All's I know is, Mode 3 really %#@$^&!es me off. Guess that means I'm not a mystic.
a rich diet of Neapolitan 5ths and Aug 6ths
In 600 AD people had not yet heard Jesus Christ Superstar.
To any who would offer the blanket assertion that affect relative to the different modes is non-existent, I would say 'speak for yourself, and don't project your insensitivities onto others'.
As for why this music 'is as foreign as something imported from Mars',
The Mass itself is 'different'....
It wasn't 'foreign' to western Catholics of the pre-conciliar era. Nor to their children who, in their millions, were taught to sing chant repertory in parochial schools and loved it - all in spite of the more modern musical culture by which they were surrounded.
True. But in my experience, Chant was "it" at the school weekday Masses, but at the Sunday Cantata Masses, 4-part dominated.
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