Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/96

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The universal acceptance of these, and similar figures, by Composers of all ages, from Peri down to Wagner, sufficiently proves their fitness for the purpose for which they were originally designed. But, the staunch conservatism of Recitativo secco goes even farther than this. Its Accompaniment has never changed. The latest Composers who have employed it have trusted for its support, to the simple Basso continuo, which neither Peri, nor Carissimi, nor Handel, nor Mozart, care to reinforce by the introduction