Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/252

 In the field of history, church music was extensively treated (1653-73) by Cardinal Giovanni Bona of Rome (d. 1674); and the Meistersinger by Johann Christoph Wagenseil (d. 1708) of Altdorf (in his History of Nuremberg, 1697). General histories were attempted in 1690 by Wolfgang Kaspar Printz of Sorau (d. 1717), and in 1695 by Giovanni Andrea Bontempi of Dresden (d. 1705), both of whom had previously written on composition; and MS. works of the same class were prepared by Liberati (d. after 1685) and by Pitone (d. 1743), both of Rome. Some lists or catalogues giving historical data were issued, as, for example, an account of 13 Venetian musicians (1605) by Giacomo Alberici, general bibliographies (1611-25) by Georg Draud (d. c. 1636), an important catalogue of dramas and operas (1666) by Leo Allacci (d. 1669), accounts of Milanese writers and musicians (1670) by Filippo Picinelli, and of about 20 Brescian composers (1685) by Leonardo Cozando. Thomas Mace (d. 1709) of Cambridge published (1676) a quaint book on church music, the lute and its music, viols, etc.

Sieur Ducange (d. 1688), a Parisian lawyer, published (1678) a valuable glossary of mediæval Latin, including many musical terms; and Matthias Heinrich Schacht (d. 1700), a Danish scholar, prepared a dictionary of composers (1687), which Gerber used a century later.

Andreas Werckmeister (d. 1706), the able organist of central Germany, besides his works on the organ and on temperament, issued several on composition (from 1686).

Acoustical questions were discussed by Salomon de Caus, a Heidelberg architect (1615); by René Descartes (d. 1650), the famous mathematician and philosopher, in his treatise on music (1618, publ. 1650) and his letters (publ. 1682-3); by Johann Kepler (d. 1630), the great astronomer (1619); by Mersenne (from 1635), Kircher (from 1650), Wallis (from 1672) and Werckmeister (from 1687); and Daniele Bartoli (d. 1685). Loulié of Paris invented the metronome in 1696.

To the important collections of church music already mentioned may be added those by Abraham Schade (d. c. 1617) of Speyer (1611-7), Berthold Spiridio of Bamberg (1665), besides a guide to organ-playing, etc. (1670), and by Cardinal Giuseppe Maria Tommasi (d. 1713) of Rome (1680-97).

114. Summary of the Century.—In one sense the 17th century presents no such essential novelty as the 16th, since it brought no further revolution in the fundamentals of composition. Yet, in another sense, it was more notable, since what had been tentatively attempted before now advanced into confident maturity, and since the popular applications of musical art now became more conspicuous.

The mere fact that the art-form known as the opera was extensively undertaken signified a prodigious change. The opera is distinctively secular, and, to succeed, it must appeal powerfully to the popular craving for amusement. Hence, when it replaced church music as the principal object of pro