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Twelve-mode theory, which originated in the theoretical writings of Heinrich Glarean (Dodecachordon, 1547) and Gioseffo Zarlino (Le istitutioni harmoniche, 1558), was widely disseminated in Italian and German theoretical and pedagogical sources until about 1800, which raises the question: what relevance did a theory that originated in plainchant and later adapted to vocal polyphony have for a musical culture increasingly dominated by concertato idioms and the newer genres of opera, oratorio, sonata, and concerto? Any answer to this question is complicated by the fact that twelve-mode theorists rarely addressed the relevance of their theory to newer music in explicit and unequivocal terms. As a result, previous scholarship has offered an array of views on the practical relevance of Baroque-era modal theory, ranging from outright skepticism, on the one hand, to its whole-sale adoption as a means of analyzing tonal style, on the other.
In this paper, I argue that twelve-mode theory was never a widespread and coherently disseminated technique; rather, it remained a theoretical construct that, over its long history, underwent diverse, even incompatible interpretations. To illustrate this, I will trace the divergent paths of German and Italian modal theory, examining their distinct technical and stylistic orientations in three chapters. In Chapter 1, I examine two early eighteenth-century theoretical writings by Benedetto Marcello (Lettera famigliare, c. 1716) and Johann Joseph Fux (Gradus ad Parnassum, 1725) to demonstrate that the continued appeal of modal theory in the late Baroque lay in nuances absent from major-minor keys. In Chapter 2, I will compare early seventeenth-century theorists Girolamo Diruta (Seconda parte del Transilvano, 1609) and Seth Calvisius (Exercitationes musicae duae, 1600) along with early nineteenth-century theorists Giacomo Tritto (Scuola di Contrappunto, 1816) and Georg Joseph Vogler (Choral-System, 1800) to demonstrate that German and Italian twelve-mode theories diverged in two ways: first, while Italians largely adhered to traditional modal-polyphonic precepts as a stylistic topos, German theorists sought a more flexible application of the modes as a theory of tonal organization; and second, Italian theoretical sources and modally-designated compositions document a strong association between the modes and fugal technique, whereas German theoretical sources testify to a consistent association between the twelve modes and Lutheran chorales. In Chapter 3, to further substantiate these divergences, I will compare two early eighteenth-century twelve-mode collections by Azzolino Bernardino della Ciaja (Saggi per Organo, 1727) and Georg Philipp Telemann (XX kleine Fugen, 1731).
The broader significance of twelve-mode theory’s continued survival lies in the many kinds and purposes of music theory in the early modern era: as I will demonstrate, twelve-mode theorists aimed, not at music analysis in the modern sense, but variously to engage in rational and humanist speculation, demonstrate authority and erudition, provide prescriptions for composers, and negotiate between newly composed and liturgical music.