Locrian.

The term commonly used when referring to the octave species from B to b divided at f and consisting of a diminished 5th plus an augmented 4th, B–c–d–e–f + f–g–a–b; Glarean, in the Dodecachordon (1547), called this division of the octave Hyperaeolian. The term ‘Locrian’ is mentioned by several classical writers, including Cleonides (as an octave species) and Athenaeus (as an obsolete harmonia); it occurs twice in classical citations in the Dodecachordon (i/9 and i/25) and similarly in Zarlino's Le istitutioni harmoniche (2/1573, p.367). There is no warrant, however, for the modern usage of ‘Locrian’ as equivalent to Glarean's ‘Hyperaeolian’ in either classical authority, Renaissance modal theory or its successive phases in the 17th and 18th centuries (see, for example, the entries ‘Modus musicus’ and ‘Modus locricus’ in WaltherML), or modern scholarship on ancient Greek musical theory and practice.

HAROLD S. POWERS