Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/821

Rh Z E A Z E A 771 was followed by a solemn service in St Mark s, in which Zarlino s music formed a prominent feature, and the festival concluded with the representation of a dramatic piece entitled Orfeo composed by Zarlino. When the church of S. Maria della Salute was founded in 1577 to commemo rate the plague, he composed a solemn mass for the occa sion. Not one of these works is now known to be in existence ; the only example we possess of Zarlino s com positions on a grand scale is a MS. mass for four voices, in the library of the Philharmonic Lyceum at Bologna. He died at Venice on 14th February 1590. Fortunately for the science of music, Zarlino s theoretical writings have all been preserved. Though he was by no means free from certain visionary ideas concerning the transcendental powers of music, in which the theorists of the 16th century delighted, Zarlino was, in practical knowledge and intelligent application of scientific truth to the development of art, immeasurably in advance of the age in which he lived. His clear insight into the mathematical foundation of the scale placed him in direct antagonism to the leaders of the school of the Renaissance, which, with Yincenzo Galilei at its head, blindly followed the mistaken reasoning of Boetius (see vol. xvii. p. 80), and adhered as a matter of principle to the Pythagorean section of the canon. This difference of opinion, occur ring at a critical period in the development of art, made Zarlino many bitter enemies ; but he steadily maintained his principles in temperate and unanswerable argument ; and his theory is now accepted as the basis of modern art, while that of his opponents is utterly discarded. Zarlino s first theoretical work was the Istitutioni Armoniclie (Venice, 1558 ; reprinted 1562 and 1573). This was followed by the Dimostrationi Armoniche (Venice, 1571 ; reprinted 1573) and by the Sopplimenti Muslcali (Venice, 1588). Finally, in a complete edition of his works published shortly before his death Zarlino reprinted these three treatises, accompanied by a Tract on Patience, a Discourse on the True Date of the Crucifixion of Our Lord, an essay on The Origin of the Capuchins, and the Resolution of Some, DouUs Concerning the Correction of the Julian Calendar (Venice, 1589). 1 The Istitutioni and Dimostrationi Armoniche deal, like most other theoretical works of the period, with the whole science of music as it was understood in the 16th century. The earlier chapters, treat ing chiefly of the arithmetical foundations of the science, differ but little in their line of argument from the principles laid down by Pietro Aron, Zacconi, and other early writers of the Boetian school ; but in bk. ii. of the Istitutioni Zarlino boldly attacks the false system of tonality to which the proportions of the Pythagorean tetrachord, if strictly carried out in practice, must inevitably lead. The fact that, so far as can now be ascertained, they never were strictly carried out in the Italian mediaeval schools, at least after the invention of counterpoint, in no wise diminishes the force of the reformer s argument. The point at issue was, that neither in the polyphonic school, in which Zarlino was educated, nor in the later monodic school, of which his recalcitrant pupil, Vincenzo Galilei, was the most redoubtable champion, could those proportions be tolerated in practice, however attractive they might be to the theorist in their mathematical aspect. So persistently does the human ear rebel against the division of the tetrachord into two greater tones and a leimma or hemitone, as represented by the fractions |, f, f f, that, centuries before the possibility of recon ciling the demands of the ear with those of exact science was satis factorily demonstrated, the Aristoxenian school advocated the use of an empirical scale, sounding pleasant to the sense, in preference to an unpleasing tonality founded iipon immutable proportions. Didymus, writing in the year 60, made the first step towards estab lishing this pleasant-sounding scale upon a mathematical basis, by the discovery of the lesser tone ; but unhappily he placed it in a false position below the greater tone. Claudius Ptolemy (130) recti fied this error, and in the so-called syntonous or intense diatonic scale reduced the proportions of his tetrachord to f, &&amp;gt; !&amp;gt; ?&amp;lt; &amp;gt; the greater tone, lesser tone, and diatonic semitone of modern music. 2 Ptolemy set forth this system as one of eight possible forms of the diatonic scale. But Zarlino uncompromisingly de clared that the syntonous or intense diatonic scale was the only form that could reasonably be sung ; and in proof of its perfection he exhibited the exact arrangement of its various diatonic intervals, to the fifth inclusive, in every part of the diapason or octave. The proportions are precisely those now universally accepted in the 1 Ambros mentions an edition of the Istitutioni dated 1557, and one of the Dimostrationi dated 1562. The present writer has never met, with either. 2 We have given the fractions in the order in which they occur in the modern system. Ptolemy, following the invariable Greek method, placed them thus f|, f, ^. This, however, made no difference in the actual proportions. system called &quot;just intonation.&quot; But this system is practicable only by the voice and instruments of the violin class. For keyed or fretted instruments a compromise is indispensable. To meet this exigency, Zarlino proposed that for the lute the octave should be divided into twelve equal semitones ; and after centuries of dis cussion this system of &quot;equal temperament&quot; has, within the last thirty-five years, been universally adopted as the best attainable for keyed instruments of every description. a Again, Zarlino was in advance of his age in his classification of the ecclesiastical modes. These scales were not, as is vulgarly sup posed, wholly abolished in favour of our modern tonality in the 17th century. Eight of them, it is true, fell into disuse ; but the mediteval Ionian and Hypo-ionian modes are absolutely identical with the modern natural scale of C ; and the ^Eolian and Hypo- seolian modes differ from our minor scale, not in constitution, but in treatment only. Mediaeval composers, however, regarded the Ionian mode as the least perfect of the series and placed it last in order. Zarlino thought differently and made it the first mode, changing all the others to accord with it. His, numerical table, therefore, differs from all others made before or since, prophetically assigning the place of honour to the one ancient scale now recognized as the foundation of the modern tonal system. These innovations were violently opposed by the apostles of the monodic school. A 7 incenzo Galilei led the attack in a tract entitled Discorso Intorno alle Opere di Mcsser Gioseffe Zarlino, and followed it up in his famous Dialogo, defending the Pythagorean system in very unmeasured language. It was in answer to these strictures that Zarlino published his Sopplcmenti, ZEA. See CEOS. ZEALAND, or SJAELLAND, the largest and most easterly island of DENMARK (q.v.), is separated from Fitnen on the west by the Great Belt and from Sweden on the east by the Sound; its greatest length from north to south is 81 miles, its breadth 65, and its area 2636 square miles. 4 Its surface is for the most part undulating, but on the whole little above sea-level; the highest elevations are in the south-east, where Cretaceous hills (the oldest geological formation on the island) reach heights of upwards of 350 feet. The coast is indented by numerous deep bays and fjords : the Ise fjord in the north in particular, with its branches the Roeskilde fjord on the east and the Lamme fjord on the west, penetrates inland for about 40 miles. There are no rivers of importance ; but several large lakes, the most considerable being Arre and Esrom, occur in the north-east. The soil is fertile and produces grain, especi ally rye and barley, in great abundance, as well as potatoes and other vegetables, and fruit. Agriculture and cattle- raising, along with some fishing, are the leading occupa tions of the inhabitants ; linen is almost the only article of domestic industry. The population in 1880 was 610,000. The principal towns, besides COPENHAGEN (q.v. the capital (234,850 inhabitants in 1880), are lloeskilde (5893), formerly the capital and still the see of the primate; Elsinore (8978) ; Slagelse (6076), a great agricultural centre ; Soro (1464), formerly the seat of a university and still educationally important ; and Korsb r (3954), the port for mail steamers to the mainland, connected by rail with Soro, Roeskilde, and Copenhagen. ZEALAND, the most westerly province of Holland, is bounded on the north by South Holland, on the east by North Brabant and Belgium, on the south-east and south by Belgium, and on the west by the North Sea. Its area is 689 square miles, the greater part of which consists of the islands Schouwen, Duiveland, St Philipsland, Tholen, North, South, and East Beveland, Wolfaartsdyk, and Wal- cheren. The greater part of the surface is below sea-levul. The westward coasts of Schouwen and Walcheren are partly sheltered by dunes ; but the province is mainly 3 It was first used in France, for the organ, in 1835 ; in England, for the pianoforte in 1846 and for the organ in 1854. Bach had advocated it in Germany a century earlier ; but it was not generally adopted. 4 The province of Zealand and Mb en, which includes the island of Samso as well as that of M6en, has an area of 2828 square miles and a population of 721,703 ; the &quot;stift&quot; or bishopric of Zealand includes also the island of Bornholm.