folk mode

A scale or tonal system derived from folk music — pentatonic scales, Dorian mode, Phrygian mode, whole-tone scales, and others that fall outside Western major-minor tonality. Bartók used folk modes both as melodic material and as a structural replacement for the classical tonal system.

When playing modal Bartók, avoid \"correcting\" unexpected intervals toward familiar tonal expectations. The raised or lowered notes in a folk mode are features, not accidents. Tune your ear to the mode's internal logic rather than comparing it to a major or minor scale.