Music and Time Annotation << Back The Birth of a New Modality V.P. Sereda Music is one of the most informative ways of learning about the world, capable of reflecting the very process of musical imagery development. The problem with the conceptual framework of music theory education is a discrepancy between the real-life content of musical texts and their «lifeless» reflection in theory. Its terminological inadequacy is revealed by an inability to reflect the individual qualities of musical images, the process of their movement through the text of a musical composition, as well as the shades of light and shadows. The article proposes some ways of building an adequate theoretical framework that allow for the realities of life to be integrated with musical imagery in the process of melodic analysis and when determining the modal positions of scale degrees and their relationship to the tonal functions of harmonic texture elements. Keywords: initial stage of vertical function formation, blurring of lines between the major and minor scales, expansion of harmony’s color palette, scale fi ssion, identifi cation of derivative elements in the structure of the major mode, the tonic’s new role, behavior of scale degrees that contradicts their modal position. Contacts: E-mail: mu3yka2006@yandex.ru Pp. 58-70.