Between modes and biggish data: creating and exploring a new catalogue of polyphonic modal cycles

Modal cycles are probably the most solid evidence we possess for the relevance of the modes for polyphony, specifically for composing 'in' the modes. Whereas the prototypical modal cycle consists of precisely one composition for each mode--such as Palestrina's Vergine-cycle (1581)--cycles display an astonishing amount of variation in, for example, number of pieces, length of the pieces, number of modes, degree of order and completeness, relationship to psalm and Magnificat tones, scoring, genre, and selection of modal characteristics. This variation points to a range of motivations for creating a cycle: providing overarching structure, adding symbolic meaning, teaching by example, proving mastery, bringing order in a set of pieces, or enabling selection of an appropriate piece for a given context. This illustrates why a comprehensive overview of modal cycles (including borderline cases) is important, in addition to close-reading of the individual cycles.

In 2001, the first author published a catalogue of 475 modal cycles dating from the end of the 15th century until c. 1800, with the majority of cycles dating from 1540-1620. Since then, several new items have come to light through casual exploration. In this paper we will report the outcomes of a systematic exploration of several digital resources, in particular the RISM dataset with its nearly 1.5 million records. We show how mode information is retrieved from various fields and how candidate cycles are extracted.

A total of nearly 200 new cycles have been identified, some of which are especially intriguing due to their size, organisation, or ambition of the composer. A selection of these cycles will be discussed in detail. We will also present a quantitative analysis of the augmented catalogue and discuss temporal and geographical patterns, as well as patterns in musical features across modal cycles. Finally, we will reflect on lessons learned in digital musicology, specifically on how meaningful insights can be gained by recycling data created for a different purpose. The new catalogue of modal cycles will be published online in summer 2025.