Musicology Annotation << Back Renaissance Modal System Natalia Ushakova, Galina Demeshko Basing upon several musicological works and their own analysis of Marian motets as well, the authors reveal and describe the primary features of different levels of Renaissance modal system: mode, melodic and thematic invention, harmony, form and composition. Renaissance modality succeeds the traditions of the medieval singing culture, the essence of which is the concept of likening (in the movement “from an image to likeness”). Therefore the main law of the development of a modal composition is based on the movement from an individual, sensually perceptible, towards the Universal, integrated, supersensual. On the one hand, Renaissance modal system is formed on the concepts of immovability and absoluteness (system of modes, formulas, cadencies), and on the other hand, on the concept of variability, which implicates the unique bends of essencially individual development of the mode, melodic, polyphony and composition. This objective law reveals the complex incognizability of the communication between the two worlds: the heavenly world and the terrestrial world. The model of synthesis of antiquity and Christianity becomes noticeable through the paradoxicall combination of the two perspectives of the world concept: in “the truth of life” and by means of human touch to the Absolute. Keywords: modus, Renaissance modal system, Marian motets, modal despite, harmony, formation. Contacts: E-mail: Donat-Ushak@mail.ru Pp. 03-12.