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268 Spain. So completely are the Spaniards identified with the Romans, that the former are necessarily described as disciples of the School of Festa, or that of Palestrina, as the case may be. To the former class belong Bartolomeo Escobedo, Francesco Salinas, Juan Scribano, Cristofano Morales, Francesco Guerrero, and Didaco Ortiz: the greatest genius of the latter was Ludovico da Vittoria, who approached more nearly to Palestrina himself than any other Composer, of any age or country. Many of these great writers including Vittoria ended their days in Spain, after long service in the Churches of Rome: and thus it came to pass that the Roman style of Composition was cultivated, in both countries, with equal zeal, and almost equal success.

XVI. Our rapid sketch of the progress of Polyphony on the Continent will serve materially to simplify a similar account of its development In England, in which country it was practised, as we have already promised to show, at an earlier period than even in the Netherlands.

A hundred years ago, when few attempts had been made to arrange the general History of Music in a systematic form, attention was drawn to the curious 'Rota'—or, as we should now call it, Canon—'../Sumer is icumen in/,' contained in vol. 978 of the Harleian MSS. Burney estimated the date of this, in rough terms, as probably not much later than the 13th or 14th century. His opinion, however, was a mere guess; while that of Hawkins was so vague that it may safely be dismissed as valueless. Ritson, whose authority cannot be lightly set aside, believed the document—now known as 'The Reading MS.'—to be at least as old as the middle of the 13th century; and accused both Burney, and Hawkins, of having intentionally left the question in doubt, from want of the courage necessary for the expression of a positive opinion. Chappell gives the same date; and complains bitterly of Burney's tergiversation. The late Sir Frederick Madden was of opinion that that portion of the MS. which contains the 'Rota' was written about the year 1240, and has left some notes, to that effect, on the fly-leaf of the volume. Ambros, in the second volume of his 'Geschichte der Musik,' published in 1862, referred the MS. to the middle of the 15th. century, thus making it exactly synchronous with the Second Flemish School. Meanwhile, Coussemaker, aided by new light thrown upon the subject from other sources, arrived at the conclusion that the disputed page could not have been written later than the year 1226; and that the 'Rota' was certainly composed, by a Monk of Reading, some time before that date: and this position he defended so valiantly, that Ambros, most cautious of critics, accepted the new view, without hesitation, in his third volume, printed in 1868.

Assuming this view to be correct, was founded a full century and a half before the admission of Dufay to the Pontifical Chapel. But, while giving this discovery its full weight, we must not value it at more than it is worth. It does not absolutely prove that the Art of Composition originated in England. We have already said that the invention of Counterpoint has hitherto eluded all enquiry. It was, in fact, invented nowhere—if we are to use the word 'invention' in the sense in which we should apply it to gunpowder, or the telescope. It was evolved, by slow degrees, from Diaphonia, Discant, and Organum. All we can say about it as yet is, that the oldest known example or, at least, the oldest example to which a date can be assigned with any approach to probability—is English. An earlier record may be discovered, some day; though, thanks to the two-fold spoliation our Ecclesiastical Libraries have suffered within the last 350 years, it is scarcely likely that it will be found in England. Meanwhile, we must content ourselves with the reflection that, so far as our present knowledge goes, the Early English School is the oldest in the world; though the completeness of the Composition upon which this statement is based, proves that Art must have made immense advances before it was written. For, the 'Reading Rota' is no rude attempt at Vocal Harmony. It is a regular Composition, for six Voices; four of which sing a Canon in the Unison, while the remaining two sing another Canon—called 'Pes'—which forms a kind of Ground Bass to the whole. Both Hawkins and Burney have printed the solution in Score. We think it better to present our readers with an accurate fac-simile of the original MS.; leaving them to score it for themselves, in accordance with the directions given in the margin, and to form their own opinion of the evidence afforded by the style of its Caligraphy. In the original copy, the Clefs, Notes, and English words, are written in black; as are also the directions for performance, beginning 'Hanc rotam,' etc. The six Lines of the Stave, the Cross placed to show where the second Voice is to begin, the Latin words, the second initial S, the word Pes, and the directions beginning 'Hoc repetit,' and 'Hoc dicit,' are red. The first initial S is blue, as is also the third. Ambros believes the Latin words, and the directions beginning 'Hanc rotam,' to have been added at a later period, by another hand. Many years have elapsed since our own attention was first directed to the MS., which we have since subjected to many searching examinations. At one period, we ourselves were very much inclined to believe in