Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/257

 music 245 of equal inspiration, except perhaps Albrecht Diirer's woodcuts of ' The Passion.' It has also been compared to the fine arrangement, in four parts, of the ' Lamen- tations ' by the German Stephen Mahu, the precursor of Palestrina, and almost a contemporary of Finck's. The dean, Arnold von Bruch of Laibach, composed in the same spirit as Finck and Mahu, and his works, full of sublimity and tenderness, are among ' the best in this branch of music' The religious music of that period possessed in an eminent degree that aesthetic perfection which consists in uniformity of the parts making a grand whole. In spite of the greatest variety of expression, there is always the same basis of Church music. One leading purpose informs the whole, giving everywhere ' measure and proportion, life and movement, light and colour.' The harmony wells up from the heart of the idea, and hence is always characteristic, true, and various. If, perchance, as in the late Gothic architecture, some artificialities have crept in in the works of the best masters, the essential substance remains always unspoilt by such tradition ; and, like priests of the hostile influences, the artists, indeed, were always freer from these the more firmly they held to the ground of eccle- siastical tradition, and laboured as high priests of the beautiful for the service of the altar. 1 A like creative enero-v was manifested in the treat- ment of 'secular matter. Almost all the foremost writers of sacred music composed exquisite melodies for the national lyrics, and not seldom struck a chord which finds an echo to this day. They are in 1 Bernald makes a grave mistake when he asserts that the most brilliant epoch of German music dates from the Reformation.