to be SpOoKy‘, the scale turns up on multiple video game soundtracks – with examples drawn from Doom, Final Fantasy VI, The Legend of Zelda, and beyond. It also turns up in the Trainer Battle Theme from Pokemon, and as the Torture Chamber Theme from Super Castlevania IV.

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• India: Although the ‘♮4, b5, and no ♮5‘ combination is rare in North Indian music, several Locrian-congruent ragas have been devised by Hindustani artists over the years – including Meladalan (a name which translates as ‘Destroying the Foundational Scales‘), Parijat (below: a captivating journey through multiple modal shades), Ritu (derived from a Madhya Pradesh folk tune), Nauhar Todi (which emphasises the lower tetrachord), Antariksh (devised by Ashish Dha for spiritual purposes), and ‘Madhyam se Bhairavi‘ (‘Bhairavi from ma’: i.e. ‘Phrygian rotated onto its 4th degree’). I’m yet to trace the scale’s use in South India’s Carnatic traditions.

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• Middle East: Approximates the rare Maqam Lami, with likely origins in Iraq. Listen to an oud rendition by Rahim Al-Haj, a qu’ranic chant by Imam Ahmad Nufais, and an amazing 1932 recording by Ezra Aharon (“part of the Iraqi delegation to the First Cairo Congress of Arab Music…[who] won first place, and were awarded a prize by King Fuad I”). Also gives shape to a Hebrew-language Song of Songs recitation by Itamar Malka.

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—Raag Parijat (North India)—

Ulhas Bapat (santoor)

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“A mysterious creation I stumbled upon in Rao’s 1965 Raga Nidhi Vol. 3: ‘Meladalan and ‘Thatavidhwamasa’ are pseudo-names which Acharya Brahaspati has given to a raga, the identity of which he wants to keep unpublished for certain reasons. He points out, however, that it is an ancient raga which he wants to bring into life again’. Both these titles mean ‘Destroying the Foundational Scales’: indicating Brahaspati’s boundary-pushing intentions…” (from my Raag Meladalan page)

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• Locrian Scale: More •

Features, classifiers, quirks, etc…

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The Major scale’s final mode is undoubtedly its least prevalent rotation: being the only scale in this set to lack a perfect 5th above the root (=‘Phrygian b5’). Additionally, the human tendency to hear the higher tone of a chromatic pair as the ‘home tone’ brings further disbalance, strengthening the b2 and b5 while weakening the root and ♮4. Nevertheless, it does occasionally turn up in its ‘pure’ form across disparate global genres: with the examples above suggesting to me that the scale is better described as ‘unstable’ rather than ‘dissonant’ (for example the Hindustani Raag Meladalan uses the weakness of the root to shift between the shades of other Major modes – and The Strokes’ Juicebox sometimes flips to the relative Major for a dramatic colour-shift).

 

The scale’s name derives from retroactive analyses of modal chant music, appearing in its modern usage some time in the 18th century – but the term ‘Locrian’ has also been applied to a range of other note-sequences in past eras (the word itself originally referred to the people of Locris, a region of Ancient Greece). Also see the equivalent ‘final modes’ of the Melodic Minor (Superlocrian: with a b4) and Harmonic Minor (Superlocrian Diminished, with a b4 and bb7: although Rafi Kharis rightly points out that ‘Super-Duper-Locrian’ would be a better title…).

 

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—Classifiers & Quirks—

• Modes: Major set (Major; Dorian; Phrygian; Lydian; Mixolydian; Aeolian; Locrian)
• Quirks: Hemitonic; Maximal; Reflectional sym. (imperfect: root; detached: none)
• Names: Locrian (Western); Meladalan (Hindustani), Lami (Maqam), Hypophrygian (archaic)

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n.b. For more detailed geometric and mathematical analysis, refer to this scale’s entry in Ian Ring’s fantastic Exciting Universe of Music Theory project (for which I am an occasional ‘raga consultant’)

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