Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/424

412 [ G. ]

MUSICA FICTA, or, or  (Cantus fictus), i.e. Feigned, or Artificial Music. One of the earliest discoveries made by the inventors of Figured Music was, the impossibility of writing a really euphonious Counterpoint upon a given Canto fermo, without the use of occasional semitones foreign to the Mode. The employment of such semitones, in Plain Chaunt, was as strictly forbidden by the good taste of all educated Musicians, as by the Bull of Pope John the 22nd. Hence, they were never permitted to appear in the Canto fermo itself. But it soon became evident, that unless they were tolerated in the subordinate parts, no farther progress could be made in a style of composition which was already beginning to attract serious attention. It was indispensable that some provision should be made for the correction of imperfect harmonies; and—as Zarlino justly teaches —Nature's demand for what we should now call a 'Leading-Note' was too strong to be resisted. On these points, a certain amount of concession