Hucbald of St. Amand's treatise Musica took shape in the late Carolingian era in a time of intense and independent music-theoretical activity. Hucbald has been recognized as a pioneer who brought elements from Greek music theory to bear upon plainsong, but his view of mode has been considered rather routine. Through scrutiny of modal references and explanatory rhetoric within the treatise, this study corrects some modern readings of Hucbald's teaching on mode and offers a new assessment of the relationship between modal lore and venerable Boethian theory in Hucbald's theoretical universe. In Musica, a substratum of preexistent modal knowledge replaces Boethian number relationships as the foundation underlying basic elements of music theory.
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