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A Quoran requested my answer to the question:
What are the characteristics of Phrygian?
A few of the other answers that beat me to it stressed the fact that Phrygian is the third mode and hence any iii chord (chord on the third scale degree) will sound Phrygian. I take issue with that answer because if you hear Phrygian in the context of functional harmony you will not hear the yummy, mysterious and dark sounds of Phrygian – rather, you will hear the sound of a iii chord in the context of an implied or actually played tonic. So you hear the functional identity of the scale or chord (not the modal one).
In order to remedy that, we have to put Phrygian into a modal context, one that is not built on the relationship to a I chord (as tonic) but rather a context that makes the root of the Phrygian scale the focal point. Would you like to hear what that sounds like?
Read my answer which contains YouTube examples. Enjoy!
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