The church where I play the organ is allowing me to teach the congregation how to read music. I don't call the course How to Read Music, I call it How to Diagram a Song.
The final lesson of the first sequence ends with reading the hymnal versions of the hymns for this Sunday.
During our study, we made great use of Solfège.
In the final class, we are ending with a community singing of the Queen Song, "We Will We Will Rock You."
The foot-stomping/hand clapping intro is used to demonstrate rhythmic notation.
The chorus then (the We Will We Will Rock You part)then enters. I thought we would sing it, in Solfège, DO - TI - LA - SOL - LA - LA. However, commercially available sheet music of the song is published both in the keys of C and G. The melody notes in both versions, though, are identical. The Chorus proceeds G - F# - E - D - E - E.
That got me to thinking something funky was going on.
The melody of the Chorus is similar to Dies Irae. Dies Irae is in the Dorian mode.
Dies Irae begins on FA, and proceeds FA - MI - RE - DO - RE - RE.
The question to the group is, "What mode is We Will We Will Rock You in? Is it Dorian or Aeolian?
Two things:
1st: The medieval Church modes are not the same thing as the Greek modes. Calling Gregorian Chants by "Dorian", "Aeolian" etc is tempting but they are different things and therefore the Greek names are an incorrect term to be applied to Gregorian Chants. The Dies Irae is neither Dorian nor Aeolian. It is in Mode 1 or "authentic Protus".
2nd: The Dies Irae begins on FA but the sequence is FA-MI-FA-Re-MI-DO-RE-RE.