A few weeks ago I had the honor of cantoring at a ROTR parish that is doing a fantastic job of integrating worthy hymnody, English propers, English chant responsorial psalms, icel ordinaries--just the kind of thing every Catholic deserves to have as their Mass "sound."

I was left with the impression of having gone most of the Mass without a discernible tonal key. Of course that is an exaggeration, but the impression was really strong, that the music had all been modal. This was especially so of the unaccompanied English chant Communion proper.

I started thinking about how standard polyphony (I have a polyphony schola doing Renaissance-era things) would have compromised the modal tenor of the Mass--that sustained engagement with a "different" kind of sound than we ever hear in "the world." Let's take Tallis' "If Ye Love Me," for example. That's I-V-I to begin with, and the fully recognizable chordation goes on throughout. Of course it is brilliantly tecture, but I for one "hear" it vertically.

I suppose in the old days, before the Renaissance, there must have been a time before tonal considerations became so strong, more of a stepping-stone time between chant and the tonal. This is an era I don't know--and in fact, the theory I'm talking about here is unfamiliar to me.

So I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions of things I could listen to in order to understand this better.