Modal Types and "Ut, Re, Mi" Tonalities: Tonal Coherence in Sacred Vocal Polyphony from about 1500

Comment on Huron and Veltman: Does a Cognitive Approach to Medieval Mode Make Sense?

“…After all, we do not even know for sure that people perceived eight different modes. Even for the early Renaissance, after centuries of priming with the eight-mode system, there is some evidence of the practical use of three or four modes (Judd 1992;Wiering 2001, 44,132). A large-scale quantitative analysis of the surviving plainchant, taking geographical distribution and historical change into account, may help us to come closer to the solutions than we can by employing traditional analytical tools.…”