Hypolocrian mode

music

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July 20, 2026

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The Hypolocrian mode is a hypothetical church mode in Western music, representing a scale from F to F on the white keys of a piano, with E as its tenor and B as its final. This mode, along with the Locrian mode, was discussed by Henricus Glareanus in his 1547 treatise Dodecachordon.12

Glareanus expanded the system of church modes to include major and minor modes and the growing importance of harmony. However, he excluded the Locrian and Hypolocrian modes because their finalis on B, combined with a secondary center on F, created a tritone. The tritone, also known as the "devil in music," was generally avoided until the 18th century.2

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Locrian mode
…its plagal (lower-register) counterpart, the Hypolocrian mode, existed in principal long before they were mentioned by the Swiss humanist Henricus Glareanus in his landmark music treatise Dodecachordon (1547). In that work Glareanus expanded the standing system of church modes to accommodate the increasingly common major and minor modes as well…
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…its plagal (lower-register) counterpart, the Hypolocrian mode, existed in principal long before they were mentioned by the Swiss humanist Henricus Glareanus in his landmark music treatise Dodecachordon (1547). In that work Glareanus expanded the standing system of church modes to accommodate the increasingly common major and minor modes as well…
Read More