The aim of this study is to achieve a better theoretical comprehension of the 16th century music. The "modal theory" is a problematic term of Renaissance discourse about music. The 16th-century modal theory drew upon and was synthesized with diverse theoretical traditions. The aspects of modal theory that are most directly concerned with a tonal structure are discussions of modes and counterpoint. In this vein, a mode is not only a music-theoretical construct, an inherited category in a fixed set of categories, but also a tonal type in 16th century music that forms a music-analytical construct. Many changes in modal thought resulted in tensions that are reflected in 16th century theoretical writing, musical composition, and editorial practice. A general trend in 16th-century printed collections was from less tonal ordering to more, and the organization of cyclic sets became more and more common according to modal schemes as the century went on. It is important that major composers of the second half of the century adopted the old system of 8 modes. It centers round the compositions and theoretical writings of Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-90), the most famous theorist of the 16th century. Zarlino adopted Glarean`s nomenclature, including the aeolian and ionian modes. Thus, motet, "Ego veni in hortum meum"-which Zarlino had composed a representation of mode 5 in Canticum Canticorum (1540), labeled as ionian in his 1549 motet print, and mode 11 in the 1558 edition of Le istitutioni harmoniche, and mode 1 in the Dimonstrationi harmoniche (1571). This is a fair representation of multi-faceted situation that held away from the 1570s well into the 17th century. A particular 16th century tonal type has evolved into a particular 17th- century and 18th-century tonality.

• 최원선 | Won Sun Choi