Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/96

Rh 84 MUSIC [HISTORY. part- songs. according to tradition, they enacted most rigid and perhaps pedantic laws. None of their work has come down to us, but the name they have left affords an instance of the aspira tions of the common people to that intellectual condition which is not the exclusive prerogative of the church nor the privilege of the wealthy. Guilds of meistersiinger were also established in other towns of North Germany. The title and its application generally declined until the 17th century, but lingered feebly in a few places until 1836, when the latest-lived guild was dissolved at Ulm. 1 Madri- The dawn of the 16th century is marked by the appro- gals and priation of musical scholarship to secular writing. It was about that time that the madrigal came into vogue. The etymology of the word is obscure, but the class of music to which it is applied is clearly distinguished. It is stamped with the imitative character of the canon, but is free from the rigid continuance of one melody by the successively entering voices ; and it has as much resemblance yet un- likeness to the fugue in having the flight of a musical phrase from one to another of the vocal parts, but not being steadfast to one subject throughout its design, nay, imitation sometimes ceases in the madrigal when particu lar words need special emphasis. The villanella, villancico, chanson, or the part-song of the period is distinguished from madrigal by the definite rhythm, a quality excluded from this latter by the response in one part to the uncompleted phrase of another; and the lighter species of composition was so arranged as to suit a single voice with a lute accompaniment when a voice to each part was not avail able for the performance. Still more marked in rhythm and more slight in structure was the ballet, so named be cause it was sung as an accompaniment to dancing (ballata, from ballare), or thzfal-la, so named because often set to these two syllables. All these classes of music were as often played as sung, and in English copies are generally de scribed as &quot;apt for voices or viols.&quot; The Flemish masters have left as many and as admirable specimens of secular work as of church music ; Italian musicians, who rose from the teaching of the Flemings, successfully emulated the two fold example; but in England secular composition seems to have been the indigenous development of national intui tion, and at its outset at least to have had a style of its own. This is exemplified in the pieces comprised in the Fayrefax MS., which are mostly of a pastoral and always of a tuneful character; of these, Dr. Robert Fayrefax the collector, Sir Thomas Phelyppes (a priest), Newark, Theryngham, Turges, Tudor, Browne, Gilbert Bannister, Richard Davy, Cornyshe, and others were the composers. Roman The renowned Roman school, to which we must now school, pass, owed its existence to the precept as much as to the example of foreigners, chiefly from Flanders. Claude Goudimel (c. 1510-1572), known as a Fleming, though his birth be assigned to Avignon, was the first to open a seminary for musical tuition in Rome, and the most famous musicians of the century were its pupils Pales- trina (ob. 1594), Orlando di Lasso (ob. 1594), the brothers Animuccia, the brothers Nanini, and many more. Lasso, Lassus, or Latres of Mons is signalized among these for the great number and great beauty of his works, and for the wide area over which he spread his labours. In his own land, in Rome, in France, in England, and chiefly in Bavaria, he was active as a choir-master and as a composer, and did as much to advance art by making his music express 1 Late in the 13th century a society somewhat similar in its object was established in London, consisting of the wealthier merchants. It was called the Puy (the name also given to the poetical festivals in honour of the Virgin in some Norman towns ; see Littre, s.v. ). Ad mission to its ranks was possible only through manifestation of musical or poetic merit. Severe judgment decided on the claims of contesting candidates for honours, which were great and public when desert was found. the words to which it was set as by teaching the executants to realize this expression in performance. He is praised for breaking from the long previous practice of writing prolix florid passages to single syllables, a weakness mani fest in the music of his countryman Despres and of inter vening writers. Several musical treatises by Spanish writers of this period Spanish are extant, which are not regarded highly for the novelty writers, of their views, nor for more than usual perspicacity in the statement of them. It might have been supposed that Spain would have been as favourable to the production of musical talent as Italy has always been. That the con trary is the fact is, however, patent ; but the explanation lies with the ethnologist rather than with the musician. Though the church from time to time appropriated the Purifica- secular art-forms from their rise to their maturity, its chief tion of authorities were always jealous of these advances, and c 1 issued edicts against them. So in 1322 Pope John XXII. denounced the encroachments of counterpoint, alleging that the voluptuous harmony of 3ds and 6ths was fit but for profane uses. So too the twelfth or Ionian mode the modern scale of C major, the only one of the church modes, save under special conditions the fifth or Lydian mode, that accords with the tonality of present use was stigmatized as &quot; lascivious &quot; and proscribed from the sanc tuary. More accordant with present views of propriety was the many-sided objection to the employment of tunes of the people in place of the church s plain-song as bases on which to erect counterpoint, and the construction of this counterpoint in the most ornate of the several florid species. Enlarging on the primitive practice of adapting Latin words to popular tunes, the best approved masters, in the two centuries preceding the epoch now under notice, took tunes of this class, to which it is stated the original words were commonly sung by congregations at least, and even by some members of the authorized choir, while other of the singers had such extensive passages to execute that to make the sacred syllables distinct was impracticable. The Avhole custom of composition and performance was rigorously condemned by the council of Trent, in conse quence of which Palestrina was commissioned in 1563 to write music for the mass that should be truthful to the spirit of devout declamation and aim at the utmost approach to musical beauty. To this end he made three experiments ; the first two were declared successful, and the third was accepted as the fulfilment of all that could be desired for religion and for art ; it was named, after the preceding pope, &quot; Missa Papse Marcelli.&quot; This great work was set forth as the standard to which all ecclesiastical composi tion was required to conform ; and so it did conform until a new musical idiom arose, until the popular ear thirsted for new forms of expression, and until musicians sought and found favour in meeting the general demand. In the three hundred years between that time and this, pontiffs and conclaves have again and again enacted statutes to conserve the purity of ecclesiastical art, but art as often has run out of control and proved that every succeeding era adds to its capabilities. Despite the unbroken continuance of their use in the Inflected Roman service, great ignorance now prevails as to the notes in church modes and their permitted modification. Ears trained by modern experience recoil from the uncouth effect of the melodic progressions incidental to some of these artificial scales, while antiquaries protest the infalli bility of extant copies of music constructed in those modes, and insist on the authority of such manuscripts to secure purity of performance. A Treatise on Counterpoint by Stefano Vanneo of Recanati (1531), however, expressly states that the notes in the modes were subject to in flexion, that accomplished singers necessarily knew what