ABSTRACT
It has often been asserted that the modal system was self-evidently the basis of “classical vocal polyphony.” The standard objection to this view is the existence of all manner of contradictions in the theoretical sources. And the standard refutation is that these contradictions arise at the level of intellectual discourse, not of practical musicianship. But, to follow Harold S. Powers’s important distinction, the modal system is not objective, “etic,” but “emic,” that is, borrowed from another cultural context. 1
