Using modes and static harmony

Question

Edit: i know what modes are and how they are related to major scale..etc. question is about modal harmony and chord progression in modal harmony. not what is a mode and name of other modes..etc

What does that mean when we say a given song is in for instance in A Dorian mode?(like Beatles Eleanor Rigby)

First I thought simply we take the A Dorian scale then find the chord progression by taking every 1 3 5 interval of each note in that scale and end up with a series of chords to use in that KEY.

But later I learned that "dorian" mode is the opposite of a progression. Dorian is a "mode" (the second mode of the major scale) and implies a static harmony.

What does this static harmony mean? When I want to make a song on a specific mode, then how can I determine the usable chords or chord progression in that song? One thing I heard was I need to use unrelated chords so they don't pull your ear to a center. But how to determine in theory what is the "best" "unrelated" chords

Answer 1

As far as I'm aware, Beatles' Eleanor Rigby is written in E Aeolian/minor (with the key signature of a G major/E minor, which is just one sharp at the F).

Although most of the song is mostly played in Aeolian, the verses are alternating with the Dorian mode. The Dorian mode is almost exactly the same as an Aeolian mode, but with a raised sixth! In this case the C becomes a C#.

A mode is just a scale, but are most commonly refered to in the context of "The seven modes" which are: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixo-Lydian, Aeolian and Locrian. These scales are all "modes" of each other, meaning that a C Ionian scale contains the same notes as a E Phrygian and a G Mixo-Lydian.

This song, however, is first played in E Aeolian, and then E Dorian.

That'll be the conclusion of this rough song analysis, now to your question about static harmony (versus dynamic harmony). These terms are fairly new to me, as I'm more familiar with classic functional analysis, and this is more of a modern approach (at least as far as I'm aware), but I'll do me best to explain them:

A static harmony is a term you're concerned with, when you're analyzing a a songs "syntactic structure". It is a harmony made from roughly one chord (most often the tonic of the dominant), and the prolongation of this chord.

A dynamic harmony, on the other hand, is made up from chord progressions - changing in chords. The most common of these harmonies being the authentic cadence (D-T) and the plagal cadence.

You can read more about cadences on Wikipedia, and you can read much more about syntactic structures in this book.

EDIT: Updated the answer, to answer your question about types of syntactic structures - Sorry for the misunderstanding.