Is there a difference between Ionian mode and the major scale? C Ionian mode and the C major scale are the same collection of pitches. Does that mean that they are the same thing? There is a lot of confusion about this. Classic FM says that C Ionian and C major are interchangeable. This Stack Exchange thread says they aren’t, with some useful historical context. The difference really comes down to pitch centrality. The C major scale has a strong sense of being centered around the note C, and it implies the whole complex system of tension and resolution that you learn about in music theory class. By contrast, C Ionian mode doesn’t so much “function” as it drifts around without really progressing.
It’s hard to find examples of Ionian! There are plenty of pop songs based on the white keys of the piano whose key centers are ambiguous between C major and A minor, but it’s hard to find a piece of major-scale music that just floats around. The closest thing I can think of is Björk’s beautiful tune “The Anchor Song”, with its delightfully angular saxophone arrangement that she wrote with Oliver Lake.
Björk has talked a bit about writing “The Anchor Song”, but only about the lyrics, not the music. She has conservatory training and is deliberate about all of her note choices, so I’m sure she constructed this tune with intention, but I don’t know what that intention was. I figured the tune out by ear a while ago, and came up with a guitar arrangement that I’m proud of, but I didn’t try to write it out. Recently I tried to warp the song out in Ableton, and I discovered that I could not suss the meter out at all.
Fortunately, Björk helped me out by publishing a beautifully typeset book of her scores, and it includes a keyboard arrangement of “The Anchor Song.” I entered it into Noteflight, and added chord symbols as best I could.
Here’s my Ableton Live visualization, now that I know how everything is supposed to be lined up on the grid:
All these chords are built from the white keys, but they don’t function the way the key of C major does. Check out the fourth measure. This is where a normal person would put a V-I cadence, some form of G7 resolving to some form of C. But where you expect G7, Björk uses Em7 instead. This chord has three of the same notes as G7 (G, B and D), but the E in the bass undermines any sense of tension. The phrase does end on a C chord, but it only feels final because of its metrical placement; the prominent B on top weakens its sense of harmonic closure.
The verse similarly defies tension and resolution, at least in harmonic terms. The vocal phrases mostly start on C, but those notes feel like pickups to me. The phrases all end on G, and that repetition suggests that G might be the central pitch here. But the saxophone responses don’t center on G. The first sax line ends on a completely ambiguous chord made from D, E and A, which I labeled Dsus2 for lack of anything better. The second sax line has a more conventional chord progression, Dm7 to G7 to Am9. However, the Dm has C in the bass, and the Am9 could also be a strangely voiced Cmaj7.
The chorus uses similar chords to the second saxophone response, but in a different order: Am7 to G to Dm7. The vocal line continues after that for a couple of bars without any accompaniment, and it doesn’t imply any particular harmony at all. If I had to pick a chord to put underneath, I would maybe use G7sus4, except that the word “home” ends on an E. That note doesn’t feel like the third of C, either; it feels more like the root of Em. This is all very unconventional! My kids dislike it intensely. They are at an age where they need music to make sense, and the fact that this song doesn’t make sense offends their sensibilities. That’s okay! I couldn’t stand Björk until I was into my twenties. I guess I wasn’t ready.
When I worked up “The Anchor Song” for guitar, I dropped the key a half step to B, because I needed the open E string, and also because the natural resonances of the guitar work better in this key.
Having gone through Björk’s score, I apparently got some of the harmony wrong. Let’s be generous to me and call it reharmonization.
There are tons of live versions of the song online.
Here’s a choral arrangement:
Here’s one with strings:
This one is all flutes:
Here’s a very intense remix by Black Dog:
Here’s a way more conventional house mix:
Update: Wenatchee the Hatchet has an alternative read on the modality. It’s pretty plausible.