Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/274

262 satisfied, provided no rules were unnecessarily broken. The best men of the period, fully alive to the importance of this distinction, aimed at the harmonious effect, and succeeded in attaining it, without the intervention of the conundrum. And thus arose a School, so simple in its construction, that more than one modern critic has accused its leaders of poverty of invention. The injustice of this charge is palpable; for when it answered the purpose of these Composers to write in a more learned manner, they invariably found themselves equal to the occasion, though they cared nothing for ingenuity for its own sake. And the result of their spirit of self-control is, that though their Church Music may be deficient in the breadth and grandeur which were attained, at a later period, in Italy, their Madrigals are among the finest in the world.

Beyond this point, Art made no great advance in Flanders. We must seek for the traces of its farther progress in Italy. [See etc. etc.]

V. The formation of was one of the most important, as well as the most obviously natural results of the employment of Flemish Musicians in the Pontifical Chapel. It was not, however, until many years after the return of the Papal Court from Avignon, that Italian Composers were able to hold their ground successfully against their foreign rivals. When they did begin to do so, the style they most affected was so strongly influenced by that then prevalent in the Netherlands, that it is not always easy to distinguish works of the one School from those of the other, as a comparison of the following passage from Costanzo Festa's Madrigal, 'Quando ritrovo la mia pastorella,' with the opening of Archadelt's 'Vaghi pensier,' will sufficiently demonstrate.

(Venice 1541.) Quan - do ri -- tro -- vo la mi -- a pas -- to -- rel -- la. Al pra -- to con le pe -- cor' in pas -- tu -- ra. Io mi gli ac -- cos t'e pres -- to la sa -- lu -- to. La mi ris -- pon -- de, tu sia ben ve

(Venice 1541.) Va -- ghi pen -- sier che co -- si pas -- so pas -- so, che co -- si pas -- so pas -- sp Scor -- to m'ha -- ve -- te ra -- gio -- nar'

In the distribution of their Vocal Parts, the massive weight of their Harmonies, the persistent crossing of the Melodies by which those Harmonies are produced, the bright swing of their Rhythm, and other similar technicalities, these two examples resemble each other so closely, that, had they been printed anonymously, no one would ever have supposed that they could possibly have belonged to different Schools. The secret is explained by their simultaneous publication in Venice. The Netherlanders had long found a ready market for their Art Treasures, in Italy. The Italians had, by this time, learned how to produce similar treasures for themselves; and Costanzo Festa's talent placed his works at least on a level with those of his instructors, if not above them. His genius was incontestable: he was equally remarkable for his power of adaptation. Though by no means wanting, either in learning, or ingenuity, he here shows himself willing to reduce his Madrigal to the simplicity of a Faux-bourdon, in order to secure the harmonic richness so highly prized at this particular epoch. He did so, constantly, and always with success; for, to the purity of style cultivated by the best of his contemporaries in the North of Europe, Festa