Major-Minor Concepts and Modal Theory in Germany, 1592-1680

Author(s): Joel Lester

Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society , Summer, 1977, Vol. 30, No. 2
(Summer, 1977), pp. 208-253
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological
Society

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 Major-Minor Concepts and Modal Theory in
Germany, I592-1680
By JOEL LESTER

A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION into the development of the theory of major and

minor keys alongside of and eventually replacing modal theory as the basis
of contemporary music remains, despite a number of recent studies, one of the
major lacunae in the history of music theory. Perhaps the most striking
indication of the extent of this gap is found in the article "Dur-Moll" in Die
Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart,' which skips from Zarlino to Rameau in
its historical survey, omitting the very period in which the concepts of major
and minor were developed.
But even among the more complete studies of the recognition of major and
minor in seventeenth-century theory, many fall prey to an evolutionary view
of history, in which citations from supposedly representative theorists are
considered adequate to highlight the main stages in the developmental process.
The myth of progress is nowhere more pervasive than in Hugo Riemann's
Geschichte der Musiktheorie im IX.-XIX. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, I898), still
the only work in its field that attempts to cover the entire range of its subject.
Riemann openly sides against a purely historical survey of music theory in
favor of tracing the origins and development of those concepts which have
become important in modern music theory (although for "modern music
thoery" one might best read "Riemann's music theory").2
However convenient it may be for the historian to cite the first appearance
of a given thesis, he must not isolate it from the theorist's intellectual frame-
work when evaluating the evidence. The manner of presentation and the
presence or absence of supporting corollaries are often as important as the
thesis itself. A sentence or phrase can take on a wholly different interpretation
when viewed in terms of the theorist's works, rather than in terms of our own

1Vol. III, cols. 975-83; the article is by Jacques Handschin.

2 See, for example, the Vorwort, p. vi: "Immerhin habe ich mich aber bestrebt, wenigstens
nichts wesentlich den Gang der Entwicklung Bestimmendes auszulassen und eine zusamen-
hHingende Darstellung der Genesis der einzelnen Begriffe der heutigen Lehre zu geben." Many
commentators, ranging from Matthew Shirlaw in I917 (The Theory of Harmony, most recent
edition under the title The Theory and Nature of Harmony [Sarasota, 1970], Chap. 2) to Carl
Dahlhaus in 1957 ("War Zarlino Dualist?" Die Musikforschung, X [I957], 286-90), have
criticized various aspects of Riemann's discussion of Zarlino. Yet despite the recognition of
numerous flaws in Riemann's work, his central thesis of a progressive history of music theory
has remained relatively unchallenged.

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 209

understanding of that passage or concept several centuries later. Furthermore,

the acceptance of a given doctrine in a given historical period should not be
established on the basis of the most "progressive" work of that period. This is
particularly true in the history of modal theory and the developing major-
minor key theory in Germany. In that country, contemporaneous works from
the early seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries commonly express views
on modes, on major and minor keys, or on both, that are normally considered
centuries apart. It does little justice either to the individual theorists or to our
understanding of the musicians of the time to extract a single strand and cite it
as the history of the recognition of major-minor keys.8 Rather than attempting
to identify such a single line of development, this paper will survey the
relationships among different and changing contemporary traditions in seven-
teenth-century German theory.

MODAL THEORY IN GLAREAN AND ZARLINO

The achievements of early seventeenth-century German theorists cannot

be fully appreciated without first defining the status of modal theory and of
major-minor concepts in the works of Glarean and Zarlino. The works of the
latter, as transmitted to a German audience by Sethus Calvisius in writings
dating from 1592, were a seminal influence in the remarkable developments
of the first decade after I6oo.
Glareanus and Zarlino are linked directly to the recognition of major and
minor in the recent literature: "The contrast of major and minor [was]
discussed as early as Glareanus and Zarlino ...."' "Like Glareanus, Zarlino
lists twelve [modes] but, unlike him, places the Ionian and Hypoionian first
and the Aeolian and Hypoaeolian last.... He thus not only recognizes major
and minor, like the Swiss theorist, but places them in positions of special
prominence."5
In reality, however, there is not a trace of major-minor thinking in
Glarean's Dodecachordon (Basel, I547).e Far from trying to isolate the new
Aeolian and Ionian modes, Glarean argues that he is only trying to complete
an imperfect system of eight modes by correcting a misunderstanding of the
nature of mode as octave species. Although some of this attitude may be
3 These problems affect even so admirable a study as Carl Dahlhaus's Untersuchungen i*ber
die Entstehung der harmonischen Tonalitdit (Kassel, 1968). Indeed, the strongest aspect of this
study lies in the precision with which theoretical and compositional changes are defined. But a
survey of developments throughout Western Europe over a period of several centuries neces-
sarily entails devoting only a minimum of attention to the patchwork of conflicts and con-
tradictions which make up the segments of these historical periods.
SManfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York, '947), P. 387.
' Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance (New York, I959), p. 377.
6Facsm. ed. (New York, 1967). Passages quoted below in English are taken from the
translation by Clement A. Miller, Musicological Studies and Documents, 6 (N.p., 1965), unless
otherwise noted.

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210 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

disingenuous, Glarean was certainly no musical radical. The first t

the Dodecacbordon discuss mode in terms of chant, and the introd
new modes is only applied to contemporary music in Book III
first been defended in terms of chant in Book II. In traditiona
octave species not found among the eight modes had been exp
inconsequential alteration of another species. Glarean tackles t
head on in Book II, Chapter 6, complaining about those "superficia
who contend

that the entire system is in nowise changed because of altering one or

semitones. For they say that this song is synemmenon and foreign, as it w
nothing in the substance of the mode.... And so our eleventh and twelf
not to be separated in any way from the old fifth and sixth modes beca
a single semitone in the fifth. ... Indeed, we have no quarrel with th
what they say in the beginning about a difference of a semitone, if they
the change of a single note. For we acknowledge that such a tone is use
but as a foreign tone. If, however, they believe this with respect to an ent
opinion must be turned down.
We shall easily show in what manner this is false. For if the sevent
the semitone in its fifth from the third position to the second position
completely into the first mode .... So in like manner if the third m
semitone in its fifth by one position ... it will fall into the system of th
But it is also absurd in the writings of these men, that either the seven
same as the first, or the third mode is the same as the second. Therefore,
and sixth modes, or our eleventh and twelfth modes, are not the same a
and sixth modes ...

This passage goes to the heart of the matter. For, if the placement of the
semitones within the octave species is the factor differentiating one mode from
another, who is to say which semitone alterations are essential and which are
merely superficial ?7 Glarean himself is not willing to follow it to its conclusion
and admit all semitone arrangements or even all diatonic semitone arrange-
ments; he does not want to establish true modes with a final on b. Thus, he
needs two criteria for the definition of mode: "Musical modes are nothing but
the consonant species of the octave itself, and the very ones (species) which are
joined together from the various species of fifths and fourths as we have said
above concerning intervals."'
The formal exposition of the twelve modes occupies Chapter 3 of Book II:
"How twenty-four octave-species arise from the connection of the fourth and
7 All theorists who would differentiate modes by semitone placement are vulnerable to this
argument. It is used nearly two centuries later by Mattheson in his controversy with Fux on
whether there are twelve modes or twenty-four keys.
8 Book I, Chap. 11: "Modi musici nihil aliud sunt quam ipsius Diapason consonantiae
species, quae et ipsae ex variis diapente ac diatessaron speciebus conflantur, ut supra de
intervallis diximus." The translation of this sentence is taken from Edward Houghton's review
of Clement Miller's translation, this JOURNAL, XX (1967), 292-93.

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 211

the fifth, from which species twelve are rejected and twelve are
There are three species of fourths and four species of fifths. If the s
fourths can be placed above and below the species of fifths, there are
four possible connections. Twelve of these are rejected because they g
successions of steps not found in a diatonic scale (i.e., they are not "c
species"): four or five whole tones in succession, two semitones in succe
a single whole tone between two semitones. The remaining twelve con
are the models for Glarean's six authentic and six plagal modes:

i. Dorian
2. Hypodorian
3. Phrygian 4. Hypophrygian
5. Lydian 6. Hypolydian
7. Mixolydian 8. Hypomixolydian
9. Aeolian io0. Hypoaeolian
I . Ionian 12. Hypoionian.

The traditional Greek names of the eight modes are retained. The names of
the new Aeolian and Ionian modes are adopted in accord with Glarean's
argument that he is merely restoring the ancient teaching of the modes to its
rightful place.
A second, less formal, generation of the modes is used in Chapter 4. The
seven octave species and their harmonic and arithmetic divisions are listed.
Two octave species are rejected because of a tritone or diminished fifth
between the final and fifth: the authentic and plagal modes with a final on b.
These two rejected modes are named Hyperaeolian (above Aeolian) for the
authentic form and Hyperphrygian (above Phrygian) for the plagal form."
Relationships among the modes are discussed in Chapter i i of Book II:

Modes are also changed from one into another but not with equal success. For in some
cases the change is scarcely clear even to a perceptive ear, indeed, often with great
pleasure to the listener, a fact which we have frequently declared is very common
today in changing from the Lydian to the Ionian. Those who play instruments and
who know how to sing readily the verses of poets according to a musical plan,
understand this. Indeed, in this way they are frequently worthy of praise if they do it
skillfully, especially if they change the Ionian into the Dorian. But in other cases the
changing seems rough, and scarcely ever without a grave offense to the ears, as
changing from the Dorian to the Phryian.... It is evident from the previous
discussion that the entire difference between the modes arises from the changing of the
fifth and the fourth within the octave in which all modes fit. But this variation arises
from the different placing of the semitone, which alters the entire situation. It is also
evident that the Lydian and Hypolydian modes have a common fifth, namely, the
third species; the Phrygian and Hypophrygian have a common fifth, the second
species, each of which includes the tritone, a hard interval, and somewhat unsuitable

9 Glarean explains that there is no other name for the authentic mode on b (Book II, Chap.
i8). The plagal mode with a final on b could be named as other plagal modes, "but no sensible
person says Hypohyperaeolian" (Book II, Chap. 25).

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212 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

to the diatonic system.... And thus if one changes the Ionian and Hyp
the Dorian and Hypodorian, the fifth is changed but is still without a trito
reason, the ears are not offended, but rather one will be pleased by the chan
modes.

The major or minor third is not a factor in determining closely related

modes. Thus, Ionian and Dorian are listed together because in both there is no
tritone within the species of fifth. Lydian is shown to be changed to Ionian in
order to remove the tritone from the fifth species, and Hypolydian is always
changed to Hypoionian (Book III, Chaps. 20, 2' ).
The ordering of the modes is discussed in Chapter 7 of Book II. Glarean
notes that some theorists place Hypodorian first, since it is the first octave
species (alphabetically). But of the three original Greek modes (Dorian,
Phrygian, and Lydian), Dorian has the first octave species and therefore was
named the first mode by "our musicians." Glarean retains this ordering, with
the addition of the four new modes. In Chapter 15 of Book II and in the
discussion of each mode separately in Chapters 16-27, the modes are ordered
alphabetically according to octave species. But when each mode is referred to
by number ("the first mode," etc.) the numbering is in the series beginning
with Dorian.
In summary, the major-minor duality of the Ionian and Aeolian modes,
or of any other modes, plays no part in any of Glarean's thinking-not in the
generation of the modes, their ordering, differentiation, relationships, or
affects.

The major-minor qualities of certain thirds and sixths do play a role in

determining the affect of the modes in the writings of Zarlino (1517-1590).
Zarlino is also the first theorist to recognize the fundamental harmony of a
fifth and third over the bass and the polarity between the form of this harmony
with a major third and that with a minor third. But for an accurate
assessment of his accomplishments it is essential to study the placement of these
tenets in his theoretical framework. His treatises contain a combination of
speculative theory, formal theoretical presentations, and a practical method of
composition. The principal work is the Istitutioni harmoniche (Venice,
I558),1o divided into four parts: Part I deals with the divisions of music and
the mathematical operations to be used later; Part II is a study of intervals;
Part III treats composition and the art of counterpoint; Part IV contains
Zarlino's formal presentation of the modes (Chaps. 1-3 I, pp. 3 59-419).1
In its general approach to the modes, Zarlino's theory is similar, if not
1o Facsm. of the first ed. (New York, 1965). The treatise was reprinted in I 61, I 562, and
1572. A new edition appeared in 1573 (facsm. ed. [Ridgewood, N.J., 19661). References below
are to the 1573 edition unless otherwise noted.
" Page 419 is incorrectly numbered 319.

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 213

identical, to Glarean's. Only eleven years after the publication of the Dodeca-
chordon, Zarlino accepts the twelve modes with neither question nor acknowl-
edgement. Following a discussion of the ancient Greek and medieval writer
on mode (Chaps. 1-8, pp. 359-78), Zarlino discusses the division of th
octave (Chap. 9, p. 379), the generation of modes by the connection of th
species of the fifth with that of the fourth (Chap. i o, pp. 379-8o),12 and the
second generation of the twelve modes by the division of the six octave specie
capable of harmonic and arithmetic division (Chap. i i, pp. 380-83). H
divides the modes into authentic and plagal categories (Chap. 12, p. 384) an
discusses range (Chaps. 13-14, pp. 384-89). The modes are differentiated b
the placement of the semitone within the octave species. If a semitone is
changed by an accidental only a few times, then the mode is not considered to
be changed. But if this alteration occurs throughout a composition, then the
mode is changed (Chap. i6, pp. 389-90). Transposition is treated in Chapte
17 with greater freedom than in the Dodecachordon. Glarean had include
only the transposition up a fourth to a signature with one flat-a transposition
sanctioned by the inclusion of bb in the solmisation hexachords. Zarlino notes
in addition that transposition is particularly necessary when singing wit
organ or other instruments. The most common transposition is up or down by
a fourth, but transpositions by a second "or another interval, not only by
chromatic notes, but even enharmonic" (p. 391), are also possible. On th
same page, a Dorian melody appears in examples transposed down and up
second; first, it appears with a signature of two flats and then with one of two
sharps. In the individual discussions of each mode (Chaps. i8-29), however
only the transposition to a signature with one flat is listed. Other aspect
treated for each mode include, in part, cadences, a list of compositions, and an
example in two voices.
In the aspects of modal theory described above, Zarlino's presentation i
either the same as Glarean's, or it differs only in minor ways. But there are
two important issues on which there is an essential difference between the tw
theorists: one concerns the ordering of the modes, and the other the differen
tiation of the modes on the basis of the imperfect consonances.
The question of the ordering of the modes arises in Chapters 18-29 of
Part IV, in which each mode is discussed in turn. In the prints from I558 to
I572, Glarean's ordering is used: Dorian and Hypodorian are the first mode
In the 1573 edition, however, the first mode discussed is Ionian. When, i
Chapter 20, Zarlino reaches the third mode (Dorian) "which was universall
placed by musicians in the first place until now, though with little reason" (p

12 "Se dalla unione, o compositione della Diapente con la Diatessaron nascono li Mod
moderni .. ." (p. 3 79-"The union or composition of the fifth with the fourth gives birth to th
modern modes").

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214 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

396), he refers to the fifth Ragionamento of his Dimostrationi harmo

(Venice, I57I)"' for the reasoning behind the new ordering.14
Definition 8 of the fifth Ragionamento is a listing of the seven oc
species in the order C, D, E, F, G, A, B.'5 The discussion following this cov
pages 270-73 and presents six reasons for the new ordering of the oc
species and, hence, the modes.

I. The model for the pure tuning on the keyboard is the octave C-c. Hence t
mode should be the first mode.16
2. The second and third reasons concern the relationship between the modes
Guidonian solmisation. "Our ancestors, having reduced the order of musical
into hexachords, and having attributed to them that order of the syllables whic
have named [ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la], they should sooner have given first place to
species of the first syllable ut than to those of re, which is the second, so that whe
fourth species is reached in their manner, it would not be necessary to retur
begin in the fourth place from the syllable ut-which for every reason should ho
first place, and not the last. .. .""
3. Zarlino then hypothesizes that A was originally selected as the first o
species since it was the first letter of the alphabet. Re was thus associated with the
mode. However, since there can be no mode on b, d was selected as the final of the
mode (also re). Zarlino, of course, does not accept this.
4. Zarlino notes that in the ordering beginning with C, there are no skips bet

13 Facsm. ed. (Ridgewood, N.J., I966).

1" Richard Crocker draws some rather wide-ranging conclusions concerning the natur
mode in the sixteenth century from Zarlino's reasons in his article, "Perche Zarlino died
nuova numerazione ai modi?" Rivista italiana di musicologia, III (1968), 48-58.
15 "La Prima specie della Diapason & quella, che tra la terza & la quarta chorda: &
settima & la ottava contiene il Semituono maggiore. La Seconda e quella..., proced
sempre dalla parte grave alla acuta" (Dimostrationi harmoniche, p. 270-"The first spec
octave is that which contains the major semitone between the third and fourth and seven
eighth notes. The second is that.., always proceeding from the low part to the high
1' "... dalla Divisione harmonicamente fatta della Diapason nelle sue parti ... nasc
ordine de intervalli: nel primo de i quali, che e il piu grave, si ritrova il Tuono maggio
Secondo il minore: & nel Terzo il maggior Semituono. Simigliantemente di nuovo nel Q
e collocato il Tuono maggiore: nel Quinto il minore: nel Sesto ancora il Tuono maggio
nel Settimo & ultimo posto nell' acuto si trova il Maggior semituono: chiaramente com
che tale Diapason: divisa secondo la natura del Numero harmonico: e collocata tra le n
moderne chorde: C. D. E. F. G. a. ?. & c" (Dimostrationi harmoniche, pp. 270-7 i-
the harmonic division of the octave into its parts ... an order of intervals is born: in the f
which, that is, the lowest, is found the major tone, in the second the minor tone, and in the
the major semitone. Similarly, again in the fourth is placed the major tone, in the fif
minor tone, in the sixth again the major tone, and in the seventh and last position at the
found the major semitone. Clearly, it is understood that such an octave, divided according
nature of the harmonic number, is placed between our modern notes C, D, E, F, G, a, b, c
17 ... . nostri Maggiori ridutto l'ordine delle chorde musicali in Hexachordi: & have
attribuito quell' ordine de Voci, che nominato havete: piu tosto bisognava dar principio a
Specie nella prima voce Ut: che nella Re, che e la Seconda: accioche quando si pervie,
Quarta specie al modo loro: non si havesse A ritornare in dietro: & incominciare nel Q
luogo di tale ordine dalla voce Ut: la quale, per ogni dovere, doverebbe tenere il primo, &
l'ultimo luogo" (Dimostrationi harmoniche, p. 27I).

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 2IS

the finals of successive authentic modes, whereas by beginning on d there is a skip

beteeen a and c.
5. By beginning on c, the finals follow the hexachord: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la.
6. Zarlino's final reason is that the ordering of the modes now follows the ordering
as described by the ancient Greeks: Dorian and Phrygian are distant from each other
by a tone, as are Phrygian and Lydian. Zarlino gives these ancient modes the numbers
I, 2, and 3. His first three authentic modes are also distant from one another by
whole steps, which is not true in the series begun on d.

In Definition 14 of the Dimostrationi (pp. 275-77), the authentic modes

in the new ordering are referred to with the following names: (i) Dorian, the
C mode; (3) Phrygian, the D mode; (5) Lydian, the E mode; (7) Mixolydian
or Locrian, the F mode; (9) Ionian, the G mode; (ii) Aeolian, the A mode.
All the names here are different from those of Glarean with the exception of
Aeolian. In addition, the names of modes 3-io do not agree with the names
given the corresponding traditional eight church modes. Perhaps it was to
prevent confusion that Zarlino avoided the use of Greek names elsewhere in
his works and referred to the modes by numbers only, in the ordering
Ionian - Aeolian (Glarean's names).'" When later theorists discuss the modes,
they generally use the names given them by Glarean, although they may use
different orderings.19 In this paper, the names always refer to Glarean's usage.
It should be clear that Zarlino's reasons for reordering are in no way
related to isolating Ionian and Aeolian or placing them in prominent posi-
tions, either because they represent "major and minor" as Gustave Reese has
asserted (see fn. y), or for any other reason. But, in any event, many a
seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century theorist would have chosen Gla-
rean's ordering as a better reflection of major and minor. Dorian, not Aeolian,

is Carl Dahlhaus (Untersuchungen, p. 188) mentions only Zarlino's last reason for
reordering the modes. He thereby ascribes the new ordering solely to a misunderstanding of
Greek theory already present in the I558 edition. Hence the use of numbers, not names, for the
modes even in that edition. Dahlhaus then wrongly attributes to Calvisius and Lippius the
explanation of Ionian in first position because it is the "most natural." This is already presented
in Zarlino's first reason, which is repeated by Calvisius (see fn. 36, below). Furthermore,
Lippius never argues for Ionian mode in the first position because it has the "natural triad" in
the "natural position," as Dahlhaus asserts.
19 Among later appearances of Zarlino's nomenclature are: (i) Johann Fux, who otherwise
referred to the modes by pitch in his Gradus adparnassum (Vienna, 1725), but who uses these
names on p. 231; (2) Charles Guillet (? -1654), Vingt quatre fantasies a quatre parties
dispose'es selon l'ordre des douze modes (i6 Io). Guillet also wrote a manuscript treatise,
Institution harmonique, in 1642, concerning which, see Herbert Schneider, Die franz6sische
Kompositionslebre in der ersten Hdlfte des 17. Jahrhunderts (Tutzing, 1972), pp. 189-92 et
passim; (3) The French lutenist Denis Gaultier (ca. 1603-1672) ordered compositions in his
Rhbtorique des dieux (manuscript from 1652, facsm. ed. with introduction by Andre Tessier
and Jean Cordey, Publications de la Soci6t& franpaise de musicologie, t. 6-7 [Paris, 19321)
according to twelve modes. The names agree with Zarlino, except that Ionian and Aeolian are
reversed, now with finals on g for the latter and a for the former; (4) Marin Mersenne uses
these names in several of his treatises. See Schneider, op. cit., pp. I3 i f.

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216 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

was the model for minor mode in many late seventeenth- and early
teenth-century writings, including even Rameau's Traite' (1722).20 T
choice was probably influenced by the relative ease of cadencing on
dominant in Dorian as opposed to Aeolian (which was probably also a f
in the persistence of incomplete signatures well into the eighteenth centu
Finally, although some early seventeenth-century theorists adopted Zarlin
ordering, many theorists later in the century and at the beginning of the
century maintained Dorian in first place.21
The second essential difference between Glarean's and Zarlino's theories
on mode concerns the latter's differentiation of the affect of the modes
according to the major and minor imperfect consonances, presented in Part
III, Chapter io of the Istitutioni: "On the property or nature of the imperfect
consonances."

The property or nature of the imperfect consonances is that some of them are l
and cheerful, accompanied by much sonority, and some, although they are sweet
smooth, tend somewhat towards sadness or languor. The first are the major thirds
sixths and their compounds: and the others are the minor [thirds and sixths]
There are some songs which are lively and full of cheer; and some others on
contrary which are rather sad or languid. The reason is that in the first the m
imperfect consonances are often heard above the final or mediant notes of the modes
tones, which are the first, second, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth, as we shal
elsewhere. These modes are very cheerful and lively because in them we often hear
consonances placed according to the nature of the sonorous number: that is, the f
divided harmonically into a major third and a minor third, which gives mu
pleasure to the ear.22

20 See Book III, Chap. 22, Art. 2 of the Traitt (pp. 264-65 of the English translation
Philip Gossett [New York, i97'1). In a footnote to p. 264, Gossett points out that in
supplement issued along with the Traiti, Rameau changed his mind and argued for the Ae
mode as the model for minor. The dispute between different orderings of the modes conti
until the eighteenth century and was not confined to these two principal orderings. See b
for a discussion of the orderings of Johann Magirus, Joachim Burmeister, and others.
works present both orderings (e.g., Michael Praetorius; again, see below).
21 See especially Johann Criiger (fn. 76, below), including the works listed in Table 2;
consider also Johann Mattheson, Das neu-eriffnete Orchestre (Hamburg, i 713), pp. 6o-
where D minor is the first of the twenty-four keys to be listed.

22 "Della
Consonanze Propiet.,
imperfette e, ochenatura
alcune delle
di loroconsonanze
sono vive & Imperfette. Cap. io. da
allegre, accompagnate 11molta
propio, o Natura delle
sonorita; & alcune, quantunque siano dolci & soavi, declinano alquanto al mesto, overo
languido. Le prime sono le Terze & le Seste maggiori & le Replicate: & le altre sono le minori
... sono alcune Cantilene, le quali sono vive & piene di allegrezza; & alcune altre per ii
contrario, sono alquarto meste, over languide. La cagione e, che nelle prime, spesso si odono le
Maggiori consonanze imperfette sopra le chorde estreme finali, o mezane de i Modi, o Tuoni,
che sono ii Primo, ii Secondo, il Settimo, I'Ottavo, il Nono, & il Decimo; come vederemo
altrove: i quali Modi sono molto allegri & vivi: conciosia che in essi udimo spesse fiate le
Consonanze collocate secondo la natura del Numero sonoro: ciob la Quinta tramezata, o divisa
harmonicamente in una Terza maggiore & in una minore; ii he molto diletta all'Udito"
(Istituzioni, p. 182).

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 217

In the continuation, Zarlino notes that the other modes are characterized by
the minor imperfect consonances above the final and mediant. It is important
to examine carefully the choice of words in this passage. Zarlino writes that
"the major imperfect consonances [not only the major thirds] are often [not
always] heard above the final or mediant notes [not only above the final: note
that mediant here refers to the note which divides the octave of the mode, i.e.,
the fifth] ... we often [not always] hear the consonances [note the plural]
placed according to the nature of the sonorous number [not merely according
to the sonorous number]." For Zarlino, the perfect fifth and fourth are
generated by the harmonic and arithmetic division of the octave. Similarly,
the major and minor thirds arise from the divisions of the perfect fifth. But the
major sixth "is composed of the perfect fourth and the major third," and the
minor sixth "is born from the conjunction of the perfect fourth with the minor
third" (Part I, Chap. i6, p. 3 3). Thus, the consonances which are arranged
according to the nature of the sonorous number are the sixth and third.23
The disposition of these intervals over the final and fifth in each mode are
shown in Table i. Note that the quality of the intervals corresponds in most
cases, but not all, hence the modifier "often" in Zarlino's passage.

TABLE I

Quality of thirds and Quality of thirds and

Mode sixths over final sixths over fifth

Ionian + 3 + 6 + 3 +6
Lydian + 3 +6 + 3 +6
Mixolydian + 3 + 6 - 3 +6
Aeolian - 3 -6 -3 - 6
Phrygian -3 - 6 -3 - 6
Dorian -3 +6 -3 --6

This differentiation of th
The intervals are heard "ab
as well as many later ones,
differentiate modes. Zarlino
formal presentation in Par
semitones, major and mino
entiation of affect lies in
important tones in the dif
The Istitutioni also contain
tal harmony with a fifth a

23 See Shirlaw, Theory of Ha

intervals.

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218 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

major and minor according to the quality of the third.24 This discussi
appears twenty-one chapters after the sole mention of the major-min
differentiation of the affect of the modes. In Chapter 30 of Part III, Zarlino
discusses problematic harmonic intervals such as the tritone, diminished fift
and diminished and augmented octave. The discussion continues in Chapt
3 1, prohibiting the use of these intervals in two-part counterpoint. Th
situation is more complex in counterpoint with more voices, however, becaus
combinations of consonances may introduce dissonances unintentionally:

... The variety of the harmony in such situations does not consist solely in the varie
of the consonances which are found between two voices, but also in the variety of t
harmonies-which [variety] is determined by the position of the note which makes
third or tenth above the lowest voice of the composition. Either these [intervals] a
minor, and the harmony which arises is determined by or corresponds to th
arithmetical proportion or division, or they are major, and such a harmony
determined by or corresponds to the harmonic mean. On this variety depends all t
diversity and perfection of harmonies.... For as I have said elsewhere, when t
major third is below, the harmony is cheerful, and when it is placed above, th
harmony is sad.25

"Elsewhere" refers to the passage in Chapter Io differentiating the affects o

the modes.
Inversions of this fundamental harmony are not mentioned as such b
Zarlino. What we refer to today as the triad of the first inversion is mention
in Chapter 59 of Part III: "many times musicians place the sixth in th
position of the fifth" (p. 287). The "second-inversion triad" is referred to in
Chapter 60, on how to use the fourth. Any systematic treatment of harmon
according to the intervals over the bass would be alien to Zarlino's theori
The tenor is still the central voice of a composition for him-the voice th
determines the modes and the first to be composed.26 As noted above, the sixt
24 For a further discussion of Zarlino's triadic theories, see Joel Lester, "Root Position a
Inverted Triads in Theory around i6oo," this JOURNAL, XXVII (I974), 10-19.
25,"... Conciosia che la varieti dell-Harmonia in simili accompagnamenti non consi
solamentelanella
Harmonie, quale varieti
consistedelle
nella Consonanze,
positione della che si trova
chorda, che fitra due parti;
la Terza, over lama nellasopra
Decima variet, anco delle
la parte grave della cantilena. Onde, overo che sono minori & i'Harmonia che nasce, e
ordinata, 6 si assimiglia alla proportionaliti, o mediatione Arithmetica; overo sono maggiori &

tale Harmonia e ordinata, over si assimiglia alla mediocrit. Harmonica: & da questa varieti
dipende
quando tuttala laTerza
si pone diversit. & la
maggiore perfettione
nella parte grave,delle Harmonie...
i'Harmonia percioche
si fi allegra; (como
& quando si h6 detto altrove)
pone nell' acuto si fa mesta" (Istitutioni, pp. 2 10 f.).
26 "Dobbiamo etiandio sempre osservare, di far le Cadenze principalmente nel Tenore:
essendo questa parte la Guida principale di ciaschedun Modo; sopra il quale si compone la
Cantilena: & de esso deboe il Compositore pigliar la inventione dell' altre parti" (Istitutioni, p.
394-"We should always take care to make the cadence principally in the tenor, this part being
the principal guide of each mode, over which the song is composed; and from this the composer
should take the invention of the other parts").

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 219

is not generated as the inversion of the third. In Chapter 58, a table is

presented listing sixty-nine different consonant arrangements of four voices,
with no differentiation according to the modern classification into triads or
major and minor. In all cases, the chord is constructed from the tenor.27
That is the extent of the direct discussion of the triad and of the relation
ship between the distinction of mode and the major-minor consonances. This
was evidently a new area for theory, and its relationship to traditional
contrapuntal and modal theory was not recognized in all its ramification
Zarlino did discover that much consonant harmony is dependent on the major
and minor triads and that there is a fundamental difference between those
modes with a major third over the final and those with a minor third. But, in
neither case was this differentiation stated as the modern musician would stat
it, and-more importantly-in neither case did Zarlino intend many of the
implications which the modern musician tends to add automatically.28 Zarlino
did not present a completed theory of major-minor polarity. Both the mentio
of the "triad" and this differentiation of the modes appears only in Part III o
the Istitutioni-the practical section on composition. They are, in effect, rules
of thumb useful in composing but not incorporated into formal theory.
Indeed, this major-minor differentiation of the affect of the modes is the
only important aspect of mode not presented in Part IV. The only systematic
27 "Seguita la tavola de gli accordi, che fanno insieme le parti delle cantilene.... Se'l

Soprano far. Unisono col Tenore, Et il Basso farai Terza sotto il Tenore; I'Alto si porra. Quinta,
o Sestasopra'l
Decima sopra'lBasso..."
Basso.(Istitutioni,
Ma se'l Basso far"f.--"Here
pp. 283 la Quinta sotto'l
follows theTenore,
table of L'alto far. which
the chords la Terza, over
the parts of the song make together.... If the soprano makes a unison with the tenor and the
bass makes a third below the tenor, the alto can make a fifth or sixth above the bass. But if the
bass makes a fifth below the tenor, the alto makes the third or tenth above the bass ... Ietc.l").
28 Hermann Gehrmann, "Johann Gottfried Walther als Theoretiker," Vierteljahrsschrift
fiir Musikwissenschaft, VII (1891), 469: "Es ist dies derselbe Unterschied, den wir heute

zwischen
study einerbyDur-
of Zarlino undWienpahl,
Robert Mollskala wahrnehmen
"Zarlino, ... and
the Senario, ." This samethis
Tonality," viewpoint is XII
JOURNAL, presented in a
('959) 27-41. On p. 29, he mistranslates the sentence beginning "La cagione" from Chap. io
of Part III of the Istitutioni to read: "The reason is that in the first [case] the Major imperfect
consonances frequently appear above the final note, as in the case of the Modes, or Tones, such
as the First, Second, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and the Tenth...." But Zarlino writes that the
major imperfect consonances appear "... above the final or mediant notes of the modes." The
same mistranslation appears in Mr. Wienpahl's "English Theorists and Evolving Tonality,"
Music & Letters, XXXVI (1955), 377.
Lyn Tolkoff ("French Modal Theory before Rameau," Journal of Music Theory, XVII
[ 19731, 151-52) writes: "After acknowledging the existence of twelve different modes, Zarlino

goes on to state that all of them could ultimately be broken down into two groups ... " As was
pointed out above, Zarlino did not differentiate modes into two groups "after," but before
presenting twelve modes. No such differentiation occurs in Part IV. And the differentiation in
Part III applies only to the affect of the modes.
Walter Atcherson ("Key and Mode in I7th Century Music Theory Books," Journal of
Music Theory, XVII [19731, 207) notes that Lippius differentiates modes into two types
"according to the quality of third above the final; Zarlino had already done this before him!"
Cf. fn. 64, below; see also the references cited in fnn. 4 and 5, above.

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220 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

differentiation of the modes in Part IV is that by the placem

semitones. The passage on the major and minor consonanc
relation to modes is essentially unchanged from the i558 edi
complete edition of Zarlino's works in 1589. In other areas of theo
substantial changes during this period-in the ordering of the
example. Zarlino died in i 59o, not having changed in print his con
triad or major and minor, both of which had appeared thirt
earlier.

Zarlino's theoretical writings became the foundation of early se

century German theory largely through the works of Sethus Calv
Kalwitz [1556-I6I5]).29 Cantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig
until his death, Calvisius was respected as "a most learne
outstanding musician as a theorist, as well as a composer and p
He wrote the first true history of music, "De origine et progressu
the second of his Exercitationes musicae duae (Leipzig, I6oo00)
knowledgeable about such nonmusical subjects as philology and
Calvisius did not translate Zarlino from Italian into Latin,31 b
reorganize the material for pedagogical purposes, omitting m
speculative matter.
Discussions of the modes appear in the Melopoeia sive mel
dendae ratio,32 Exercitationes musicae duae,33 and Exercitatio mus
With few exceptions, his treatment of the modes is similar or
Zarlino's. Thus, modes are held to be "... certain harmonic ge
29 Despite some errors, Kurt Benndorf, "Sethus Calvisius als Musiktheoret
jabrsschriftfiir Musikwissenschaft, X (1894), 411-70, remains the most compreh
of his life and work.
30 Wolfgang Caspar Printz, Historische Beschreibung der edelen Sing- u
(Dresden, I69o), p. 132: "ein sehr gelahrter Mann ... fiirtrefflicher M
Theoreticus als Poiticus und Modulatorius."
31 German was not the language widely used in treatises and manuals of German prov-
enance until later in the seventeenth century. Even elementary texts were often written in Latin.
As late as 1725, Fux published his Gradus ad Parnassum in Latin.
A lost manuscript German translation of Zarlino's Istitutioni by Johann Caspar Trost, Sr.
(an organist in Halberstadt whose birthdate is unknown and who died before I645) was located
by Martin Gerber through an entry in a Leipzig catalogue of 1673. The date of the translation
is unknown, but considering the date of Trost's death, it is improbable that it is before 159 2, the
date of Calvisius's Melopoeia. The translation apparently did not receive a wide circulation. See
Michel Brenet, "Deux traductions franpaises in dites des Institutions barmoniques de Zarlino,"
L'Annee musicale, I (191 1), 125-44.
32 (Erfurt, 1592); 2d edition ed. Heinrich Grimm (Magdeburg, 1630).
33 (Leipzig, 16oo), "... Quarum prior est, de Modis Musicis, quos vulg6 Tonos vocant,
rect&cognoscendis, & dijudicandis..."
34 Written in answer to Rektor Hubmeier's Disputationes quaestionum illustrium (Jena,
I609).

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 221

arise from the seven octave species by the varied joinings of the f
fourths."35 There is a reference to the ordering of the modes startin
Dorian, but Ionian is still placed first. "If that mode which arises from
species of octave, and is composed from the first species of fifth and
species of fourth, should be placed first in order, Ionian with its plag
the first.''36
As with Zarlino, the differentiation of the modes according to the major
and minor imperfect consonances does not appear along with the formal
presentation of the modes. Calvisius places the discussion in Chapter 18 of the
Melopoeia, the chapter on text setting ("De oratione sive textu"). After a
discussion of the different intervals used to express various emotions, Calvisius
notes that

the more joyful modes are Ionian, Lydian, and Mixolydian, because the fifth is divided
harmonically. The sadder and more languid [modes], on the other hand, [are]
Dorian, Phrygian, and Aeolian because of the arithmetic division of the same interval.
For everywhere the harmonic division expresses a smoother sound than the arith-
metic.37

The differentiation does not appear elsewhere in Calvisius's works.

Differences between Zarlino and Calvisius occur either in emphasis (as in
Calvisius's treatment of authentic and plagal modes) or in expanded cadential
and transpositional possibilities. Although Calvisius cites the difference be-
tween authentic and plagal modes (referring to them as contentus and
remissus in the Melopoeia, fol. H2r), less emphasis is given throughout to the
plagal forms. Thus, in the Exercitationes musicae duae, he notes that "there
are six principal modes."38 Only after each is discussed separately are the
plagal modes introduced. In the Melopoeia, cadences are discussed solely for
the authentic modes, with a note explaining that "modes of the same name,
authentic as well as plagal, form the same cadences."39 The plagal form is
treated independently in the Exercitationes musicae duae, only in the course of

"" Exercitatio musica tertia, p. 76: "Modi sunt certa Harmoniae genera, quae ex septem
diapason speciebus, seu octavis pro varil quintarum & quartarum connexione oriuntur."
3"Melopoeia, fol. H2r-H2': "Si is modus in ordine primus collocari debet, qui oritur ex
prima specie diapason, & componitur ex prima specie diapente, et ex prima diatessaron, lonicus
cum suo remisso, primus erit."
"7Melopoeia, fol. I3r: "Modi etiam laetiores sunt. Ionicus, Lydius, Mixolydius propter
diapente quod Harmonica dividitur. Tristiores contra & languidiores Dorius, Phrygius, &
Aeolius, propter ejusdem intervallis Arithmeticam divisionem ubiq[ue] enim suaviorem sonum
exprimit Harmonica, quam Arithmetica divisio." "Laetiores, tristiores" and "languidiores" are
translations of Zarlino's "allegra, mesta" and "languido."
38 "Modi principales Sex sunt" (p. I 1).
39 "Clausulas autem formant ejusdem nominis Modi, tam Contentus quam Remissus" (fol.
H 3).

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222 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

discussing the combinations of modes and different forms of the s

polyphonic music.40
Just as Zarlino did, Calvisius places cadences on the final, fifth,
each mode, designating them primary, secondary, and tertiary.41
bilities are mentioned for the Phrygian mode in different tre
Melopoeia, Calvisius notes that "Phrygian makes its cadences o
... except frequently [it] also adds the cadence of [the] Aeolian
which it has a fourth in common, and also Ionian."42 In the E
musicae duae, Calvisius notes on page I I that the cadences of the
of fifth are on e, g, and b. But on page 23, in a discussion o
separately, the diagram of the cadences for Phrygian includes e, g
(see Ex. I).43
Finally, transposition is discussed much more fully by Calvisiu
earlier theorists. Almost all examples in the Exercitationes mu
presented in one-flat signature in addition to their untransposed
the listing of the cadences for each fifth species on pages I o- I is
page I I for the one-flat signature. The third part of the discussio
this work extensively treats the use of transpositions when s
instruments.

In summary, Calvisius's modal theory is basically a restatemen

lino. In certain areas, such as the differentiation of the modes into la
tristiores, Calvisius is, if anything, even less emphatic than Zarlino.

THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: JOHANN LIPPIUS

The first decade of the seventeenth century witnessed a rev

German theoretical thought. Between 1599 and 16 1i, four German t
presented the triad in root position and at least one inversion as fun
harmonic units.44 Joachim Burmeister (ca. 1566-1629), in trea
4 "De variatione Modorum in cantu figurato" ("On the varieties of modes
song"). Cantus figuratus refers to music with different rhythmic values, i.e., a
music, as opposed to chant, which has only one rhythmic value, labeled cantus chor
example, Christoph Demant, Isagoge artis musicae (Onoldsbachi, 161 1), fol. A4r
welcher eine Nota nicht mehr gilt als die ander." Figuralis "in welcher eine Nota m
die ander."
4"Melopoeia, fol. H 3v. These three cadences were maintained in all modes-
keys-by many German theorists through the early eighteenth century.
42Melopoeia, fol. H4r: "Phrygius in E. G. & ? suas clausulas format ..., nisi
Clausulam Aeolij, cum quo diatessaron commune habet, & jonici etiam adscisca
43 Several other German writers copied Calvisius's practice and presented five
the Phrygian mode. Otto Siegfried Harnish (ca. 1568-I623), Cantor in Gottingen
used this format in his Artis musicae delineatio (Frankfurt, i6o8). For a facsimile
of the Artis, showing cadences in regular and transposed Phrygian, see MGG
1721-22.
"For full information, examples, and translated passages on the triad in the work
Burmeister, Harnish, and Magirus, and on Lippius's harmonic theories, see Lester, "R
Position and Inverted Triads."

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 223

Example I

Melopoeia, cadential pitches for the Ionian mode (p. 15) and Phrygian mode (p. 23)

? II ? ] II

1599 and i606,45 beg

writing in four part
third and perfect fift
sixth, and a major t
differentiates these a
would call first-inv
musicae (Frankfurt
first and second inve
the first time, and th
note (inferior vox c
1557-163 ') contains
although Magirus ins
not explicitly recogn
Although all three t
inverted triad, none
none of the works li
Such a full discussion
found in the works o
the first in any coun
other achievements,
vals, including those
suggested that musi
term for the triad (t
and minor tonic triad
a study of harmony
presented in works w
references. 7

45 Hypomnematum musicae poeticae (Rostock, 1599); and Musica poetica (Rostock, i606;
facsm. ed. Kassel, 1955). See Martin Ruhnke, Joachim Burmeister: Ein Beitrag zur Musik-
lehre um i6oo (Kassel, 1955).
46 The discussion appears in the second edition of the Artis musicae, printed in Frankfurt in
161 i. See Eckhard Nolte, Johannes Magirus (1558-1631) und seine Musiktraktate, Studien
zur hessischen Musikgeschichte, 4 (Marburg, I97i), for new information on Magirius's
birthdate (pp. 6-7), and for the correct identification of Frankfurt as the place of publication for
the second edition of the Artis musicae (p. 58); previous lists, including the RISM Jcrits
imprimens, give Braunschweig as the publication site.
7' Other treatises of the time incorprate a numerological scheme of organization, including
the Plejades musicae (Halberstadt, 16 15) by Heinrich Baryphonus (i58 i- i655). See Martin
Vogel, Die Zahl Sieben in der Spekulativen Musiktheorie (Bonn, I955).

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224 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Lippius was born in 1585 in Strasbourg, where he received his educati

From i609 he traveled throughout Germany, visiting Leipzig (where h
Calvisius),"4 Wittenberg, Jena, Erfurt, Frankfurt, Ingolstadt, and Tiibin
and presenting lectures and disputations at several universities. Lippius d
1612 at the age of twenty-seven on a return trip to Strasbourg. His prin
work, and that by which he was best known to later theorists, is his Syn
musicae novae, published in Strasbourg in I612.49 The Synopsis was
ceded by six Disputationes, of which the third (Wittenberg, I6Io) t
intervals, triads, and some aspects of mode more extensively than do
Synopsis.50
After defining music as a mathematical science, the Synopsis turn
systematic treatment of harmonic structures of one, two, and three pitc
monads, dyads, and triads. Under monads, melodic intervals and rhy
and pitch notation are discussed.51 In the discussion of dyads, Lippius no
pairs all inversionally related intervals but defines one form as primary
the root of the complement. Thus the third and fifth are declared the r
consonance.52 Zarlino had generated the sixth as the product of a ma
minor third added to a perfect fourth. Lippius, in addition to deriving the
as the inversion of the third, also subscribes to this older view in the gene
of the melodic intervals under monads.53 This conflict between the diff
generations of the sixth in melody and harmony remains unresolved.
The exposition of the triad is bound up with the number 3.5" The tri
three notes and three dyads. Three different classifications are used. Eithe
triad is consonant and harmonic, or it is dissonant and aharmonic
sonans, harmonica; dissonans, anarmonica"); it is either simple or com
("simpliciter, radicaliter; composite, radicate"); and it is either more natu
more perfect, more noble and smoother (i.e., the major triad based
harmonic division of the fifth: "naturalior, perfectior, nobilior, suavior"
more imperfect and softer (i.e., the minor triad based on the arithm
division of the fifth: "imperfectior, mollior").55 Two types of compound t

48 A poem by Calvisius praising Lippius is found at the end of both the Disputatio m
secunda (Wittenberg, 1609) and the Synopsis musicae (Strasbourg, i612).
49 A second edition appeared in 16 14.
50 For the most complete biography to date of Lippius and a thorough study of his t
(especially on triads and the inversion of intervals) and their relation to contemporary
see Benito Rivera's splendid dissertation, "Johannes Lippius and His Musical Trea
Study of German Musical Thought in the Early Seventeenth Century" (Ph.D. diss., R
Univ., 1974).
s' See fols. B7'-E 1V. Several folios in this section are printed in the wrong order. They
should be read as follows: B7r, B8r, B7", B8V, Cir; the folios then continue correctly.
52 Disputatio tertia, fols. A2z-B2r; Synopsis, fols. F3V-F3v.
" Synopsis, fol. B7V: "Quarta cum Tertia majore seu Sexta major ... Quarta cum Tertil
minore seu Sexta minor...."
"54 Disputatio tertia, fols. B2r-B4V; Synopsis, fols. F4r-F7v.
55 Note the use of the term mollior to refer to the minor triad. On fol. E 7, the minor third
and minor sixth are also described as "softer" (mollius). Lippius is clearly describing the affect of

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 225

are discussed in the Synopsis but without musical examples, leaving it unclear
whether inversions of the triad, in the modern sense of the term, are included.
The text and examples in the Disputatio musica tertia, however, answer this
point in the affirmative.
Virtually the entire presentation of mode is based on the triad.56 Lippius's
definition of mode is that which controls melodies at their beginnings, middles,
and ends; it is related to the harmonic triad and limited to the range of an
octave:

Musical mode is either simple or compound; simple is that in whi

dominates, along with the range of its octave. ... Compound mode is de
simpler modes: either from a related primary and secondary mode, suc
Hypoionian, which is common; or from wholly diverse modes, such
Dorian, which is less common.57

[Mode] is also primary, that is authentic; or secondary [plagall ....

secondary] because the harmonic division of the octave, which form
mode, is changed into an arithmetic division by the inversion of the f
fifth, which continues to contain the triad.5" (See Ex. 2.)

Example 2

40

Primary fugue and cadence is made on the prime of the mode's o

on the highest note of the triad, tertiary on the mediant.59 (See

the intervals and does not appear to intend the hexachord-derived dicho
persistence of the usage of moll for minor intervals and the later trans
major are the origins of the present-day meanings of the terms. It is
considered using the term moll only for this modern meaning. Thus, on
transposition to a one-flat signature, he notes that the mode is changed f
irregular, commonly called moll" (emphasis added: ".. . ex Modo Regu
laris, vulgo dictus Mollis ..."). But elsewhere in the Synopsis the term m
traditional sense. Problems raised by these terms continued to plague th
the middle of the eighteenth century. See, for example, Andreas We
mathematicae (Frankfurt and Leipzig, I687), p. z25; and Georg Andre
der musicalischen Composition (Lobenstein, 1745), P. 27. Carl Dahlhau
distinct meanings of dur and moll from antiquity to the seventeenth
however, attempt precise dates for each usage; see his article, "Die Te
Archiv fir Musikwissenschaft, XII (i955), 280-96. See also Lester
Inverted Triads," p. i i5, fn. I9.
56 Synopsis, fols. H 8r-14 .
57 Ibid., fols. H8v, 13V: "Modus Musicus est vel Simplex: vel Compo
quo una saltem dominatur Trias Harmonica cum suae Octavae C
Modus ex Simplicioribus pronascitur: & vel ex cognatis Primario & Se
Hypoionico, qui creber: vel ex plane diversis ut Jonico & Dorio, ... qu
S"Ibid., fols. H 8v-I Ir: "Estque aut Primarius seu Authenticus: aut
Mediatio Octavae Harmonica quae Competit Primario mutatur in Arit
Quartae infrA Quintam manentem cum Triade."
59 Ibid., fol. 13r: "Primaria Fuga & Clausula est A Prima Triadis Pr
Suprema: Tertiaria A Media."

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226 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Example 3
Propriae Peregrina
0 a a/o7\

Primary mode is either legitimate o

has the naturalior triad), or mollio
is based on the spurious triad b-d-f

Both species of legitimate modes a

and Mixolydian; the other-Dorian,
simple primary legitimate modes. C

The discussion of each mode, ex

Ionian with its secondary, Hypoion

and primary of all in today's music
this).... Dorian is the triad d-f-a w
with Hypophrygian ... [etc.].62 (Se

Example 4

4' Io
UTVP,,F

Each mode is listed in t

the modes of the same t
implied by the discussio
The presentation of t
(fols. D3r-D4r) but wit
Glarean's generation o
reduces the number of m
are plagal.

In every legitimate primary mode, the principal proper harmonic triad is that whose
root is the same as the lowest note of the [modall octave. . . . Hence, we reduce these

60 Ibid., fols. Ir, IZV: "Primarius ergo vel Legitimus est vel Spurius. Legitimus est alius
Naturalior qui tenet Triadem Harmonicam Naturaliorem: alius Mollior, qui Triadem Mollio-
rem obtinet.... Spurius Modus est Triadis Spuriae ?. d. f. ni, ce, ga. Hyperaeolius cum suo
secundario Hypohyperaeolio seu Hyperphrygio, ideoque rejectus est." Note Lippius's use of the
bocedization syllables, based on the octave, rather than the traditional solmisation based on the
hexachord.
61 Ibid., fol. I r-I IV: "Uterque Trinus est juxta Species Triadum: ille Jonicus, Lydius, &
Mixolydius: hic Dorius, Phrygius & Aeolius: ut ita 6. sint Simplices Modi Primarii Legitimi &
12, cum suis viror 6irois."
62Ibid., fols. 1IV-I12r: "Omnium Naturalissimus & Primus in hodierna MusicS (contrA
quAm plerique Veteres & Recentiores autumant) est Jonicus cum suo Secundario Hypoionico
habens Triadem Harmonicam propriam. c. e. g. bo, di, lo.... 2. Dorius est Triadis, d. f. a. ce,
ga, ma, cum Hypodorio . 3. Phrygius cum Hypophrygio est Triadis e. g. ?. di, lo, ni. .

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 227

six modes to two: one, which has the naturalis triad, the other which has the mollis.
The trinity [of modes] of each type is formed according to the same triad-from which
the special ornaments, fugues, and cadences of harmonic song should be chosen and
formed.'

Lippius's theories, as presented above, represent a thorough transforma-

tion of the meaning of mode. The modes are no longer primarily octave
species differentiated by semitone placement, for nowhere in Lippius's works
are the individual modes presented with their complete octave species.64 Their
ambitus is not made up of species of fourths and fifths but from the triad
extended to the octave. And although Lippius does accept six authentic modes,
there are for him only two types of modes, each of which has three possible
finals in the untransposed system, and three finals in the system with a one-flat
signature. In the works of Zarlino and Calvisius it was only in the discussion of
the affect of the modes that they were grouped according to major and minor.
Ironically, in Lippius's Synopsis, it is only in the discussion of affect that
differences are implied between modes with a common quality of "tonic
triad."

In substance, Lippius's conception of mode is harmonic, whereas the

traditional theory of mode as octave species is basically a melodic theory. The
total interval content is the same in all the diatonic octave species. But all these
intervals stand in a different relationship to the scale degrees in each tradi-
tional mode, generating different melodic possibilities in each. This aspect of
mode is reflected by the term itself, which carries a meaning not wholly
dissimilar to its nonmusical meaning of "a manner of doing or being; method,
form; fashion.'"'5 When theorists refer, for example, to the Phrygian mode,
they are not merely referring to the final on e with the octave species of the
white-note scale E-e, but to the entire range of compositional possibilities
uniquely available in this mode: the melodic lines, skips, ambitus, cadences,
6 Disputatio tertia, fol. D3V: "Est in omni Modo primario legitimo propria Trias Har-
monica potissima cujus Basis eadem est cum voce Infima suae octavae: ... Hinc 6, Modos illos
stringimus ad duos: unum, qui tenet Triadem Naturalem: alterum, qui Mollem: quorum
uterq[ue] Trinus est juxta eandem Triadem, ex qua, quod mirum, praecipua Cantilenae
Harmonicae ornamenta Fuga, & Clausula sunt desumenda atq[ue] formanda."
"' Atcherson, "Key and Mode," p. 207, totally misstates Lippius's position when he
identifies him with Zarlino and notes that both theorists recognize two types of modes "...
according to the quality of the third above the final. ... The remainder of Lippius' discussion of
the modes adheres faithfully to the tenets and procedures of Glarean's twelve-mode theory; that
there are seven octave species, six of them capable of harmonic division and six of arithmetic
division, and so on." A footnote (p. 23o0, fn. io) refers to both the Synopsis and the Disputatio
tertia but without page references. No such discussion is to be found in the Synopsis, and the
latter work presents Glarean's tenets only as a preface to be rebutted: "Modi simplices vulg6
numerantur in Genere Diatonico, 14.... Hinc 6, Modos illos stringimus ad duos" (fol.
D3r'-D3V-"Fourteen simple modes are commonly counted in the diatonic genus.... We
reduce these six legitimate primary modes to two" [emphasis added]). Cf. fn. 28, above.
65 Webster's New International Dictionary, 2d ed., III, 5 176.

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228 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

fugal entries, etc. A differentiation of modes based on a single interval over the
final is alien to traditional theory, whether the distinction be made on the basis
of a major or minor third, a major or minor second, or any other interval.
Since these different compositional possibilities in each mode influence nearly
all aspects of a modal composition, the study of mode was understood as one of
the most important subjects to the musician of the Middle Ages and Renais-
sance. Glarean wrote in the Dodecachordon "we consider scarcely any other
part of music equally worthy of explanation, equally necessary, and equally
pleasant, as the one which we are about to discuss now, the treatment of the
musical modes" (Book I, Chap. 10). Much of compositional theory was
subsumed under or directly related to modal theory: the construction of
melodies, ranges, cadences, "form" (e.g., where to place cadences), the charac-
ter of the composition, the relationship between the ranges and structures of
different voices in a polyphonic composition, etc. Writings on mode occupy a
large portion of many Medieval and Renaissance treatises. Glarean's Dodeca-
chordon, of course, is almost entirely on the modes. But even in Zarlino's
Istitutioni, the discussion of mode is one third as long as the entire section on
counterpoint and composition.
By contrast, the modal distinction between major and minor in Lippius is
harmonic. Dorian and Mixolydian, for example, differ in scale only by their
third degrees. Yet the one is included with the minor modes and the other with
the major. Only the interval of a third over the final is crucial. Compare this
with Glarean's discussion of mode as octave species quoted above on page 210.

Thus in the twenty years following the introduction of Zarlino's theories to

Germany by Calvisius in I592, several theorists had made notable advances.66
Certain aspects of Lippius's work became part of the theoretical tradition of

6" Peter Benary (Die deutsche Kompositionslehre des 18. Jahrhunderts, Jenaer Beitraige zur
Musikforschung, 3 [Leipzig, i961], p. 14) argues for the independence of German theoretical
thought from the direct influence of the south, largely because of this rapid development. Earlier
historians, most notably Hermann Gehrmann (in "Johann Walther als Theoretiker," Viertel-
jahrsschriftfiir Musikwissenschaft, VII [18911, 468-578), had argued for the dependence of
these developments on Italian theory.
There has been a tendency to group together a number of theorists of this generation. Adam
Adrio, for example, in the MGG article on Heinrich Baryphonus (Vol. I, cols. I350-55), links
Baryphonus to Calvisius, Johann Nucius, Johann Lippius, and Johann Criiger as a series of
German masters, who, in the early seventeenth century, strove to establish the teachings and
outlook of Zarlino's Istitutioni among their compatriots: "As conservative as their basic musical
outlooks might have been, just as clearly their textbooks mirror the change effected in the music
of their time from contrapuntally to primarily harmonically conceived music (col. 1354).'
Although the conservatism referred to here might fit Baryphonus's and Nucius's positions, this
statement otherwise implies misconceptions symptomatic of much writing on seventeenth-
century theory and its relationship to Zarlino. Certainly Lippius progressed far beyond Zarlino
in many areas.

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 229

the period.67 Taken as a whole, however, his theories were not the beginning
of a new tradition of German modal theory. Several reasons can be cited. One
is the nature of the Synopsis. As the title itself implies, the work is only a terse
summary of Lippius's theoretical views. Many points are stated but not
elaborated, leading to some ambiguities and conclusions which may seem
arbitrary in the absence of a statement of the reasoning behind them. Most of
these points are fully explained in the Disputationes, but it may not have had
the circulation of the Synopsis. Since Lippius was only twenty-seven at the
time of his death (in the same year the Synopsis was published) and had
published some seven works on music within three years, it is reasonable to
assume that he did not intend the Synopsis to be his definitive theoretical
work. In addition to its limited discussions of vital points, the Synopsis was
prevented from gaining a wide circulation by its nature. Although it covers all
the material necessary for composition, it is not convenient for practical use.
Besides the dearth of practical examples, it is replete with speculative sections
relating musical discussions to theology and numerology. This backward-
looking approach has been contrasted to the progressive features of the work
by modern commentators.68
Lippius's theories had their widest circulation in the more practical
treatises and manuals of Johann Crtiger. As we shall demonstrate below,
however, Criiger did not present these theories with the force and originality
of Lippius's own publications.
Finally, the musical situation in Germany played its part in the contin-
uation of a modal tradition. The chorale played a vital role in the musical life
of Protestant Germany. In contrast to the use of modal plainchant in the
Catholic countries, the chorales were not a body of centuries-old music largely
divorced from modern repertories. Thus, whereas in France and Italy works
appeared between i6Io and 1614 definitively separating the theoretical
systems of ancient sacred music from contemporary music,69 no such develop-
ment was possible in Germany.
The remainder of this paper covers the transmission of Lippius's theories
in the works of Cruiger and the contemporary treatises and manuals which
maintained the traditional modes in Germany right up to the end of the
seventeenth century.

67 But not always in the form of Lippius's original conception. The term trias, for example,
was used by some theorists only to refer to the three important notes of the mode, without any
implication of its status as a harmony. See, e.g., Conrad Matthaei, Kurtzer doch ausfiihrlicher
Bericht von den Modis musicis... (KSnigsberg, 1652), p. 2 et passim.
68 See Benary, Die deutsche Kompositionslehre, pp. 13-14.
69 Pierre Maillart, Les Tons, ou discours sur les'modes de musique, et les tones de l'rglise et
la distinction entre iceux (Tournai, I6Io); Adriano Banchieri, Cartella musicale, 3d ed.
(Venice, 1613/14).

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230 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Much as Calvisius was the author who presented Zarlino's teachings to

Germany in a pedagogical form, Johann Croiger (1598-1662) presented th
achievements of Lippius in a more practical form than that found in Lippius's
own works. What is essential to this study is the manner in which the
theories were transmitted. Many of Lippius's most radical advances do no
appear in Cruiger's works, and those points which are stated are often no
presented as strongly as in Lippius's Synopsis and Disputatio musica tertia
The status of modal theory in Crilger's works was probably a pivotal influenc
on contemporary and later German theoretical works. Crilger was prominent
not only as a theorist but also as a composer, a pedagogue, and as a compile
and publisher of chorales.
Cruiger's discussions of mode are found in two types of works: (I)
instruction manuals designed for use in Lateinschulen-the Praecepta musicae
practicaefiguralis (Berlin, 1625) and Quaestiones musicae practicae (Berlin,
1650); 70 and (2) two editions of a composition manual-the Synopsis music
(Berlin, I630 and I654),7 modeled on Lippius's work of similar title.
Both the Praecepta musicae and the Synopsis draw heavily on the work of
Lippius, but they also contain much of the traditional modal theory. In
Chapter 7 of the first work ("De Modis musicis"), various aspects of mode are
defined in terms of the triad.

How does one recognize the modes? First, observe, above all, the final tone of th
lowest voice or bass. Add above this (') the diapente or perfect fifth and (2) th
mediant, distant by a major third from one of the extreme tones [of the fifth], an
distant by a minor third from the other, and you will have the triad, the root of a
most perfect and fullest harmony which can exist in the world, and the root o
thousands and thousands of thousands of sounds, all of which are led back to a part o
the triad. ... If a fourth will be placed above the triad (harmonically), the concord wi
form the authentic and primary mode. If the same be placed below (arithmetically)
[it forms] the plagal and secondary [model.72

Finally, each mode is listed with its triad. But before this, Crfiger opens the
chapter by counting "fourteen modes [which] are born from the seven octave

70 In addition to what is presented on this work in the following discussion, see Table
below.
71 See Elisabeth Fischer-Krfickeberg, "Johann Criiger als Musiktheoretiker," Zeitschriftfli
Musikwissenschaft, XII ( 19 30), 6 I 2-14, for a discussion of the confusion concerning the date
the first edition of the Synopsis. Her study contains a full biography and information on th
works discussed here.
72 Praecepta musicae, fols. B6V-B 7": "Unde cognoscuntur Modi? Primum omnium respic
vocis insimae sive Basis clavem finalem. Huic superadde i. Diapente vel quintam perfectam,
Intermediam ab extremarum una per Ditonum, ab altera per Semiditonum distantem,
habebis Triadem omnis perfectissimae & plenissimae harmoniae, quae dari in mundo potes
radicem, sonorum etiam mille & millies mille, qui omnes ad unam hujus Triadis partem referr
debent.... Si quarta supra Triadem (harmonice) fuerit locata, Authenticum modum

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 231

species."" The differentiation into major and minor is not made explicit in
this work.74

A similar presentation appears in Chapter I I of the Synopsis. Only after

listing each mode does Criiger note that they are differentiated into two classes
by virtue of the major or minor triad. This is, in effect, a return to the position
of Zarlino and Calvisius: the modes are octave species and are then differenti-
ated into two classes. In Lippius, the qualities of the modes determined by the
triads had been discussed first, and only then were the names of the individual
modes mentioned.

In the study of harmonic intervals, Croiger presents a similar combination

of Lippius's advances and traditional theory. Cruiger generates the major and
minor sixths both by the addition of a whole or half step to the perfect fifth
(Synopsis, Chap. 6) and by the addition of a third to the perfect fourth (Chap.
7). In Lippius, the generation of the sixths by the addition of intervals is
contradicted by other passages deriving them as inversions of thirds of opposite
quality. In Crilger, the derivation as inversions of thirds does not appear. The
presentation of the triad (Chap. 8) is based in large part on Lippius, but it
omits some of the numerological and theological comments as well as any
discussion of inversions. A listing of possible triads of each type is added. The
"native and ficta naturaliores triads" ("Naturaliores nativae & fictiles") are
C, D, E, F, G, and A major. The molliores are C, D, E, F, G, and A minor.
Three examples are listed from B and B b: b-d4-f ([sic]-probably an error
for b-d-ft), b-d-f, and bb-d-f In cantus mollis, Cruiger notes the triad
eb-g-bb.
After his Synopsis (1630), Cruiger's next extant theoretical work is the
Quaestiones (I65o), a singing manual similar to the Praecepta of I625.7,
Four years later the second edition of the Synopsis was published. Some
sections of the 1654 Synopsis are literal copies of the 16 30 edition. But other
sections are largely rewritten, and some new sections are added. These works
present a changed view of some aspects of modal theory. Fischer-Kriickeberg
ascribes this to the fact that Creiger's duties in Berlin included teaching, and
the changes represent what Crilger, through his teaching experience, had
determined to be the best way of introducing the material.
In some matters, Crilger returned to older theoretical positions. Thus,

primarium concentus repraesentabit. Si ver6 infra eandem (ArithmeticO) locetur, Plagalem &
secundarium."

73Ibid., fol. B6V: "Ex septem diapason speciebus quatuordecim oriuntur Modi."
7' Since the scales and semitone placements of each mode are not specifically mentioned by
Crtiger in this work, Fischer-Krfickeberg ("Johann Crlger," p. 618) writes that the only
difference between modes is between major and minor. The double generation of the modes,
however, makes it clear that Crtiger is using the octave species as a determinant.
71 On the title page, Crtiger labels the 16yo print "Editio Tertia. Auctior & Correctior."
The 1625 Praecepta is apparently the first edition. Is there a lost second edition?

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232 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

whereas the modes had been ordered as in Zarlino in the earlier works, Crilge
returns to Glarean's ordering in the later ones:

Although the most convenient and most natural ordering of the modes occurs if Ioni
with its Hypoionian holds the first position, yet in order not to confuse young student
we want to retain that ordering of the ancients, in which Dorian and its Hypodoria
take the first position."

Also added is a listing of the repercussio of each mode, an archaism that had
been dropped in his earlier works. In other matters, the changes represen
accomodations to newer musical practices. Thus, in the Synopsis of I65
Criiger added the Bb-minor and B-major triads to the list of possibilities.
The most important change in the I654 Synopsis concerns the thirteenth
and fourteenth modes-Hyperaeolian (the authentic mode on b) and Hy-
perphrygian (for Crilger, the authentic mode on e in the transposed system
with a one-flat signature):78

These two modes are rejected by most musicians and called spurious on account of th
aharmonic triad. But truly the more reasonable musicians will decide, with me, tha
they not be altogether done away with and rejected on account of that. Because the
aharmonic triads can easily be turned into harmonic triads with the help of th
semitones: namely, in B cantus durus, the uppermost tone of the triad,f, changed to
(Fis, as the instrumentalists call it) by the addition of a semitone. Hence, out of th
false fifth the true disposition of the same triad will arise in this manner:

Example 5
Trias anarmonica Triasharmonica
IAlf) ::R"I

Simn, ?

On the other hand, in cantus mollis, E, the lowest tone of the aharmonic triad h
been changed to eb [sic-dgl],"7 that diminished and false fifth is changed to th
fifth:

Example 6
Trias anarmonica Trias harmonica
mg,'

51", SHIPi

76 Quaestiones, fol. C5V: "Licet convenientissimus & omnium naturalissimus sit Modorum
ordo, si primum locum obtineat Jonicus cum suo HypoJonico: Attamen, ne confundantur
ingenia discentium, veterum illum, quo primo loco collocant Dorium cum Hypodorio suo
retinere voluimus ordinem."
77 Fischer-Kriickeberg ("Johann Crilger," p. 619) writes that the Eb-, A-, and Bb-major
triads are also added here. But they were already present in the 1630 edition.
78 Crilger gives no reason for this last name. Hyperphrygian had meant the plagal mode
with a final on b for all theorists from Glarean up to this point.
79Dis (d#) was used to refer to the semitone between d and e well into the eighteenth
century, no matter what the function. In staff notation, of course, the pitch referred to here

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 233

And thus all aharmony is removed. Accordingly, the thirteenth and fourteenth modes
have the harmonic triads: b-d-fj in cantus durus, eb-g-bb in cantus mollis.80

This presentation is either borrowed from another theorist, or was pre-

sented by Cruiger in an earlier work now lost.81 Conrad Matthaei argues
against this type of mode generation in his Bericht of I652--a work possibly
written before I63 7.82 Also note the wording "most musicians," not "all
musicians," at the opening of the passage.
This is the first attempt to introduce into the formal presentation of the
modes transpositions other than those down a fifth or up a fourth; and it is also
the first attempt to introduce transposed modes as "original" modes. Zarlino
had always noted in 1558 that modes could be transposed to any pitch if
necessary. Croiger's own Quaestiones of I650 contains similar statements (fols.
D3r-D4r). But any octave species other than the original twelve or fourteen
was always regarded as a transposition, not an original mode.
The manner of presentation of these modes is important. No scale is
presented, and they are not likened to any other mode. If the thirteenth mode
is understood as a white-note scale with an ft instead off, then this is a
transposition of Phrygian. Indeed, both Conrad Matthaei"8 and Christoph
Bernhard84 used this very argument to reject this mode. Similarly, if the

would be written as eb, but organ tablatures in Germany used Dis (see Willi Apel, The
Notation of Polyphonic Music 9oo-z6oo [Cambridge, 1 9531, pp. 24-26 etpassim). A number
of later writers complained about this usage, but it apparently persisted at least until I789,
when Daniel Tiirk argued against it in his Klavierschule (Leipzig & Halle; facsm. ed.
Marburg, 1962), pp. 58-59.
"8Synopsis, 1654, P. 123: "Rejiciuntur hi duo Modi a plerisq[uel Musicis, & Spurii
propter Triadem anarmonicam vocantur. Verum non omnino istos esse abolendos & rejiciendos
mecum saniores: Musici statuent, propter ea, quod Triades istae anarmonicae beneficio
Semitonii in harmonicas apte verti queant, mutata nimirum, in ? cantu duro, suprema Triadis
clave F addito Semitonio minore in Fis, (ut a Musicis Instrumentalibus appellatur). Hunc enim
in modum ex quinta ista falsa vera ejusdem dispositio pronascetur.... Sic in cantu molli versa
infima Triadis anarmonicae clave E in Dis, Quinta ista diminuta & falsa in veram mutatur...
& ita omnis anarmonia tollitur ut: Sunt igitur decimus tertius, & decimus quartus Modus
Triadis harmonicae H D Fis in Cantu duro Dis G B in Cantu molli."
A similar classification of modes is found in Wolfgang Mylius, Rudimenta musices, Das ist:
Eine kurtze und Grundrichtige Anweisung zur Singe-Kunst (Gotha, I686). Mylius first lists all
the diatonic octaves between c and a, divided both arithmetically and harmonically (with the
F-f octave divided arithmetically by Bb). His second grouping of modes includes the octave B-b
divided arithmetically (the traditional Hypophrygian), and then harmonically with an F#
(Criger's Hyperaeolian); and two divisions on eb (Dis). The third grouping includes various
ficta triads: D, E, A, and B majors, and F# and B minors. The separation of modes on b and eb
from the other modes appears to derive from Crtiger; see fols. G4r-G5r.
8 Cf. fn. 75, above.
82 For additional information on this treatise, see below, fnn. Io8, I Io.
83 Bericht, p. 22.
84 Tractatus compositionis augmentatus, Chap. 45. (For bibliographphical details about this
treatise, see fn. I 15, below.)

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234 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

fourteenth mode is understood with a two-flat signature, it is a transposition o

Lydian to Eb. But if this were the case, there would be no reason to present
these two new modes. Certainly there would be no cause to add a new form of
Lydian, which even Glarean had noted was long out of common usage. But if
other sharps and flats are implied, this would contradict Cruiger's own
statements of I650: "Whence arise the modes? From the seven notes c d ef
a b, on which the entire doctrine of the modes depends."8"
There is inherent here a confusion about the nature of mode and the
criteria by which one mode is differentiated from another. Before Lippius,
theory had accepted mode in terms of octave species divisible harmonically
and arithmetically. There were twelve modes, each of which had a different
octave species. In order to identify the mode of a melody with an accidental
throughout, the octave species was compared to the twelve modes, and the
correct mode was located. Such a discussion is found in Zarlino's Istitutioni
(Part IV, Chap. i6). Lippius no longer viewed mode as the combination of a
species of fourth and a species of fifth making an octave species. Rather, there
was a fourth added to a major or minor triad. Scalar criteria were not
necessarily implied here. According to his system of classification, there were
three authentic major modes and three authentic minor modes. It was not
explicitly stated that the modes of similar quality were interchangeable (i.e.,
that Mixolydian and Ionian were one). But the implication is that they were
variants of the same type.
In order to present a consistent view of mode, contemporary theorists had
two choices. Either there were two modes, major and minor, or there were
twelve different modes, differentiated by semitone placement. In Cruiger's
works, elements of both solutions can be found. He differentiated modes both
by octave species and by major-minor triads. Some modes, which had the
common quality of "tonic triads" (e.g., Ionian, Mixolydian, Lydian), had
different octave species and were separate modes. Other modes, which had a
similar quality of "tonic triads" and different octave species, were trans-
positions of these original modes. But some modes, which were transpositions
of other modes, were considered original, independent modes. This conflict
was not resolved until all the twenty-four major and minor keys were
recognized as equally original in the works of Thomas Janowka86 and Johann
Heinichen87 in 1701 and 171 , respectively."s

8" Quaestiones, fol. C5": "Unde oriuntur Modi? Ex septem Clavibus c d e f g a h, a quibus
tota Modorum doctrina dependet."
" Clavis ad thesaurum magnae artis musicae (Prague, i 70 ), s.v. "Tonus," pp. 287-304.
87Neu erfundene und griindlicbe Anweisung (Hamburg, 1711), esp. the "musical circle"
on p. 261.
" The credit for first listing all twenty-four keys apparently goes to M. Ozanam, a French
mathematician, who gives them in the Dictionaire mathbmatique ... dans lequel sont contenus
les termes de cette science, outre plusieurs termes des arts (Amsterdam, 169 1), p. 66o. His

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 235

THE MODAL TRADITION

Thus far, a relatively direct line of historical development has been traced,
ignoring for the most part numerous contemporary works which continued to
present and elaborate the traditional view of the modes. In the concluding
section of this paper, the contents of several different types of such works will
be surveyed.
A considerable number of these fall under the rubric of manuals designed
for use by schoolchildren. Music, as is well known, held an important position
in the curriculum of the German Lateinschulen. Handbooks containing the
elements of notation, solmisation, some rudimentary theory, and many singing
exercises were published by a broad spectrum of authors, including music
teachers, headmasters, pastors, well-known composers, and theorists. (Among
prominent musicians discussed elsewhere in this paper, for example, Calvisius,
Criiger, and Printz wrote such works.)89 Their aim was primarily to teach
schoolchildren to sing religious music. The repertoire of musical examples is
generally limited to chant or chorales with the possible addition of some
polyphonic sacred music or secular didactic exercises. Since texts for general
educational purposes often present the lowest common denominator of ac-
cepted musical pedagogy, these works are, virtually without exception, rather
conservative in their treatment of mode. It is precisely for this reason that they
are important to the present study. Well into the eighteenth century, the
premise that the quality of the tonic triad should be the principal differen-
tiating factor between modes was highly controversial in Germany. Many
singing manuals do not contain discussions of the modes,90 but those that do
help to fill in the complete picture of the acceptance of new theoretical ideas on
the modes by the general musical audience of the seventeenth century. The

listing, however, divides them into three categories, including "les modes transposez" (wher
the tonic is a black key). And Ozanam presents neither full scales nor key signatures for all keys
Compare with similar, but incomplete listings of sixteen keys in Georg Falck, Idea boni cantoris
(Niirnberg, I688), p. 86; and fifteen keys in Daniel Speer, Unterricht der musicalischen Kunst
(Ulm, 1687, pp. 13-15; and Ulm, 1697, pp. 6-7. Facsm. ed. of the 1697 print [Leipzig
'9741). Similarly, both Sebastien de Brossard (Dictionaire de musique [Paris, 1703; facsm
ed. Amsterdam, 1964], s.v. "Modo," point No. Io) and Alexandre Fr&re (Transpositions d
musique [Paris, 17061) recognize twenty-four major and minor keys, but they distinguish the
transposed keys or modes from the "natural" ones requiring no accidentals in the signature. I
am indebted to Herbert Schneider, "Charles Masson und sein 'Nouveau trait '," Archiv fir
Musikwissenschaft, XXX ( 1973), 245-74, for the reference to Ozanam. No previous articles or
books cite Janowka's recognition of twenty-four keys.
89 The most thorough surveys of these works are found in Eberhard Preussner, "Die
Methodik im Schulgesang der evangelischen Lateinschulen des 7. Jahrhunderts" (unpublished
diss. Univ. of Berlin, 1924); and Albert Allerup, Die "Musica Practica" des Johann Andreas
Herbst und ihre entwicklungsgeschichtliche Bedeutung: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deuts-
chen Schulmusik (Kassel, 19 3 ).
" Of the works of more than thirty-five authors consulted, about one-third contained
chapters on the modes.

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236 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

manuals of Faber and Gumpelzhaimer, which were the two most widely
circulated works, are cited in theoretical literature into the eighteenth century.
Some works listed below appeared virtually unchanged in many editions over
the period of a century or more, even though they became increasingly
alienated from contemporary developments with each new edition.
One of the earliest German manuals, and the one which appeared in the
most editions, was written by Heinrich Faber (Magister Heinricus Faber),
about whose life little is known. He died in 55 2, leaving his Compendiolum
musicae pro incipientibus in one Latin edition, that printed in Braunschweig
in I548. As many as forty-six subsequent prints through I617 are extant,
published in numerous places, the most common of which are Leipzig,
Niirnberg, Hantzch, Frankfurt, Erfurt, Goslar, and Augsburg.91 There were
several German translations:

i. by Christoph Rid: Musica. Kurtzer Innhalt der Singkunst, auss M. Heinrich

Fabri lateinischem Compendio Musicae ... (Niirnberg, 1572 and I586).92
2. by Johann Colhardt: Musica: Kurtze und einfeltige Anleitung der Singkunst
fir ... Lehrschiiler. Anfniiglichen durch M. Heinricum Fabrum in Latein beschrie-
ben. Jetzo aber ... in Deutsch vertiret ... (Leipzig, I605).
3. A bilingual version (Latin and German) by Melchior Vulpius containing
additions borrowed from Michael Praetorius: Musicae compendiolum latino ger-
manicum M. Heinrici Fabri ... (in nine eds. from 1608-1665).

Christoph Rid's translation appeared in a new bilingual format in 159 I

published by Adam Gumpelzhaimer (I559-I625).98 This Compendium
musicae latino-germanicum appeared in thirteen editions through 168i. Its
contents will be presented here as representative of other manuals of the time
(see Table 2, below, for information on other works). The editions of 1616
and 1632 were compared: both are virtually identical in contents except for
the edition number on the title page and the introductory notes. There are ten
chapters:

Chapter Musica folio Singekunst

I Musica 4 der Singekunst
2 Clavibus 4 den Schltisseln
3 Vocibus 7 den Stimmen
4 Cantu 7 dem Gesang
5 Mutatione 8 der verainderung der Stim[me]
91 RISM, Ecrits imprimes lists these forty-six prints. There may have been an earlier edition
of 1545. See the article on Faber in MGG by Hans Albrecht (Vol. III, cols. 1683-88) for
details on the work and its later translations. Albrecht is hard put to explain the popularity of
the treatise, finding nothing particularly outstanding in the presentation.
' The number and dates of editions extant are taken from RISM, Ecrits imprimes. Other
sources list more or fewer prints of some.
9 Gumpelzhaimer may have studied composition with Lassus.

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 237

6 Figura & Signis Io gestalt der Noten und Za

7 Ligatura I2 zusam[m]en bindung der
8 Pausis & Punctis 14 den Pausen und Puncten
9 Proportionibus i 5 der Proportion
10 Tonis seu Modis I7 dem Thon

Chapters 1-9 are bilingual with Latin and German on opposite side
page. Chapter io appears in Latin only. The work was probably u
Latin text as well. By the time the student was ready for Chapter i o
presumably mastered Latin sufficiently to allow him to understand th
cussion without German. The end of the book (fols. 2 3-78v) contains
for singing practice. The material is presented in the form of catechi
Chapter i o on the modes covers folios 17-23, nearly one-third the
of the text. Fourteen modes are listed in Glarean's ordering (Dorian -
in a table presenting the number, name, and affect of each. Hyperaeo
Hyperphrygian are listed last and are rejected as spurious because they
proper division. The range and repercussio of each authentic and plaga
in its original position and transposed down a fifth to a one-flat sign
presented in musical examples. Each mode is then discussed brie
example:

Dorian is the first mode or tone. The first tone is used in cantus {molis between d I

&{ d} through an octave. It has two intervals. The first from { d to {a modurs

by the fifth re, la. The second from a } to d, durus by the fourth re, sol. It

has a final in D, durus and G, mollis."9

This is followed by three examples: one presenting the range in original and
one-flat transposition; one with a composition in four voices; and one contain-
ing a "tropus" in chant notation. The same format is used for all the modes.
Table 2 indicates some features of the discussion of mode in singing
manuals after Gumpelzhaimer.
" For example, the first chapter opens: "What is music? It is an art of singing properly and
well." ("Was ist die Music? Sie ist ein Kunst recht und wol zu singen.")
95 "Dorius, id est, tonis sive modus primus. Primus tonus versatur in cantu molliro inter

(D)& (D) per octavam. Intervalle habet duo. Primum ex (D)D in (A, durum )
G G D, mollemD durum
per quintam Re, La. Alterum ex (A) in G D, dumollem )per quartam Re, Sol. Finem
habet in D, duro & G, molli (fol. 17).

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238 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSI

Several
transpositions

0
X X~
One transposition
0

Ferms dur and

moll used for
Qd transposition

Friad + fourth
0
0

? .! Fifth + fourth
0

Repercussio

Affects
o0

cz Zarlino
v,

cz
X XX
0.4 Glarean
7

12 modes and
H

z 0
E
8 tones
14
0
~Cl
6
um
0
z 14 modes with
0 2 rejected
H
Z
X X Xc C
German
[-.

Latin

Latin-German

Xl X
X X
~N

0a

cz cz 0.4 c~

E -t -Z E Z.
V 0)
E M
cr z
? _ .-,
-0 - 0
EEoEg bo3
o C0 e
1 ? C1

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 239

Several
transpositions

cz One transposition X X
0

Ferms dur and

H moll used for
transposition

X X~
Friad + fourth

? ? Fifth + fourth
e-)
0 X
Repercussio
X
Affects

Zarlino X
X XX
oQ

0 Glarean
z
0

0U

to

H~l 12 modes and

<9 0
8 tones
E
0

6
z 14 modes with
2 rejected
to
r_
cz
.4
German
to
cS

Latin

Latin-German

-, NO y,~ 4

-t e -~ . ? ..
cl-

?z z

"dEP?G.
t: ??e.9
'?
ef-.

CS , - : C S
z NO

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240 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Several
transpositions

o One transposition X X
o

cz Terms dur and

moll used for
transposition

-g
Friad + fourth X X

Qd
Fifth + fourth
X
0

Repercussio

Affects
0

U-r Zarlino

Glarean
z
X X
0
u

12 modes and
cz
o 8 tones
E
.-(
0
.4

z
14 modes with
2 rejected

German

Latin ~c cz

Latin-German

-z

G\O

... .C4 z
-0 -f-C
0 .E C~9
o -1
c. E
o
~ 0
o
0

N\
i ~c
- a,

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 241

Several
transpositions X X

cz One transposition
0
H

rerms dur and

moll used for
transposition

rriad + fourth
bfr

Qd

0 " Fifth + fourth

Repercussio

X X
Affects

Zarlino ~C C*

0
6
Glarean

o
0

z
cz
12 modes and SXX
0 8 tones
E
.4
0

z 14 modes with XX
2 rejected

German

cz
Latin
o

Latin-German
~G 3
Its czcz s t
0 z

? . ?
__~C 3 2
? ~ E 4?, ,o ,
6 ~ ", ,4

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242 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Several
transpositions

Cd One transposition
0

rerms dur and

moll used for
transposition

0-

rriad + fourth

OD

? Fifth + fourth
Repercussio

(-) Affects

bL
C
Zarlino

Glarean
z
o
r_
m
U
R
12 modes and
e4 0 8 tones
,.. E
0

0
z 14 modes with
2 rejected

German

Latin

Latin-German

b 0

i .+ g
(Z 00 .btf3 l
-~ar l~ Q.)
oW)
0)E9Y~' \0 00 i0

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MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 243

et-o
Cdxo ~? 6~C
.) V >-,0) V;L 4 c
a a
0.5 ? 0

bL r _ Oa
cr E. 00

0 j r-
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0 ~C
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M Mt-4;. Q.Ec-U
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EE E M ~:0- 0MC
E o m 0 r TfO CL? C
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Cd cd C" ?
Q.)J2E Ecr
bL U o ~ I EWn-bp 4E-6
b x :om
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r_ 0 bL r_
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-a eO C -a? C: -a > -a
00l 0 ,
W-4a r Po
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Cj v ko 0 V 0 0, Cq m V to
00
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Z;)

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244 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

The decreasing emphasis on semitone placement as the primary modal

determinant has been noted in the works of Lippius and Crflger. But contem-
porary works by Johann Magirus and Joachim Burmeister (both of whom
were among the first theorists to present the triad and its inversions) extended
semitone placement to aspects of mode unaffected by this criterion in earlier
theorists.

The two editions of Magirus's Artis musicae (Frankfurt, 1596 and 16 i)

order the modes differently.96 In I 596, he divides the modes into even modes
(pari, those which have the semitones on the same degree of the species of
fourth and fifth) and odd (impari, those in which the semitones appear on
different degrees within these species). Within each grouping, those modes
which have the semitone in the lowest position are placed first, those which
have the semitone in the second lowest position are placed second, etc. Thus,
the even modes are ordered Phrygian, Dorian, and Ionian; the odd modes,
Aeolian, Mixolydian (here referred to as Mixoaeolian), and Lydian. Plagal
forms are placed along with their corresponding authentic forms.97
Part I of the 16 1 edition orders the species of all intervals from the fourth
to the octave according to the lowest placement of the semitone. In Part II, the
authentic modes are similarly ordered Phrygian, Aeolian, Dorian, Mix-
olydian, Ionian, and Lydian. The plagal modes are coupled with the corre-
sponding authentic ones. The modes are differentiated into two general
categories.98 In the first, the semitone is in the lower part of the fifth and fourth
(Phrygian, Aeolian, and Dorian); in the second, the semitone is placed in the
upper half of these intervals (Mixolydian, Ionian, and Lydian).99 The result-
ing groups contain the same modes as in the major-minor differentiations of
Zarlino, Calvisius, and Lippius, but the quality of third is not the criterion,
and the major-minor characteristic is not mentioned. In both editions, Gla-
rean's numbering is presented as the common ordering (volgaris). The re-
mainder of the discussion on modes is traditional.
Magirus's work was influential on a number of other German writers.
Maternus Beringer published a free translation of the 1596 edition (Nuirn-
berg, i6io). It includes (pp. 51-56) various tables and charts on the modes.
In addition to Magirus's ordering ("Ordinem modorum naturalem rectum"),
Glarean's ordering is presented ("Vulgarem ordinem modorum"), and Zar-

96The preface of the 1596 edition, however, is dated 1592; it is reprinted in Nolte,
Johannes Magirus, pp. 192-31 i1. Magirus's Musicae rudimenta of 1619 repeats the formula-
tion of mode found in the 16 i1 edition of the Artis musicae.
97 Book II, Chaps. 5-23 (pp. 42-98; pp. 232-70 of the 1971 reprint).
98 The table appearing on page 51 is reproduced in facsimile in Nolte, Johannes Magirus, p.
136.
99 Although Magirus claims to use the species of both fourth and fifth in his differentiation,
the placement of Dorian and Mixolydian makes it clear that the species of fifth is the principal
criterion.

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 245

lino's ordering is given twice (first as the "Ordinem modorum natur

inversum" and then in the ordering according to solmisation syllables in
species of fifth and fourth). Erasmus Sartorius uses Magirus's divisio
even and odd modes in his elementary manual of 163 5 (see Table 2).
Joachim Burmeister, a student and then a cantor in Rostock from 15 y
discussed the modes in three of his works:

I. Hypomnematum musicae poeticae (Rostock, I 599). Of the fourteen chapters,

the sixth is on the modes and the seventh on cadences. (There is no Chap. 7.)
2. Musica autoschediastike . .. (Rostock, I6oi). Section I of Accessio III is on
the modes.

3. Musica poetica (Rostock, i6o6). Chapter 6 deals with the modes and Chapter
7 with their transpositions.

The most extensive treatment is in the Musica autoschediastike. The

material in the Musica poetica is essentially the same but more concentrated.
In the Hypomnematum, only the essentials for the recognition of modes are
treated. Burmeister, like Magirus, differentiates the modes according to the
placement of the semitone. The ordering used is either Glarean's (in the
Musica autoschediastike) or alphabetical according to the final (in the Musica
poetica). In terms of affect, however, the modes are listed according to where
the semitone is placed: whether it is next to the final, the fifth, or third of the
mode. The first group contains those modes which do not have a semitone
adjacent to the final or fifth of the mode. This includes those with a semitone
below the third (Dorian and Hypodorian, which are for graves and seriae
subjects) and those which have a semitone above the third (Mixolydian and
Hypomixolydian, which are for laetae and incitantes subjects). Next are
mentioned those modes with a semitone below both the final and fifth (Lydian
and Hypolydian, for tragicae and turbulentae subjects). Those modes with a
semitone above both the fifth and final are Phrygian and Hypophrygian, used
for lamentosae and flebiles subjects. Those with a semitone below the final and
a major second around the fifth are for mediae res (Ionian and Hypoionian).
Aeolian is not listed in this manner but is placed between Dorian and
Phrygian; it has a semitone above the fifth but whole tones around the final.
Michael Praetorius's encyclopedic Syntagma musicum (Wolfenbfittel,
I619)101 lists the modes in several charts in the third volume. The first series
(pp. 36-40) presents each mode in the ranges of discant and bass, in regular
and transposed system, and with both Glarean's and Zarlino's orderings
("Series modorum juxta vulgatam opinionem" and "Series modorum juxta
Italorum opinionem"). The repercussio of each mode is indicated by black

s00 See Ruhnke, Joachim Burmeister.

1o0 Facsm. ed., Documenta musicologica, Erste Reihe, 21 (Kassel, I 958).

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246 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

noteheads. The second series (pp. 40-45) presents each pair of authentic and
plagal modes in bass, tenor, alto, and cantus registers. A third series (pp.
46-47) repeats the second series in organ tablature in both regular and
transposed systems. The remaining aspects of modal theory presented are
traditional, including the range of an octave as the limit of the ambitus.
Praetorius discusses neither the application of the modes to composition, nor
any major-minor differentiation. Perhaps the projected fourth volume of the
Syntagma, which was to have dealt with composition,102 would have included
a fuller discussion. The reader is referred to many other works, including those
of Calvisius, Glarean, and Magirus, for further information.
Johann Andreas Herbst (1588-i666) represents a school of German
musicians different from any discussed thus far. Although he lived and worked
in Germany for his entire adult life (in Darmstadt, Niirnberg, and Frankfurt),
Herbst was best known as a musician versed in the contemporary Italian vocal
styles. There are extensive discussions on the Italian manner of vocal embel-
lishments in his Musica practica sive instructio pro symphoniacis . . . auff
jetzige Italienische Manier (Niirnberg, 1642) and Musica moderna prattica,
overo maniera del buon canto (Frankfurt, i65 3 and 1658). The Arte prattica
et po'tica is a translation of the counterpoint text, Arte pratica latina et
volgare di far contrapunto (Venice, i6 i1o) by Giovanni Chiodino. Herbst's
composition treatise, Musica po"tica (Nornberg, 1643),103 presumably repre-
sents the outlook of mid-century musicians active in contemporary styles. The
treatise is a compilation from many different sources, as is noted in the subtitle:
"collected for the most part from the foremost Latin and Italian authors and
musicians, old as well as new, and presented briefly in this compendium."104
But Herbst failed to digest much of the material, resulting in a confusing
organization of data and contradictions between different presentations of the
same material only a few pages apart.
Mode is discussed in four of the twelve chapters: Chapter 6 on the modes
proper (pp. 45-58), Chapter 7 on cadences (pp. 58-80), Chapter 8 on the
beginning, middle, and end of songs (pp. 81-88), and Chapter ii on text,
which consists of a discussion of the affect of each mode (pp. 101-12).
102 Apparently, Baryphonus was to have written this volume, a plan probably aborted by
his death in 1621.
103 Herbst believed this to be the first composition treatise ever published in German:
... in Teutscher Sprach / der gleichen zuvor niemals also gesehen worden .. " But in I6io,
Maternus Beringer had published a free translation into German of Magirus's Artis musicae of
1596. The choice of language was not an inconsequential decision among German writers of
this period. Conrad Matthaei consciously chose German for his Bericht (see fn. io8, below),
blaming some of the ignorance of modal theory among musicians on the use of Latin in many
earlier treatises (fol. A4 v).
104 "So mehrentheils auss den firnembsten / so wol Alten als Newen / Lateinischen und
Italienischen Authoribus und Musicis, mit besonderm Fleiss zusammen getragen / und in dieses
Compendium kiirtzlich verfasset. . . (title page)."

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 247

Eleven points on modes are listed at the beginning of Chapter 6: (i)

whether to refer to the modes with the term tonus or modus; (2) the definition
of mode; (3) the fundamental intervals of a mode; (4) the ambitus; (5)
freedom in the ambitus; (6) the division of the octave; (7) the placement of
cadences; (8) the final; (9) the repercussio; (io) the intonation in psalms and
Antiphons; and (ii) the use of the modes.105 The list is apparently taken from
a work on the Gregorian modes. Thus the repercussio is listed for only eight
modes (p. 50, point 9). Yet only two pages later, the number of modes is
established at fourteen with two rejected.
In point 3, the modes are generated as octave species differentiated by
semitone placement and arising from the addition of species of fifth and fourth.
The important intervals are named as the semitone, the whole tone, the
fourth, the fifth, and the octave. Virtually every interval but the third is
mentioned.

According to point 8, the mode is recognized from the tenor or discant.

The tenor is still the center of the composition for Herbst. As its name implies,
this voice "maintains the melody and the chorale and the ambitus of the
mode."106 Similarly, in Chapter 5 ("De harmoniae partibus und vermischung
der Consonantien"), treating counterpoint in four voices, which Herbst rec-
ommends as the first composition exercise, he suggests successive composition
of the voices: first the tenor with the chorale; then the discant, the bass, and
finally the altus (pp. 32-33). Yet in line with the confused nature of the work,
he then begins exercises with the bass (pp. 34 ff.)! The principalis cadence107 of
Phrygian (on the final) can end on an A-major triad, with only the tenor on e,
while the minus principalis ends on an E-major chord (see Ex. 7). Thus, in
Phrygian, a separatefinalis cadence is added.
Several important subjects, such as the number of modes and their
ordering, transposition, and affects, are not mentioned among the eleven
points, but they are treated separately later in Chapter 6 or elsewhere.
Different orderings of the modes are treated in Chapter 6. Some writers begin

105 Pp. 46-5 1. ") Nomen modi, 2) Definitio, 3) Fundamentum. Oder der Grund, 4)
Ambitus, oder Umbschweiff, 5) Licentia. Oder Freyheit, 6) Mediatio Octavae. 7) Clausularum
sedes, 8) Finis. Oder End dess Gesangs, 9) Repercussio, oder Widerschlag, io) Intonatio oder
Tropus, i i) Usus, oder der rechte Gebrauch."
'" P. 32: "..-. weil er die Melodiam und gemeiniglich den Choral, und dess Modi ambitum
oder Lauff in sich begreifft und hailt ...."
107' Cadence is discussed both in point 7 and Chap. 7. Cadences are placed on the lowest note
of the fifth of the mode (Principalis), the highest note of the fifth (minus principalis), and the
third between the extremes of the fifth (affinis or affinalis). Extensive examples are given for
each mode in Chap. 7, including twenty-one cadences in four voices by Gabrieli on pp. 64-67.
In all modes but Phrygian, each cadence is, in effect, a V-I progression concluding on the
indicated pitch. The cadences for Phrygian are given in Ex. 7. The designations refer to the
tenor pitch: the final, fifth, or third of the mode. But the final harmony is not necessarily the
"tonic."

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248 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Example 7

__,,, tj --a - v a 43
Princ. Minus princ. Princ.

Affinalis Finalis
Aflinalis Finalis

with a because it is the first le

agreement with the common usag
note on the organ, and the hex
beginning on d to avoid confusion
later sections. Ionian assumes pr
sented (p. 53) and in the discussio
(pp. 67-68). Yet in the fuller di
listing of affects in Chapters 8 an
In Chapter 8, a Verselein borrow
as a mnemonic device for the affe
name, the affect, the repercussio
sonat: ordine Primus"). The aff
Herbst makes some larger groupin
(Dorian, hilaris; Aeolian, suavit
gentle (traurig undgelind) mode
and Hypoaeolian, tristis). Lydian
plagal forms are often different
there is no differentiation accord
Perhaps the most striking charac
is not found in a singing manual,
in a composition text by an autho
music. The type of presentation o
well have had a wider circulation
Lippius, and CrUtger. Based on
work, it might be argued that
much care and did not necessarily

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 249

cost him just as little effort to write his own thoughts from scratch as it would
have taken him to collect all the different sections that appear in this work.
Additional evidence that the attitudes expressed in this treatise were his own is
found in the treatment of mode in Lorenz Erhard's Harmonisches Chor- und
Figural Gesang-Buch (Frankfurt, 1659), of which the contents are outlined in
Table 2. Erhard worked with Herbst in Frankfurt during several periods after
1625. The conservative treatment of mode in the Gesangbuch agrees with
Herbst's presentations. If Herbst was so confused about the nature of contem-
porary music that he drew up a composition text recommending that a
composer begin by putting the chorale in the tenor and compose a discant to it,
why did he write a composition treatise at all?
CrUiger, in his Musicae practicae of I660, incorporated a section on the
popular vocal embellishments similar in presentation to the same material
found in Herbst's works. Perhaps some of Crilger's conservatism in his later
works was influenced by Herbst.
The Kurtzer, doch ausflbhrlicher Bericht von den Modis Musicis1?8 by
Conrad Matthaei (16I9-1667?), a cantor in KOnigsberg after 1654,1"' is the
first of a number of German treatises published between I65o and 1750o, in
which the authors attempted to restore the old teaching of the modes to its
rightful place. Other such works are by Johann Buttstett (in 17 15/16), Franz
Murschhauser (in 172 I), and Meinrad Spiess (in 1745). In all these works,
the author bemoans the current state of ignorance and cites various authorities
to restore the modes. The authorities are often several decades-sometimes
even more than a century-old. But the teachings of the old authorities are
interspersed with contemporary practice. Thus, in some respects, Matthaei's
Bericht is more progressive than Herbst's Musica po'tica (in terms of cadences
and references to the triad, for example). Matthaei studied music with
Heinrich Grimm (1593- 16 3 7), himself a student of Michael Praetorius and a
musician and publisher in Magdeburg and Braunschweig."'
1o8 Kurtzer doch ausfibihrlicher Bericht von den Modis Musicis, welchen aus den besten,
aeltesten, beriuhmtesten und bewerthesten Autoribus der Music zusammen getragen . . . ([K5-
nigsberg], 1652).
109 According to Johann Gottfried Walther's Musikalisches Lexikon (Leipzig, 1732), Mat-
thaei practiced law in Braunschweig after becoming cantor in KoSnigsberg. There is, however,
no independent confirmation of this. See Arno Forchert, "Matthaei," MGG, Vol. VIII, col.
1795.

110 Grimm published the second edition of Calvisius's Melopoeia and Baryphonus's Pie-
jades in 1630. In addition to Matthaei, he taught Otto Gibel (1612-1682), the author of works
on mathematical aspects of music, including temperament. It is unclear how much of the
Bericht is influenced by Grimm. Matthaei notes in the preface that "this entire treatise is not
mine, but the work of the late Grimm; and I have not altered so much as a single letter in it"

(fol. Bv-'-"... dieser gantze Tractat sey nicht meine sondern des sehl: Grymmi Arbeit und
dassappear
not ich auch
on thekeinen eintzigen
title page, Buchstaben
and later writers refer todaran ver.ndert
the work hatte").
solely under Butname.
Matthaei's Grimm's name does
In any event, if Grimm is the author, then the work must date from before 163 7 in manuscript.

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250 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Most of the Bericht is paraphrased from earlier authors. Seventy writers

are listed in the preface, ranging from ancient Greeks and medieval theorists
a larger number of sixteenth and seventeenth-century writers and compose
Glarean and Michael Praetorius are quoted often in the course of the te
Matthaei complains in the preface that students sometimes never even h
about the modes because cantors know little about them.111"' Composers ign
them and make foreign cadences. Organists who do not know them cann
improvise preludes and fantasies correctly. Some even mix ("das grasses
Elend!") different transpositions. This last is an essential point. One of t
principal differences between modal and tonal compositions concerns the ty
of scale used in "nontonic" areas of the piece. In modal music, the sam
diatonic scale is often used for the entire composition. In tonal music, new
areas use "transpositions" of the tonic scale. The thorough discussions in eac
chapter cover all the aspects of traditional modal theory. But even thou
Zarlino's and Lippius's theories form the basis for many points,112 there is
hint of a major-minor differentiation. The eight church modes (Chap.
"Von den Acht Tonis der Alten") are differentiated from the twelve modes
contemporary music.
Wolfgang Caspar Printz (1641-1717) is one of the most importa
writers on music in Germany in the seventeenth century. His works, printe
between 1668 and 1690, include several singing manuals, theoretical essa
an extensive and important history of music, and Phrynis (Mytilenaeus) ode
Satyrischer Componist (Quedlinburg, 1676/77), of which the Erste Theil
in part, a composition treatise. Only in the last-named work is there a
treatment of mode.113 In most details, Printz is conservative. Modes arise fro
the harmonic and arithmetic divisions of the octave, differentiating them i
authentic and plagal modes. The fifth of each mode can also be divide
harmonically and arithmetically, resulting in the trias harmonica, but Print
does not use this to differentiate modes. The only relationships between mo
that he discusses are between authentic and plagal modes of the same name.
Only in two matters does Printz's treatment differ significantly fr
traditional modal theory. He lists primary, secondary, and tertiary cadences
on the final, fifth, and third of each mode, as many other writers do. But w
these fall on b, they are not listed at all. Thus Phrygian has no seconda
cadence and Mixolydian no tertiary cadence. Also, Printz redefines the term
repercussio. He rejects the ancient opinion that it is the repeated note o

"' See fn. 90, above. About two-thirds of the elementary manuals of the seventeent
century do not discuss the modes.
112 On the ordering of the modes and the use of the term trias, see above, fn. 67.
113 The work was published in three parts and later in a complete edition in 1696. Part I
which mode is discussed, was published first in 1676. Mode is discussed in Chaps. 9 and i o.

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 251

mode, for that would hinder variety. "The repercussio of each mode is b
taken into consideration when the discant and bass wander, for the most pa
by long notes through the harmonic triads whose lowest notes are the notes
the harmonic triad of the mode in use. The harmonic triad of the lowest note is

us'ed the most, that of the uppermost is used often, and that of the mediant
more rarely."''114
Christoph Bernhard's Tractatus compositionis augmentatus is one of the
best-known treatises of the second half of the century."15 Bernhard
(1627-I692) was a student of Paul Siefert (himself a student of Sweelinck),
Heinrich Schiltz, and Giacomo Carissimi. It was formerly thought that the
Tractatus was based on Schuitz's teachings, but it now appears that it might be
derived from other sources as well.116 The study of composition is approached
through a solid grounding in the strict style of the sixteenth century. Contem-
porary usages are then explained as modifications and combinations of this
strict practice. If this approach had been extended to the modes, a traditional
approach would have been followed by a discussion of modern usages. But
such is not the case.

The discussion of mode covers ten brief chapters (Chaps. 44-53). The
presentation is traditional. Zarlino's ordering is followed: "... the mode on c
must be the first because all the remaining modes arrange the perfection of
their cadences according to this one."117 There is no formal distinction made
between modes with major and minor thirds. But statements in the chapters
on the individual modes relate those with minor thirds. Dorian is "quite
closely related to the eleventh because it often changes the b above the fifth to

11 Satyrischer Componist, p. 37: "Die Repercussion eines ieden Modi wird am besten in
acht genommen wenn Discant und Bass am meisten Notis Quantitate Intrinseca longis durch
die Triades Harmonicas, deren unterste Soni von denen Sonis Triadis Harmonicae des
gebrauchten Modi seyn schweiffen; Doch das Trias Harmonica Soni infimi am meisten
supremi offt und medii seltener gebraucht werde."
1' The Tractatus, apparently written after 1655, was not published until the twentieth
century, but it circulated widely in manuscript until well into the eighteenth century. See Josef
Maria Miiller-Blattau, Die Kompositionslehre Heinrich Schbitzens in der Fassung seines
Schilers Christoph Bernhard (Leipzig, 1926; repr. Kassel, I953). This contains the first
publication of the treatise; and Helmut Federhofer, "Der Gradus ad Parnassum von Fux und
seine Vorlaiufer in Osterreich," Musikerziebung (1957), pp. 31-35, in which it is shown that
Bernhard's treatise circulated in manuscript copies in southern Germany and Austria as well as
in the north. An English translation of the Tractatus by Walter Hilse appears in The Music
Forum, III (1973), 1-196.
16 See the preface (pp. 1-12) to the English translation cited in fn. i15 for references.
11 Tractatus, Chap. 45: ".... der Modus aus dem C. der erste seyn muisse, weilen die

ibrigen
prets this alle ihrer
to mean thatSchliisse Perfection
all final cadences nacha major
end with diesem richten
third. ... a."criterion
But such Walterwould
Hilse, loc. cit., inter-
allow Mixolydian or even Lydian in first position. It seems more likely that Bernhard is
referring to the entire cadential progression with the raised leading tone in the penultimate
chord. See Chap. 12 of the Tractatus concerning the "bass cadence.

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252 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

bb .. .",s Similarly, Phrygian "also has a great kinship with the above-
mentioned eleventh, especially if the cadence on a is often heard in it,
considering that the cadence on b is not at all acceptable ..."1119 T
Hypophrygian "is mixed with the twelfth quite a bit, as its authentic is mixe
with the eleventh, so that they can hardly be differentiated from one anoth
except by their endings."120 But the irregular cadences are not the same in a
minor modes. In Dorian and Phrygian they are on the fourth and sixth
degrees,121 in Aeolian on the fourth and seventh. The modes with major thirds
above the final are not so closely related except for the customary statement
that the Lydian modes are changed to Ionian. Mixolydian is treated independ-
ently.

The persistence of a modal tradition in seventeenth-century German

theory can be explained in part by the importance of modal chorale melodies
in many aspects of contemporary composition (reharmonizations of the melo-
dies, chorale preludes, and the incorporation of chorale melodies into other-
wise free compositions). This is in contrast to the situation in Catholic
countries where the body of modal chant was largely divorced from contempo-
rary music. But not all German theorists who wrote in support of the
traditional modal theory were primarily associated with chorales or sacred
music. Herbst was not, and neither was Bernhard, whose treatment of
dissonance patterns extended to theatrical music. And Lippius, who most
forcefully argued the case for the sole distinction between major and minor,
was very much concerned with church music and theological matters.
Whatever the underlying reasons, however, the resulting dichotomy be-
tween traditional modality and the developing major and minor keys is
unique to German theory in the seventeenth century. In both France and
England, for example, there is a more direct line of development toward full
recognition of major and minor keys. So was the foundation laid in seven-
teenth-century German theory for the heated polemical debates over modes
and keys in the 717os (Mattheson vs. Buttstett, Fux, and Murschhauser). And

118 Tractatus, Chap. 47: "Dieser modus ist gar nahe verwandt mit dem undecimo, weil er
fiber der Quinte das ? offt in b molle verTindert."
119 Ibid., Chap. 48: "Auch dieser hat grosse Verwandschafft mit dem vorigen gemeldeten
eilften, zumahl wenn die Cadentz des a offt darinnen geho5ret wird, angesehen die ins ? nicht gar
annehmlich ist ....
120 Ibid., Chap. 48: "Er wird gar sehr mit dem 12ten Modo vermenget, wie sein Authen
ticus mit dem i ten, so dass sie kaum von einander als am Ende unterscheiden."
1211n Dorian on bb!

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 MAJOR-MINOR CONCEPTS AND MODAL THEORY IN GERMANY 253

thus was the background prepared for the continued presentations of the
modes until after mid-century when even historical works in England and
France barely mentioned them any more.122
City College of The City University of New York

122"' See, for example, John Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of
Music (London, 1776). I, 399- In a discussion of Zarlino's relationship to Glarean, Hawkins
notes that Zarlino "does not indeed profess to follow Glareanus in his division, but whether he
has so done or not is a matter in which the science of music is at this time so little interested, that
it scarce deserves the pains of an enquiry." For a study of these eighteenth-century debates, see
Joel Lester, "The Recognition of Major and Minor Keys in German Theory: i68o-I 730," to
appear in Journal of Music Theory, Spring 1978.

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