In order to come to an accurate decision about how much music is written in
which mode it would be necessary to tally every piece of music ever written
and assign it a "major" or "minor" flag.  I don't think it is likely that
anyone will ever be able to do this.

Even if such a project were practical we would have to realize that
music that is "in" a particular mode often partakes of the other.  To take
some examples from Beethoven's works that are titled in minor keys: the
Appasionata sonata begins with a no-nonsense statement in f minor, then
gives out the same statement in the Neapolitan key of G-flat major.  The
5th symphony could start in E-flat major for all anybody knows, then goes
into c minor in its third phrase.  There are quite a few incursions into
the major mode in as the first movement progresses, eventually ending in c
minor.  The second movement spends most of its time in A-flat major and C
major.  The third movement starts in c minor and goes into C major in its
trio, and after the most astounding of all transitions the fourth movement
begins in C major and mostly stays in the major mode.  To say that this is
"music written in minor" is misleading to say the least.

To say nothing of pre-tonal modal traditions, pre-tonal (often pre-guitar)
folk traditions, polytonality that may have "both" modes going at once
(where would you put the major-minor triad at the beginning of W.
Schuman's 8th Symphony?), and atonality?

Aaron J. Rabushka
[log in to unmask]