ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of how the core repertory of eighth-mode tracts was understood by cantors once the tradition was widely supported by writing. The way in which the eighth-mode tracts are notated in the manuscripts may contain information about how they were understood by those writing them down. However, some eighth-mode tracts appear to have been composed after the development of notation and the spread of medieval musical theory. One possible piece of evidence about the understanding the medieval scribes had of eighth-mode tract structure is that there are no further mistakes similar to that found in TYR, where the scribe carelessly wrote the wrong version of a phrase after a standard opening. The eighth-mode tracts were composed as a melodic group, but not as a group of ‘eighth-mode’ chants. The melodic movements of eighth-mode tracts are very close to those regarded by medieval theorists as representative of the mode.
