Toni und Modi und ihre Bedeutung für Schütz' Harmonik

Abstract

Ever since the Middle Ages, the terms tonus and modus have been frequently used interchangeably in music theory. However, a distinction was made between those modi (or toni) that referred to the ancient scales and those that served in the liturgy as recitation formulae, particularly for the intonation of psalms. In Schütz's Opus ultimum, SWV 482-494, a connection between modal scales and recitation formulas can be traced. Schütz also seems to have used harmonic-contrapuntal techniques of chordal writing (e.g., in SWV 453, 468, 485, and 487) to illustrate texts. Modal and tonal harmony, following the definitions given in Friedrich Erhard Hiedt's Musicalische Handleitung, merged and overlapped in music of the time.