Key and Mode in Seventeenth- Century Music Theory Books Walter Atcherson Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Autumn, 1973), 204-232, Stable URL: Ittplinksstor.orgsicisici=022-2909%/28 197323920 17%3 A2%3C20AG3AKAMISC%SE20.CO®BLAT Journal of Music Theory is curently published by Yele University Department of Music. Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at flip: feworwjtor org/aboutterms.htmal. ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in par, that unless you fave obtained pcior permission, you may not dowaload an cnt isus of @ journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe ISTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial uss. Please contact the publisher cegarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at upsferwe.jstor.org/joumals‘yuden tel. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transtnission. ISTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding ISTOR, please contact support @jstor.org- hup:thrwwjstor.orgy Fri Tan 28 15:02:03 2005204 KEY AND MODE IN SEVENTEENTH- ‘One of the more remarkable cultural phenomena of modern times ig the emergence of a generally accepted musico-syn- tactical system (@ musteal “langusge”) knows, among other ways, a8 the “common practice of the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries." or as the “major/minor syatem of harmony," or 2s “tonal [ae opposed to modal] harmony." While twentiela-con~ cury composers have sougat new ways to structure music, In- 1erest in the major /minor syatem continues undiminished owing spa variety of reasons, among them the facts that the Dulk of present day concert repertoire stems from the common prac Bice period, and that theories relevant originally ta music of ‘the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been profitably extended to more recent music,205 CENTURY MUSIC THEORY BOOKS WALTER ATCHERSON Much nas bean written conceraing the msjor/minar aystem. By far the most words have been expended in attempts tocodify ‘ko syntax of major/minor and make Jt into a workable method ‘of teaching composition, Numerous muste theory text books ‘of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries fall into Unis cate- gory. Another category of writing concerning the major /minor system consists of those efforts to set farth philosophical, piathematical, or acoustical explantions of maajor /minor har- ony; this category often overlaps the first, 28 itdoes already Sn Jean-Philippe Rameau's TRAITE DE L'HARMONTE (1722), {in the twentieth century the major/minor system has ceased to serve ag a basis for composition instruction, and the search