Nicolas Meeùs, Aspects of Modality in Renaissance Polyphony

Abstract

This paper considers modality as a common characteristic of many Renaissance
polyphonic compositions, a characteristic that ensures their inner coherence and that
defines them as works of art. Modality will be envisaged here in the abstract, independently of the modal assignment of individual compositions. The paper first discusses the constitution of the dual diatonic system of the Renaissance, cantus durus
and cantus mollis, and its origin. It then turns to matters of pitch standard, of transposition, and of the constraints of notation. It concludes examining shortly how modality
and modal coherence can be expressed in the works, not only by the choice of cadential degrees, but also by the existence of a modal space comparable to the tonal space
of Schenkerian theory of tonality