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diff --git a/19958.txt b/19958.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..176f1e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/19958.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4356 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Some Forerunners of Italian Opera, by William +James Henderson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Some Forerunners of Italian Opera + + +Author: William James Henderson + + + +Release Date: November 28, 2006 [eBook #19958] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME FORERUNNERS OF ITALIAN +OPERA*** + + +E-text prepared by Louise Hope, David Newman, Chuck Greif, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original visual illustrations + and sound files for musical illustration. + See 19958-h.htm or 19958-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/9/5/19958/19958-h/19958-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/9/5/19958/19958-h.zip) + + + + + +SOME FORERUNNERS OF ITALIAN OPERA + +by + +W. J. HENDERSON + +Author of + +"The Orchestra and Orchestral Music," +"What Is Good Music," +"The Art of the Singer," etc. + + +[Illustration: Publisher's Device] + + + + + + + +New York +Henry Holt and Company +1911 +Copyright, 1911, +by +Henry Holt and Company +Published March, 1911 +The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A. + + + + + TO HER + + "_In a land of sand and ruin and gold + There shone one woman, and none but she._" + + SWINBURNE + + + + + +PREFACE + + +The purpose of this volume is to offer to the English reader a short +study of the lyric drama in Italy prior to the birth of opera, and to +note in its history the growth of the artistic elements and influences +which finally led the Florentine reformers to resort to the ancient +drama in their search for a simplified medium of expression. The author +has not deemed it essential to his aims that he should recount the +history of all European essays in the field of lyric drama, but only +that of those which directly affected the Italians and were hence the +most important. For this reason, while some attention is given in the +beginning to the French and German liturgical plays, the story soon +confines itself to Italy. + +The study of the character and performance of the first Italian secular +drama, the "Orfeo" of Poliziano, unquestionably a lyric work, is the +result of some years of labor. The author believes that what he has to +offer on this topic will be found to possess historical value. The +subsequent development of the lyric drama under the combined influences +of polyphonic secular composition and the growing Italian taste for +luxurious spectacle has been narrated at some length, because the author +believes that the reformatory movement of the Florentines was the +outcome of dissatisfaction with musical conditions brought about as much +by indulgence of the appetite for the purely sensuous elements in music +as by blind adherence to the restrictive laws of ecclesiastic +counterpoint. + +With the advent of dramatic recitative the work ends. The history of +seventeenth-century opera, interesting as it is, does not belong to the +subject especially treated in this volume. The authorities consulted +will be named from time to time in the pages of the book. + + + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter Page + I. The Early Liturgical Drama 1 + II. The Sacre Rappresentazioni 21 + III. Birthplace of the Secular Drama 35 + IV. The Artistic Impulse 53 + V. Poliziano's "Favola di Orfeo" 68 + VI. The Performance of "Orfeo" 85 + VII. Character of the Music 98 + VIII. The Solos of the "Orfeo" 117 + IX. The Orchestra of the "Orfeo" 136 + X. From Frottola Drama to Madrigal 147 + XI. The Predominance of the Spectacular 160 + XII. Influence of the Taste for Comedy 179 + XIII. Vecchi and the Matured Madrigal Drama 190 + XIV. The Spectacular Element in Music 207 + XV. The Medium for Individual Utterance 220 + Index 237 + + + + +SOME FORERUNNERS OF ITALIAN OPERA + + + + +CHAPTER I + +The Early Liturgical Drama + + +The modern entertainment called opera is a child of the Roman Catholic +Church. What might be described as operatic tendencies in the music of +worship date further back than the foundation of Christianity. The +Egyptians were accustomed to sing "jubilations" to their gods, and these +consisted of florid cadences on prolonged vowel sounds. The Greeks +caroled on vowels in honor of their deities. From these practices +descended into the musical part of the earliest Christian worship a +certain rhapsodic and exalted style of delivery, which is believed to +have been St. Paul's "gift of tongues." + +That this element should have disappeared for a considerable time from +the church music is not at all remarkable, for in the first steps toward +regulating the liturgy simplification was a prime requisite. Thus in the +centuries before Gregory the plain chant gained complete ascendancy in +the church and under him it acquired a systematization which had in it +the elements of permanency. + +Yet it was through the adaptation of this very chant to the delineation +of episodes in religious history that the path to the opera was opened. +The church slowly built up a ritual which offered no small amount of +graphic interest for the eyes of the congregation. As ceremonials became +more and more elaborate, they approached more and more closely the +ground on which the ancient dramatic dance rested, and it was not long +before they themselves acquired a distinctly dramatic character. It is +at this point that the liturgical ancestry of the opera becomes quite +manifest. The dance itself, at first an attempt to delineate +dramatically by means of measured movement, and thus the origin of the +art of dramatic action, was not without its place in the early church. +The ancient pagan festivals made use of the dance, and the early +Christians borrowed it from them. At one time Christian priests executed +solemn dances before their altars just as their Greek predecessors had +done. But in the course of time the dance became generally practised by +the congregation and this gave rise to abuses. The authorities of the +church abandoned it. But the feeling for it lingered, and in after years +issued in the employment of the procession. When the procession left the +sanctuary and displayed itself in the open air, something of the nature +of the dance returned to it and its development into a dramatic +spectacle was not difficult. + +According to Magnin[1] the lyric drama of the Middle Ages had three +sources,--the aristocracy, religion and the people. Coussemaker finds +that this lyric drama had in its inception two chief varieties, namely, +the secular drama, and the religious or liturgical drama. "Each of these +dramas," he says, "had its own particular subject matter, character, +charms and style. The music, which formed an integral part of it, was +equally different in the one from the other."[2] + + [Footnote 1: "Les Origines du Theatre Moderne ou Histoire du Genie + Dramatique depuis le Premier Siecle jusqu'au XVIe." Paris, 1838.] + + [Footnote 2: "Histoire de l'Harmonie au Moyen Age." Paris, 1852.] + +The liturgical drama, which was chronologically the first of the two +forms, originated, as we have noted, in the ceremonies of the Christian +church, in the strong dramatic element which inheres in the mass, the +Christmas fetes, and those of the Epiphany, the Palms and the Passion. +These are all scenes in the drama of the sacrifice of the Redeemer, and +it required but small progress to develop them into real dramatic +performances, designed for the instruction of a people which as yet had +no literature. + +The wearing of appropriate costumes by priest, deacon, sub-deacon and +boys of the choir is in certain ceremonies associated with the use of +melody and accent equally suited to the several roles. Each festival is +an anniversary, and in the early church was celebrated with rites, +chants and ornaments corresponding to its origin. The Noel, for example, +was supposed to be the song which the angels sang at the nativity, and +for the sake of realistic effect some of the Latin churches used the +Greek words which they thought approached most closely to the original +text. The Passion was the subject of a series of little dramas enacted +as ceremonials of holy week in all the Catholic churches. + +Out of these ceremonies, then, grew the liturgical drama. The most +ancient specimens of it which have come down to us are those collected +under the title "Vierges sages et Vierges folles," preserved in MS. 1139 +of the national library at Paris. The manuscript contains two of these +dramas and a fragment of a third. The first is the "Three Maries." This +is an office of the sepulcher, and has five personages: an angel, the +guardian of the tomb and the three Maries. + +The drama of the wise and foolish virgins, which was thoroughly examined +by M. Magnin and by Coussemaker after him, is simple in construction. It +begins with a chorus in Latin, the theme of which is indicated by the +first words: + + "Adest sponsus qui est Christus: vigilate, virgines." + +This chorus is set to a melody grave and plaintive. Then the archangel +Gabriel, using the Provencal tongue, announces the coming of Christ and +tells what the Savior has suffered on earth for the sins of man. Each +strophe is terminated by a refrain, of which the conclusion has the same +melody as the first stanza of each of the strophes. The foolish virgins +confess their sins and beg their sisters for help. They sing in Latin, +and their three strophes have a melody different from that of the +preceding strophes. They terminate, like the others, with a sad and +plaintive refrain, of which the words are Provencal: + + "Dolentas! Chaitivas! trop i avem dormit." + +In modern French this line reads, "Malheureuses! Chetives! Nous avons +trop dormi!" The wise virgins refuse the oil and bid their foolish +sisters to go and buy it. All the strophes change the melody at each +change of personages. The little drama comes to its end with the +intervention of Christ, who condemns the foolish virgins. The words of +the Savior have no music. Coussemaker wonders whether the musician was +unable to find a melody worthy to be sung by the Savior or intentionally +made Him speak instead of chant. The same author, in his "Histoire de +l'Harmonie au Moyen Age," gives facsimiles of all the pages of the +original manuscript of this play. The notation, that of the eleventh +century, is beautifully clear, and its deciphering is made easier by the +presence of a line ruled across the page to indicate the relative +positions of the notes. The music of these dramas is what we should +naturally expect it to be, if we take into account the character of the +text. The subjects of the dramas were always incidents from the Bible +and the plays were represented in churches by priests or those close to +them. + +It is certain that the educational drama of the church continued in the +state of its infancy for several centuries. Even after the birth of the +"Sacra Rappresentazione" in the fourteenth century the old-fashioned +liturgical drama survived in Italy and was preserved in activity in +other parts of Europe. Several interesting manuscripts in great +libraries attest the consideration accorded to it at a period much later +than that of which we have been speaking. Nevertheless the era of the +origin of the plays as a rule will be found to antedate that of the +manuscripts. For example, in the royal library of Berlin there is a +fifteenth century manuscript of a liturgical drama entitled, "Die +Marienklage." Dr. Frommann, of Nuremberg, after careful study, has +decided that the play was of middle German (perhaps Thuringian) origin +in the fourteenth century. This play is in part sung and in part +spoken.[3] It begins with this bit of Latin chant by Mary: + + [Musical Notation] + + [Footnote 3: See Robert Eitner's introduction to the First Part of + "Die Oper von ihren ersten Anfaengen bis zur Mitte des 18. + Jahrhunderts." Leipsic, 1881.] + +The rest of the text is in old German. Here is a specimen of the +recitative or chant with the German text: + + [Musical Notation] + +These recitatives are in a style exactly like that of the early French +church plays. + +As Coussemaker notes, one does not find in these plays the passions, the +intrigues nor the scenic movement found in the secular drama. What we do +find is calm simplicity of statement, elevation and nobility of thought, +purity of moral principles. The music designed to present these ideas in +a high light necessarily has an appropriate character. We do not find +here music of strongly marked rhythm and clearly defined measure, +suitable to the utterance of worldly emotions, but a melody resembling +the chant, written in the tonalities used in the church, but containing +a certain kind of prose rhythm and accentuation, such as exists in the +Gregorian music. + +This was the inevitable march of development. The liturgical drama +originated, as has been shown, in the celebration of certain offices and +fetes, for which the music assumed a style of delivery clothed in +unwonted pomp. Characters and costumes and specially composed music soon +found their way into these ceremonies. The new music followed the old +lines and preserved the character of the liturgical chant. Gradually +these accessories rose to the importance of separate incidents and +finally to that of dramas. But they did not lose their original literary +and musical character. + +In studying the development of a secular lyric drama, it is essential +that we keep in mind the nature of the music employed in the dramatic +ceremonials, and later in the frankly theatrical representations of the +church. The opera is a child of Italy and its direct ancestors must be +sought there. The first secular musical plays of France far antedated +the birth of the primitive lyric drama of Italy, and it requires +something more than scientific devotion to establish a close connection +between the two. But the early French ecclesiastical play is directly +related to that of Italy. Both were products of the Catholic Church. +Both employed the same texts and the same kind of music. They were +developed by similar conditions; they were performed in similar +circumstances and under the same rules. + +For these reasons it is proper to discuss the early French religious +drama and that of Italy as practically one and the same thing, and to +pass without discrimination from the first performances of such plays +outside the church to the establishment of that well-defined variety +known in Italy as the "Sacre Rappresentazioni." This form, as we shall +see, was the immediate outgrowth of the "laud," but one of its ancestors +was the open-air performances. The emergence of the churchly play into +the open was effected through the agency of ecclesiastic ceremonial. +Pagan traditions and festivities died a hard death in the early years of +Christianity, and some of them, instead of passing entirely out of the +world of worship, maintained their existence in a transformed shape. +Funerals, as Chouquet[4] pointedly notes, "provided the occasion for +scenic performances and certain religious fetes the pretext for profane +ceremonies." + + [Footnote 4: "Histoire de la Musique Dramatique en France," par + Gustave Chouquet. Paris, 1873.] + +The fete of the ass, celebrated on January 14 every year at Beauvais, +was an excellent example of this sort of ceremony. This was a +representation of the flight into Egypt. A beautiful young woman, +carrying in her arms an infant gorgeously dressed, was mounted on an +ass. Then she moved with a procession from the cathedral to the church +of St. Etienne. The procession marched into the choir, while the girl, +still riding the ass, took a position in front of the altar. Then the +mass was celebrated, and at the end of each part the words "Hin han" +were chanted in imitation of the braying of the beast. The officiating +priest, instead of chanting the "Ite missa est," invited the +congregation to join in imitating the bray. + +This simple procession in time developed into a much more pretentious +liturgical drama called "The Prophets of Christ." But this appearance in +the open streets was doubtless the beginning of the custom of enacting +sacred plays in the public squares of cities and small towns. The fete +of the ass dates from the eleventh century, and we shall see that +open-air performances of religious dramas took place in the twelfth, if +no sooner. + +Other significant elements of the fete of the ass and similar +ceremonials were the singing of choruses by the populace and dancing. In +the Beauvais "Flight into Egypt" at one point the choir sang an old +song, half Latin and half French, before the ass, clothed in a cope. + + "Hez, sire Asnes, car chantez! + Belle bouche rechignez; + Vous aurez du foin assez + Et de l'avoine a plantez." + +This refrain was changed after each stanza of the Latin. The people of +Limoges, in their yearly festival, sang: + + "San Marceau, pregas per nous, + E nous epingarem per vous." + +In the seventeenth century these good people of Limoges were still +holding a festival in honor of the patron saint of their parish, and +singing: + + "Saint Martial, priez pour nous, + Et nous, nous danserons pour vous!" + +This choral dance formed in the church, and continued to the middle of +the nave, and thence to the square before the edifice, or even into the +cemetery. At a period later than that first mentioned these dances had +instrumental accompaniment and became animated even to the verge of +hysteria. Thus unwittingly the people of the medieval church were +gathering into a loose, but by no means unformed, union the same +materials as the ancients used in the creation of their drama. + +The earnest Lewis Riccoboni[5] holds that the Fraternity of the +Gonfalone, founded in 1264, was accustomed to enact the Passion in the +Coliseum, and that these performances lasted till Paul III abolished +them in 1549. Riccoboni argues that not the performance was interdicted, +but the use of the Coliseum. This matters not greatly, since it is +perfectly certain that out-door performances of the Passion took place +long before 1549. Those which were given in France were extremely +interesting and in regard to them we have important records. It is +established beyond doubt that near the end of the fourteenth century a +company of players called the Fraternity of the Passion assisted at the +festivities attendant upon the marriage of Charles VI and Isabella of +Bavaria. Thereafter they gave public performances of their version of +the Passion. + + [Footnote 5: "An Historical and Critical Account of the Theaters + in Europe," by Lewis Riccoboni, translated from the Italian. + London, 1741.] + +It was too long to be performed without rest, and it was therefore +divided into several days' work. It employed eighty-seven personages and +made use of elaborate machinery. There seems to be little doubt that +some of the scenes were sung, and there is no question that there were +choruses. The stage directions are not the least remarkable part of this +play. The baptism is set forth in this wise: "Here Jesus enters the +waters of Jordan, all naked, and Saint John takes some of the water in +his hand and throws it on the head of Jesus." Saint John says: + + "Sir, you now baptized are, + As it suits my simple skill, + Not the lofty rank you fill; + Unmeet for such great service I; + Yet my God, so debonair, + All that's wanting will supply." + +"Here Jesus comes out of the river Jordan and throws himself upon his +knees, all naked, before Paradise. Then God, the Father, speaks, and the +Holy Ghost descends, in the form of a white dove, upon the head of +Jesus, and then returns into Paradise: and note that the words of God +the Father be very audibly pronounced and well sounded in three voices, +that is to say, a treble, a counter-treble and a counter-bass, all in +tune; and in this way must the following lines be repeated: + + 'Hic est filius meus dilectus, + In quo mihi bene complacui. + C'estui-ci est mon fils ame Jesus, + Que bien me plaist, ma plaisance est en lui.'" + +Students are offered another choice of dates for the beginning of the +performance of sacred plays in the open air in Italy, to wit, 1304. +Vasari says that in this year a play was enacted on the Arno, that a +"machine representing hell was fixed upon the boats, and that the +subject of the drama was the perennially popular tale of 'Dives and +Lazarus'." But Vasari was not born till 1512, and he neglected to state +where he got his information. The latter years of the fourteenth +century, at any rate, saw the open-air sacred drama in full action, and +that suffices for our purpose. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The Sacre Rappresentazioni + + +Leaving D'Ancona, Vasari and the others in their confusion of dates, we +find ourselves provided with a satisfactory point of departure and with +some facts well defined. The drift of Provencal ideas over the borders +into Lombardy may or may not have given some impetus to the growth of +certain forms in Tuscany and Umbria, but at any rate it is clear that +the Italian form of "Sacre Rappresentazioni" grew chiefly out of the +poetic form called "Laud." + +This itself was one of the products of a religious emotion. To observe +it in its cradle we must go back to the beginnings of Italian +literature. The seemingly endless battle between Emperor and Pope, which +scarred the soul of Italy through so many years, was at that time raging +between Frederick II and Innocent III and Gregory IX. The land reeked +with carnage, rapine, murder, fire and famine. So great was the force of +all this that the people fell into a state of religious terror. They +believed that the vengeance of a wrathful God must immediately descend +upon the country, and as a penance the practice of flagellation was +introduced. + +Against this horrible atonement came a violent reaction, and out of the +reaction attempts to continue in a soberer and more rational form the +propitiatory ideas of the flagellants. The chief furtherers of these +reforms were lay fraternities, calling themselves Disciplinati di Gesu +Cristo. From the very outset these fraternities practised the singing of +hymns in Italian, instead of Latin, the church language. These hymns +dealt chiefly with the Passion. They were called "Lauds" and they had a +rude directness and unlettered force which the Latin hymns never +possessed. Presently the disciplinati became known as Laudesi. The +master maker of "Lauds" was Jacopone da Todi and his most significant +production took the form of a dialogue between Mary and the Savior on +the cross, followed by the lamentation of the mother over her Son. Mary +at one point appeals to Pilate, but is interrupted by the chorus of +Jews, crying "Crucify him!" Many other "Lauds," however, were rather +more in the manner of short songs than in that of the subsequently +developed cantata. The music employed was without doubt that of the +popular songs of the time. It appears to have made no difference to the +Italians what kind of tune they employed. They "sang the same strambotti +to the Virgin and the lady of their love, to the rose of Jericho and the +red rose of the balcony." + +Here, then, we find a significant difference between the liturgical +drama and the sacred representations. The chant, which was the musical +garb of the former appears to have had no position in the latter. We +shall perceive later that this difference marked a point of departure +from which the entire lyric drama of the fourteenth, fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries, prior to the invention of dramatic recitative by +the Florentines, proceeded to move in a musical world of its own. + +The sacred representations built up a method complex and pregnant +without chancing upon the defining element of opera. And this result was +reached chiefly, if not solely, because the ecclesiastic chant was not +employed. In its stead the musical forms practised by composers of +secular music and adopted by musicians of such small education as hardly +to be worthy of the title of composers, makers of carnival songs and +frottole, predominated and determined the musical character not only of +the Sacre Rappresentazioni, but also of the secular lyric plays which +succeeded them and which continued to exist in Italy even after the +"stile rappresentativo" had been introduced in the primitive dramma per +musica of Caccini and Peri. + +A closer examination of the songs of this period and of the manner in +which they affected the lyric character of the sacred plays and the +succeeding secular dramas may be postponed until we have permitted +ourselves a glance at the character of the sacred plays as literary +products and have taken into account the manner of their performance. + +The Disciplinati di Gesu began by intoning their lauds before a crucifix +or the shrine of some saint. Presently they introduced antiphonal +singing and in the end dialogue and action. By the middle of the +fourteenth century the laud came to be called "Divozione." After being +written in a number of meters it finally adhered to the _ottava rima_, +the stanza generally used in the popular poetry of the fifteenth +century. It was the custom to sing these dramatic lauds or "Divozioni" +in the oratories. Every fraternity had a collection of such lauds and +that they were performed with much detail is easily ascertained. + +Records of the Perugian Confraternity of San Domenico for 1339 show that +wings and crowns for angels, a crimson robe for Christ, black veils for +the Maries, a coat of mail for Longinus, a dove to symbolize the Holy +Ghost and other properties had been used. By 1375 the "Divozioni" were +acted in church on a specially constructed stage, built against the +screen separating the choir from the nave. The audience sat in the nave, +and a preacher from time to time made explanations and comments. The +stage had two stories, the upper of which was reserved for celestial +beings. + +The "Divozione" appears to be, as Symonds declares it to be, the Italian +variety of liturgical drama. The Sacra Rappresentazione, which was +developed from it, was a very different affair. Just when these +representations took definite individual form is not known, but the +period of their high development was from 1470 to 1520. It was precisely +at this time that their entire apparatus was adapted to the +dramatization of secular stories and the secular lyric drama came into +existence. + +This whole subject has been exhaustively treated by John Addington +Symonds in the fourth volume in his great work "The Renaissance in +Italy." He examines briefly, but suggestively, D'Ancona's theory, that +the "Sacre Rappresentazioni" resulted from a blending of the Umbrian +divozioni with the civic pageants of St. John's Day in Florence. Civic +pageants were common and in them sacred and profane elements were +curiously mingled. For example, "Perugia gratified Eugenius IV in 1444 +with the story of the Minotaur, the tragedy of Iphigenia, the Nativity +and the Ascension." + +In the great midsummer pageant of St. John's Day there were twenty-two +floats with scenery and actors to represent such events as the Delivery +of the Law to Moses, the Creation, the Temptation, etc. The machinery of +those shows was so elaborate that the cathedral plaza was covered with a +blue awning to represent the heavens, while wooden frames, covered with +wool and lighted up, represented clouds amid which various saints +appeared. Iron supports bore up children dressed as angels and the whole +was made to "move slowly on the backs of bearers concealed beneath the +frame." + +We are justified in inferring that ability to supply an elaborate scenic +investiture for the sacred drama was not wanting. When the sacred plays +began to be written, their authors were for the most part persons of no +distinction, but Lorenzo de Medici wrote one and Pulci also contributed +to this form of art. The best writers, according to Symonds, were Feo +Belcari and Castellano Castellani. + +The sacred plays were not divided into acts, but the stage directions +make it plain that scenes were changed. The dramas were not very +artistic in structure. The story was set forth baldly and simply, and +the language became stereotyped. The "success of the play," says +Symonds, "depended on the movement of the story, and the attractions of +the scenery, costumes and music." + +Symonds describes at some length "Saint Uliva" and the interludes of +Cecchi's "Esaltazione della Croce." The latter belongs to 1589, but it +is almost certain that the manner of presentation was traditional. That +similar splendors might have been exhibited in the fifteenth century we +shall see later. Symonds thus describes the introduction to the +"Esaltazione." A skilful architect turned the field of San Giovanni into +a theater, covered with a red tent. The rising of the curtain showed +Jacob asleep with his head resting on rocks, while he wore a shirt of +fine linen and cloth of silver stockings and had costly furs thrown over +him. As he slept the heavens opened and seven angels appeared sitting on +clouds and making "a most pleasant noise with horns, greater and less +viols, lutes and organ.... The music of this and all the other +interludes was the composition of Luca Bati, a man of this art most +excellent." After this celestial music another part of the heavens +opened and disclosed God the Father. A ladder was let down, and God +leaning upon it "sang majestically to the sound of many instruments in a +sonorous bass voice." + +The other interludes were also filled with scenic and musical effects. +For instance one showed the ecstasy of David, dancing before the ark "to +the sound of a large lute, a violin, a trombone, but more especially to +his own harp." These references to the employment of many instruments in +accompanying the voice or the dance make us wonder whether our +historical stories of the birth and development of the orchestra are +well grounded. But we shall have occasion to consider this matter more +fully when we approach the study of the musical apparatus of the first +lyric dramas. It may be noted, however, in passing that the Italian word +"violino" was used as late as 1597 to designate the tenor viol. This +instance of uncertainty in terminology warns us to be careful in +accepting all things literally. + +Perhaps what is of greater significance is the fact that there seems to +have been more uniformity of effort and style in the first secular +drama, doubtless owing to its great superiority as a piece of literary +art. That sacred plays were seldom written by men of literary rank and +ability we have already noted. That they were long drawn out, +cumbersome, disjointed and quite without dramatic design has also been +indicated. Their real significance as forerunners of opera lies in their +insistent employment of certain materials, such as verse, music and +spectacular action, which afterwards became essential parts of the +machinery of the lyric drama. + +Indeed in the profusion of spectacular interludes one finds much that +resembles not only opera, but also the English masque and sometimes even +the French pastoral. Yet close examination will convince any student of +operatic history that almost every form of theatrical performance, from +the choral dance to the most elaborate festival show, exerted a certain +amount of influence on the hybrid product called opera. For example, +between the acts of "Saint Uliva," which required two days for its +presentation, the "Masque of Hope" was given. The stage directions say: +"You will cause three women, well beseen, to issue, one of them attired +in white, one in red, the other in green, with golden balls in their +hands, and with them a young man robed in white; and let him, after +looking many times first on one and then on another of these damsels, at +last stay still and say the following verses, gazing at her who is clad +in green." The story of Echo and Narcissus was also enacted and the +choir of nymphs which carried off the dead youth had a song beginning +thus: + + "Fly forth in bliss to heaven, + Thou happy soul and fair." + +On the other hand some few sacred plays showed skill in the treatment of +character. The "Mary Magdalen" is one of these. The Magdalen is +portrayed with power and even passion. But the general purpose of the +sacred play, which was to instruct the populace in the stories of Bible +history, precluded the exercise of high literary imagination. Fancy and +the taste of the time seem to have governed the fashioning of these +plays. Their historic importance thus becomes much larger than their +artistic value. Their close approach to the character of early opera is +beyond question. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Birthplace of the Secular Drama + + +In the midst of more imposing chronicles bearing upon the growth of +Italy the student of her history is likely to lose sight of the little +Marquisate of Mantua. Yet its story is profoundly interesting and in its +relations to the development of the lyric drama filled with +significance. That it should have come to occupy such a high position +among the cultivated centers of the Renaissance seems singularly +appropriate since Virgil, the Italian literary deity of the period, was +born at Pietole, now a suburb of Mantua. + +The marquisate owed its elevation to the character of the great lords of +the house of Gonzaga, who ruled it from 1328 to 1708. In the former year +the head of the house ousted from the government the Buonacolsis, who +had been masters since 1247. In 1432 the Gonzagas were invested with the +hereditary title of Marquis and in 1530 Charles V raised the head of the +house to the rank of Duke. When the last duke died without issue in 1708 +Austria gained possession of the little realm. + +Entangled in the ceaseless turmoil of wars between Milan and the forces +allied against her, Mantua under the rule of the Gonzagas maintained her +intellectual energy and played bravely her part in the revival of +classic learning. Her court became a center of scholarship from which +radiated a beneficent influence through much of northern Italy. The +lords of Gonzaga fought and plotted, ate and drank, and plunged into the +riotous dissipation and free play of passions which characterized the +Renaissance period, but like other distinguished Italians they steeped +themselves in learning and were the proud patrons of artists, authors, +teachers, composers. + +The eminence of the house in scholarship doubtless dated from the reign +of the Marchese Gian Francesco Gonzaga. This nobleman cherished a +genuine love for ancient history and was not without an appreciation of +Roman verse. Believing, as he did in common with most Italians, that the +republican thought of Rome was the foundation of all exalted living, he +realized that his children ought to be committed to the care of a master +thoroughly schooled in ancient lore. He therefore invited to his court, +in 1425, the distinguished scholar Vittorino da Feltre and gave the +children entirely into his hands. A separate villa was allotted to the +master and his pupils. This house had been a pleasure resort where the +young Gonzagas and their friends had idled and feasted. Under Vittorino +it was gradually transformed into a great school, for the Marquis was +liberal enough to open its doors to students from various parts of +Italy. The influence of the institution became far reaching and vital. +The children of the Marquis, surrounded by earnest minds, by students +often so poor that they had to be provided by their patron with clothes +and food, but none the less respected in that little community of the +intellect for their sincerity and their industry, could not fail to +imbibe a deep reverence for learning and a keen and discriminating taste +in art. + +It is, then, in the natural order of things that Ludovico Gonzaga, one +of the sons of Francesco and pupils of Vittorino, should have been proud +to receive at his court the sycophantic and avaricious poet Filelfo, and +to suffer under his systematic begging. He discharged his debt to the +world of art with greater insight when in 1456 he invited to his court +the great painter Mantegna. He offered the artist a substantial salary +and in 1460 the master went to reside at Mantua. He remained there under +three successive marquises till his death in 1506. He enriched the +little capital with splendid creations of his art, now unfortunately +mostly destroyed. Mantegna's "Madonna della Vittoria," in the Louvre, +was painted to celebrate the deeds of Francesco Gonzaga in the battle of +Fornovo. + +When he was ejected from Rome for making obscene pictures, Giulio Romano +went to live at Mantua, and the city still bears the traces of his +residence as well as of Mantegna's. The ducal palace, begun in 1302, +contains five hundred rooms in many of which are paintings by Romano. +The Palazzo Te is regarded by most authorities as Giulio's noblest +monument, displaying, as it does, his skill as an architect, painter and +sculptor. The Cathedral of San Pietro was restored from his designs and +in the Church of San Andrea, in a tomb adorned by his pupils, sleeps the +great Mantegna. + +The history of music at the court of Mantua begins at least as early as +the fourteenth century. Vander Straeten[6] found some record of a +musician of the Gallo-Belgic school called Jean le Chartreux, or by the +Italians Giovanni di Namur. He was the author of a "Libellus Musicus," +preserved in the British Museum. He was born at Namur, learned singing, +and according to Vander Straeten, studied the works of Boethius under +Vittorino da Feltre in Italy. He cites Marchetto of Padua as the first +to write in the chromatic manner since Boethius. Bertolotti in his +searching examination[7] of the records of Mantua found numerous names +of musicians employed at the court or permitted to exercise their +calling within the boundaries of the marquisate. He notes the +predominance of Flemish masters and the supremacy of their ideas in the +music of Italy. He attributes to Vittorino da Feltre the introduction of +the systematic study of music and credits him with publicly teaching the +art and inspiring in some measure the treatise of Jean le Chartreux. +From Bertolotti we learn that Maestro Rodolfo de Alemannia, an organist, +and German, living in Mantua, obtained in 1435 certain privileges in the +construction of organs for six years. + + [Footnote 6: "La Musique aux Pays-Bas avant le XIX Siecle," Edmond + Vander Straeten. Brussels, 1867-1888.] + + [Footnote 7: "Musici alia Corte dei Gonzaga in Mantova dal Secolo + XV al XVIII," per A. Bertolotti. Milan.] + +From this time forward we find music and musicians in high favor at the +court of Mantua. Neither Vander Straeten nor Bertolotti succeeded in +obtaining from the archives of the city more than fragmentary mention of +musicians of whom we would gladly know more. Nevertheless there is +sufficient to demonstrate the interest of the marquises in the art and +the frequency with which musical entertainment was provided. + +Toward the end of 1458 Germans became more numerous among the musicians +at Mantua, though they do not appear at any time to have held a +commanding position. This is quite natural since at that period German +musicians had no school of their own, but with the rest of the world +were followers of the Flemings. In 1458 Barbara of Brandenburg, +Marchioness of Mantua, took from Ferrara Marco and Giovanni Peccenini, +who were of German birth. Two years later the Marquis, wishing to engage +a master of singing for his son, sent to one Nicolo, the German, at +Ferrara, and this musician recommended Giovanni Brith as highly +qualified to sing in the latest fashion the best songs of the Venetian +style. + +Ludovico, who has already been mentioned and who was the marquis from +1444 to 1478, had for two years at his court the celebrated Franchino +Gaffori. This master, born near Lodi in 1451, was the son of one Betino, +a soldier. The boy went into the church in childhood and studied +ecclesiastical music under a Carmelite monk named Johannis Godendach. +Later, he went to Mantua, where his father was in the service of the +Marquis. "Here for two years he closely applied himself day and night to +study, during which time he composed many tracts on the theory and +practice of music."[8] The period of Gaffori's greatest achievements in +theoretical work, especially his noted "Practica Musicae," from which +Hawkins quotes copiously, was later than his residence at Mantua, but +his studies at that court at least betoken the existence of a congenial +atmosphere, and we may be assured that such an enlightened amateur as +Ludovico did not neglect opportunities to acquaint himself with the +workings of this studious mind. + + [Footnote 8: "A General History of the Science and Practice of + Music," by Sir John Hawkins. London, 1776.] + +Bertolotti reproduces sundry interesting letters which passed between +the courts of Ferrara and Mantua and dealt with musical matters. Perhaps +an epistle from the Duke of Milan in January, 1473, might cause a +passing smile of amusement, for in it the Duke confides to the Mantuan +Marquis a project for the revival of music in Italy. It seems that he +was weary of the long reign of the Flemings, and was sending to Rome for +the best musicians with the purpose of founding an orchestra so that +composers and singers would be attracted to his court. But as this fine +project had no direct bearing on the history of the lyric drama we may +permit it to pass without further examination. + +However far we may follow the extracts from the archives of Mantua in +the fifteenth century, we get nothing definite in regard to the +production of the first Italian secular and lyric drama at that court. +We are driven into the hazardous realm of conjecture as to the relations +between its production and the prominent musicians who formed part of +the suite of the Marquis. This indeed is but natural, since it could not +be expected of the Marquis and his associates that they should know they +were making history. + +We learn that in 1481 Gian Pietro della Viola, a Florentine by birth, +accompanied Clara Gonzaga when she became the Duchess of Montpensier and +that he returned to Mantua in 1484--the year after "Orfeo" was probably +produced. We learn that he composed the music for the ballerino, Lorenzo +Lavagnolo, who returned to Mantua in 1485 after having been since 1479 +in the service of the Duchess Bona of Savoy. We are at least free to +conjecture that before 1479 Lavagnolo trained the chorus of Mantua in +dancing so that he may have contributed something to the ballata which +we shall at the proper place see as a number in Poliziano's "Orfeo." + +Travel between the courts of Mantua and Ferrara was not unfamiliar to +musicians, and there is reason to believe that those of the former court +often sought instruction from those of the latter. For example, it is on +record that Gian Andrea di Alessandro, who became organist to the +Marquis of Mantua in 1485, was sent in 1490 to Ferrara that he might +"learn better song and playing the organ from Girolamo del Bruno." In +1492 he was sufficiently instructed to be sent by the Marquis to San +Benedetto to play for the ambassador from Venice to Milan. + +The celebrated composer of frottole, Bartolomeo Tromboncino, was for +some time in the service of the Mantuan court. It was formerly believed +that he went to Mantua in 1494, but Signer Bertolotti unearthed a +document which showed that his father was engaged there in 1487. From +which the learned Italian investigator reached the conclusion that the +young Tromboncino was with his parent. It seems to be pretty well +established that the two went together to Venice in 1495. + +But he returned to Mantua and for many years passed some of his time at +that court and some at Ferrara. For example, we learn that in 1497 the +Cardinal d'Este promised the Marchioness of Mantua that she should have +some new compositions by Tromboncino. Yet in 1499 he was sent with other +musicians of the suite of the Gonzagas to Vincenza to sing a vesper +service in some church. It appears that Tromboncino was not only a +composer, but an instrumental musician and a singer. + +These fragmentary references to the activities of Tromboncino at the +court of Mantua are indeed unsatisfactory, but they are about all that +are within our reach. That he was born at Verona and that he was one of +the most popular composers of the latter end of the fifteenth and the +beginning of the sixteenth century and that his special field of art was +the frottola are almost the sum total of the story of his career. We +know that he wrote two sacred songs in the frottola style, nine +"Lamentations" and one "Benedictus" for three voices. Petrucci's nine +books of frottole (Venice, 1509) contain all of Tromboncino's. + +Carlo Delaunasy, a singer in the service of Isabella, Marchioness of +Mantua in 1499, and Marco Carra, director of music to the Marquis in +1503, 1514 and 1525, are among the names unearthed from the archives of +Mantua by their keeper at the request of Mr. Vander Straeten. These +papers contained the names of a few other singers, players and +directors, but their inadequacy was demonstrated by the fact that they +contained no mention of Jacques de Wert, a composer of great activity +and talent, to whom Vander Straeten devotes some fifteen pages of his +exhaustive work. + +De Wert was born in Flanders near the end of the first half of the +sixteenth century. While yet a child he was a choir boy in the service +of Maria de Cardona, Marchesa della Padulla. Subsequently he entered the +service of Count Alfonso of Novellara and in 1558 he published a book of +madrigals which attracted widespread attention. Ten years later we find +him at the court of Mantua, where his happiness was destroyed by the +conduct of his wife. He appealed for aid to the Duke of Ferrara and the +result appears to have been a dual service, for while he remained at +Mantua he wrote much for the other court. His distinguished "Concerto +Maggiore" for fifty-seven singers was written for some state festival. + +His service at Ferrara, whither he often went, enticed him into a +relationship with Tarquinia Molza, a poet and court lady, which caused +her to go into retirement. De Wert continued to live in Mantua and his +last book of madrigals was published in Venice, September 10, 1591. He +must have died soon afterward. Between 1558 and 1591 he put forth ten +books of madrigals, generally for five voices, though toward the end he +sometimes composed for six or seven. He was the author also of some +motets, and Luca Marenzio, who brought the madrigal style to its most +beautiful development and whose influence molded the methods of the +English glee and madrigal writers, is believed to have been his pupil +for a short time. Marenzio unquestionably lived for some months in +Mantua, where according to Calvi[9] he completed his studies under the +guidance of the Duke. + + [Footnote 9: "Scena Letteraria degli Scrittori Bergamaschi," per + Donato Calvi. Bergamo, 1664.] + +Of Alessandro Striggio and his art work at the court of Mantua and +elsewhere special mention will be made in another part of this work. +Moreover it is not necessary that anything should be said here of the +epoch-making creations of Claudio Monteverde, who was long in the +Gonzaga service and who produced his "Orfeo" at Mantua. Sufficient has +been set forth in this chapter to give some estimate of the importance +and activity of Mantua as a literary and musical center. The culture of +the age was confined almost exclusively to churchmen, professors, +literary laborers and the nobility. The long line of musical and +dramatic development followed at Mantua had no relation to the general +art life of the Italian people. But its importance in its preparation +for the birth of the art form finally known as opera is not easily +overestimated, especially when we remember that this form did not become +a public entertainment till 1637. It was at Mantua that Angelo +Poliziano's "Orfeo," the first lyric drama with a secular subject, was +produced, and it must be our next business to examine this work and set +forth the conditions under which it was made known. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +The Artistic Impulse + + +The non-existence of the drama in the Middle Ages is one of the +strikingly significant deficiencies of the period. The illiterate +condition of the people, and even of the nobility, the fragmentary state +of governments, the centralizing of small and dependent communities +around the feet of petty tyrants, the frequency of wars large and small, +and the devotion of men to skill in the use of arms, made it impossible +that attention should be bestowed upon so polite and sedentary a form of +amusement as the drama. + +It is generally held that the church made the first movement toward the +abolition of the drama by placing its ban on the plays handed down from +the Greeks and the Romans, partly because of their inculcation of +reverence for heathen deities and partly because of the shameless +indecencies which had invaded them. But this could have been only one of +many causes which operated in keeping the play out of Europe for so many +centuries. When it was revived, as we have seen, in the form of the +liturgical drama and afterward of the sacred representation, it bore +little or no resemblance to the splendid art product bequeathed to the +world by the Greeks. + +The sudden and glorious return of the dramatic subjects of the Greeks to +the stage of medieval Europe marks the beginning of the modern era. When +the Italians turned to the stories of ancient fable for material for +their secular drama they were without doubt quite unconscious of the +importance of the step they were taking. It is only the reflective eye +of retrospective study that can discern all the significant elements +happily combined in this event by the overmastering laws of human +progress. + +To enter into a detailed examination of the matter would demand of us a +review of the whole movement known as the Renaissance. This, however, is +not essential to an appreciation of the precise nature of the step from +the sacred representation to the lyric drama and its importance in +laying the foundations of opera. This momentous step was taken late in +the fifteenth century with the performance of Angelo Poliziano's "Favola +di Orfeo" at the Court of Mantua to celebrate the return of the Cardinal +Gonzaga. The Italian authorities are by no means agreed as to the +importance of this production. Rossi says:[10] + + "The circle of plot in the religious drama, at first restricted to + the life of Christ, had been gradually broadened. Some writers, + wishing to adapt attractive themes to the aristocratic gatherings of + the princely courts, availed themselves of the very form of the + sacred drama of the people in the treatment of subjects entirely + profane. Thus did Poliziano, whose 'Orfeo,' as the evident + reproduction of that form in a mythological subject is an isolated + type in the history of the Italian drama." + + [Footnote 10: "Storia della Letteratura Italiana." Milan, 1905.] + +Alessandro D'Ancona[11] in his monumental work on the sources of the +Italian play says: + + "The 'Favola di Orfeo,' although it drew its argument from + mythology, was hardly dissimilar in its intrinsic character from the + sacred plays, and was moreover far from that second form of tragedy + which was later given to it, not by the author himself, but probably + by Tebaldeo, to serve the dramatic tastes of Ferrara. So then the + 'Fable of Orpheus' is a prelude, a passage, an attempt at the + transformation of the dramatic spectacle so dear to the people, and + while it detaches itself in subject from the religious tradition, it + is not yet involved in the meshes of classic imitation. If, indeed, + from the stage setting and from the music introduced into it, it is + already an artistic spectacle, it cannot be called an example of + ancient art restored. It was a theatrical ornament to a prince's + festival." + + [Footnote 11: "Origini del Teatro in Italia." Firenze, 1877.] + +Perhaps both of these admirable Italian authors had their eyes too +closely fixed on the spoken drama to perceive the immense significance +of Poliziano's "Orfeo" in the field of opera. If they had paused for a +moment to consider that Peri and Caccini chose the same story for the +book of their operas, in which the musical departure was even more +significant than the dramatic innovation of Poliziano had been, that +Monteverde utilized the same theme in his epoch-making "Orfeo," and that +for nearly two centuries the poetic and musical suggestiveness of the +Orpheus legend made it hold its grip on the affections of composers, +they might have realized better the relative value of the achievement of +Poliziano. + +Let us then briefly review the influences which led to the selection of +the subject and the character of its literary investiture by the Italian +poet. The nature of the music and the manner of performance will have to +be examined separately. The transformation which came upon Italian life +and thought under the influence of the revival of the study of ancient +literature and philosophy has been extensively examined in numerous +works. But at this point we must recall at least the particular effect +which it had on Italian poetry. The creations of Dante might seem to us +tremendous enough in themselves to have originated an era, but as a +matter of fact they marked the conclusion of one. They were the full and +final fruition of medieval thought, and after them Italian literature +entered upon a new movement. + +Petrarch was the father of the revival of ancient literature. Not only +was he himself a profound student of it, but he suggested to Boccaccio +that line of study which governed the entire intellectual life of the +author of the "Decameron." With the application of Boccaccio to the +translation of Homer into Latin we perceive a singular illustration of +the trend of the classic devotion of the time. Despite the fact that the +"Divina Commedia" had magnificently demonstrated the beauty of Italian +as a literary medium, fourteenth century scholars regarded the language +with contempt. Pride in their connection with historic Rome, as well as +the environment of places associated with his personality, made Virgil +their literary deity. The ancient language of the eternal city and of +the "AEneid" was for them the only suitable literary instrument. That +they played upon it as amateurs seems never to have occurred to them. +The study of Greek which followed the activities of Petrarch was at +first confined to a narrow circle and it never spread far beyond the +limits of university walls. But the study of Greek thought and ideals, +as obtained from the ancient works, speedily found its way through the +entire society of cultivated Italians. The people had their own poets +and their own songs, but the aristocracy, which was highly cultivated, +plunged into the contemplation of Grecian art. The influence of all this +on Italian literature was deep and significant. + +But there were other significant facts in the history of this era. Italy +was not yet a nation. She had no central point of fixture and no system +of radiation. She was divided into a group of small centers, each with +its own dominating forces. Naples was unlike Rome; Florence was unlike +Venice; Milan was different from all. Each had its characteristics, yet +all had points of similarity. All were steeped in the immorality of the +age, and all embarked with equal enthusiasm in the pursuit of classic +learning. The strange combination of physical vice with intellectual +appetite produced throughout Italy what Symonds has happily called an +"esthetic sensuality." The Italian's intellectual pursuits satisfied a +craving quite sensuous in its nature. + +It is not at all astonishing that in these conditions we find no +national epic and no national drama, but a gradual growth of a poetry +saturated with physical realism and the final appearance of a dramatic +form equipped with the most potent charms of sensuous art. It was in +such a period that a special kind of public was developed. The +"Cortegiano" of Castiglione, Bembo's "Asolani," the "Camaldolese +Discourses" of Landino could have been addressed only to social +oligarchies standing on a basis of polite culture. + +In such conditions the stern ideals of early Christianity were thrust +into obscurity and the sensuous charms of a hybrid paganism, a bastard +child of ancient Greece and medieval Italy herself, excited the desires +of scholars and dilettanti from the lagoons of Venice to the Bay of +Naples. In the midst of this era it is not remarkable that we hear the +pipe of Pan, slightly out of tune and somewhat clogged by artifice, as +it was later in the day of Rousseau, but none the less playing the +ancient hymns to Nature and the open air life. + +Jacopo Sannazzaro (1458-1530) embodied the ideals of the time in his +"Arcadia," in which Symonds finds the literary counterparts of the +frescoes of Gozzo and Lippo Lippi. At any rate the poem contains the +whole apparatus of nymphs and satyrs transplanted to Italian landscape +and living a life of commingled Hellenism and Italianism. The eloquence +of Sannazzaro is that of the Arcadian the world over. He sighs and weeps +and calls upon dryads, hamadryads and oreads to pity his consuming +passion. When he sees his mistress she is walking in the midst of +pastoral scenes where satyrs lurk behind every bush and the song of the +shepherd is heard in the land. Sannazzaro's "Arcadia" was the +inspiration of Sir Philip Sidney's. It was a natural outburst of the +time and it conveys perfectly the spirit of Italian imaginative thought +in a period almost baffling in the complexity of its character. + +It was not strange that in such a time Italian poets should have +discerned in Orpheus the embodiment of their own ideals. There is no +evidence that the Italians of the fifteenth century knew (or at any rate +considered) the true meaning of the Orpheus myth. Of its relation to the +Sun myth and of Euridice as the dawn they give no hint. To them Orpheus +was the embodiment of the Arcadian idea. He was the singer of the hymns +that woke all nature to life. For him the satyr capered and the coy +nymph came bridling from her retreat, the woods became choral and the +streams danced in the sunlight to the magic of his pipe. This was the +poetic phase of the general trend of human thought at the time. The +philosophers began by questioning the authority of dogma. Next they +turned for instruction to the ancients, and finally they interrogated +nature. In the course of their development they revolted against the +deadening rule of the church and claimed for the human mind the right to +reason independently. The scientific investigation of natural phenomena +followed almost inevitably and the demonstrations of Giordano Bruno and +Galileo shook the foundations of the church. + +In the field of polite literature men turned to nature for their laws of +daily life and believed that in the pastoral kingdom of Theocritus they +had found the promised land. Inevitably it followed that the figure of +Orpheus, singing through the earth, and bringing under his dominion the +beast and the bird, the very trees and stones, should become the picture +of their fondest dreams. He was the hero of Arcady "where all the leaves +are merry." In his presence the dust of dry theology and the cruel ban +of the church against the indulgence of human desires were impossible. +From solemn ecclesiastic prose the world was turned to happy pagan song. +The very music of the church went out into the world and became earthly +in the madrigals of love. The miter and the stole gave way to the buskin +and the pack; and the whole dreamland of Italy peopled itself with +wandering singers wooing nymphs or shepherdesses in landscapes that +would have fired the imagination of a Turner. + +And withal the dramatic embodiment of this conception was prepared as a +court spectacle for the enjoyment of fashionable society. Thus we find +ourselves in the presence of conditions not unlike those which produced +the tomfooleries of the court of Louis XVI and the musettes, bergerettes +and aubades of French song. + +The production of Poliziano's "Orfeo" may not have seemed to its +contemporaries to possess an importance larger than that which Rossi and +D'Ancona attribute to it; but its proper position in musical history is +at the foundation of the modern opera. Poetically it was the superior of +any lyric work, except perhaps those of Metastasio. Musically it was +radically different in character from the opera, as it was from the +liturgical drama. But none the less it contained some of the germs of +the modern opera. It had its solo, its chorus and its ballet.[12] But +while the characters of these were almost as clearly defined as they are +in Gluck's "Orfeo," their musical basis, as we shall see, was altogether +different. Nevertheless it was distinctly lyric and secular and was +therefore as near the spirit of the popular music of the time as any new +attempt could well approach. It had, too, in embryonic form all that +apparatus for the enchantment of the sense and the beguilement of the +intellect which in the following century was the chief attraction of a +lyric drama, partly opera, partly spectacle and partly ballet. + + [Footnote 12: George Hogarth, in his "Memoirs of the Musical + Drama," London, 1838, declares that this "Orfeo" was sung + throughout, but he offers no ground for his assertion, which must + be taken as a mere conjecture based on the character of the text. + Dr. Burney, in his "General History of Music," makes a similar + assertion, but does not support it.] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Poliziano's "Favola Di Orfeo" + + +In the year 1472 the Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, who had stayed long in +Bologna, returned to Mantua. He was received with jubilant celebrations. +There were banquets, processions and public rejoicings. It would have +been quite unusual if there had been no festival play of some kind. It +is uncertain whether Poliziano's "Orfeo" was written for this occasion, +but there seems to be a fair amount of reason for believing that it was. +At any rate it could not have been produced later than 1483, for we know +it was made in honor of this Cardinal and that he died in that year. + +If the "Orfeo" was played in 1472 it must have been written when its +author was no more than eighteen years of age. But even at that age he +was already famous. He was born in Montepulciano on July 14, 1454. The +family name was Ambrogini, but from the Latinized name of his native +town turned into Italian he constructed the title of Poliziano, by which +he was afterward known. At the age of ten he was sent to Florence, then +governed by Lorenzo de Medici. He studied under the famous Greeks +Argyropoulos and Kallistos and the equally famous Italians, Landino and +Ficino.[13] Gifted with precocious talent, he wrote at the age of +sixteen, astonishing epigrams in Latin and Greek. At seventeen he began +to translate the "Iliad" into Latin hexameters, and his success with the +second book attracted the attention of Lorenzo himself. Poliziano was +now known as the "Homeric youth." It was not long before he was hailed +the king of Italian scholars and the literary genius of his time. When +he was but thirty he became professor of Greek and Latin in the +University of Florence, and drew to his feet students from all parts of +Europe. John Reuchlin hastened from Germany, William Grocyn from the +shades of Oxford, and from the same seat of learning the mighty Thomas +Linacre, later to found the Royal College of Physicians. Lorenzo's sons, +Piero and Giovanni, were for a time his pupils, but their mother took +them away. Poliziano was as vicious as the typical men of his time and +the prudent Clarice knew it. + + [Footnote 13: John Argyropoulos, who was born at Constantinople in + 1416, was one of the first teachers of Greek in Italy, where he + was long a guest of Palla degli Strozzi at Padua. In 1456 he went + to Florence, where Cosimo de Medici's son and grandson were among + his pupils. He spent fifteen years in Florence and thence went to + Rome. To this master, George Gemistos and George Trapezuntios, the + acquisition of Greek knowledge at Florence in the fifteenth + century was chiefly due. It should be particularly noted that all + of them went to Italy before the fall of the Greek empire in 1453. + Andronicus Kallistos was one of the popular lecturers of the time + and one of the first Greeks to visit France. Cristoforo Landino, + one of the famous coterie of intellectual men associated with + Lorenzo de Medici, took the chair of rhetoric and poetry at + Florence in 1454. He paid especial attention in his lectures to + the Italian poets, and in 1481 published an edition of Dante. His + famous "Camaldolese Discussions," modeled in part on Cicero's + "Tusculan Disputations," is well known to students of Italian + literature. Marsilio Ficino was a philosopher, and his chief aim + was a reconciliation of ancient philosophy with Christianity.] + +Dwelling in a villa at Fiesole, provided for him by Lorenzo, Poliziano +occupied his life with teaching and writing, occasionally paying visits +to other cities. In 1492 Lorenzo passed away and Poliliziano wrote an +elegy which is to this day regarded as unique in modern Latin verse. In +1494 the famous scholar followed his patron, even while Savonarola was +setting Italy in a ferment of passionate religious reaction against the +poetic and sensuous paganism infused into the thought of their time by +Poliziano and Lorenzo. The scholar was laid in San Marco and they set +upon his tomb this epitaph: "Here lies the angel who had one head, and +what is new, three tongues." + +This is not the place for a discussion of Poliziano's importance in +literature, but it is essential that we should understand the +significance of his achievement in the "Orfeo." The philosophic and +poetic spirit of the period and of this poem has already been discussed. +But we may not dismiss the subject without noting that Poliziano +powerfully forwarded the impulse toward the employment of Italian as a +literary vehicle. Too many of the Italian humanists had preferred Latin, +and had looked down upon the native language as uncouth and fit only for +the masses. But when the authority of Poliziano was thrown upon the side +of Italian and when he made such a triumphant demonstration of its +beauties in his "Stanze" and his "Orfeo," he carried conviction to all +the writers of his country. + +According to Poliziano's own statement he wrote the "Orfeo" at the +request of the Cardinal of Mantua in the space of two days, "among +continual disturbances, and in the vulgar tongue, that it might be the +better comprehended by the spectators." It was his opinion that this +creation would bring him more shame than honor. There are only 434 lines +in the "Orfeo" and therefore the feat of writing it in two days was no +great one for a man of Poliziano's ability. + +Sismondi[14] regards this work as an eclogue rather than a drama. He +says: "The universal homage paid to Virgil had a decided influence on +the rising drama. The scholars were persuaded that this cherished poet +combined in himself all the different kinds of excellence; and as they +created a drama before they possessed a theater, they imagined that +dialogue rather than action, was the essence of the dramatic art. The +Buccolics appeared to them a species of comedies or tragedies, less +animated it is true, but more poetical than the dramas of Terence and of +Seneca, or perhaps of the Greeks. They attempted indeed to unite these +two kinds, to give interest by action to the tranquil reveries of the +shepherds, and to preserve a pastoral charm in the more violent +expression of passion. The Orpheus, though divided into five acts, +though mingled with chorus, and terminating with a tragic incident, is +still an eclogue rather than a drama." + + [Footnote 14: "Historical View of the Literature of the South of + Europe," by J. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi, translated by Thomas + Roscoe. London, 1895.] + +Sismondi's perception of the survival of the pastoral character in this +new form of entertainment is something we can appreciate, for this +character has survived all the experiments made on the "Orfeo" legend +and it dominates even the epoch-making work of Gluck. + +Symonds, who had a broader view of art than Sismondi, had no difficulty +in perceiving that the true genius of this new drama was lyric. He says: +"To do the 'Orfeo' justice we ought to have heard it with its own +accompaniment of music." He enlarges upon the failure of the author to +seize the opportunity to make much of the really tragic moment in the +play, namely that expressing the frenzied grief of Orfeo over the loss +of Euridice. Yet, he notes, "when we return from these criticisms to +the real merit of the piece, we find in it a charm of musical language, +a subtlety of musical movement, which are irresistibly fascinating. +Thought and feeling seem alike refined to a limpidity that suits the +flow of melody in song. The very words evaporate and lose themselves +in floods of sound." Surely, here is the description of an ideal opera +book. + +Two editions of the play are known and both are published in a volume +edited by Carducci.[15] The first version is that originally printed in +1494 and reprinted frequently up to 1776. In the latter year the second +version was brought out by Padre Ireneo Affo at Venice. This was in all +probability a revision of the poem by Poliziano. In this version the +division into five acts is noted and there are additional poetic +passages of great beauty. It may be worth a note in passing that in 1558 +a version of the "Orfeo" in octave stanzas was published for the use of +the common people and that as late as 1860 it continued to be printed +from time to time for the use of the Tuscan contadini. + + [Footnote 15: "Le Stanze, l'Orfeo e le Rime di Messer Angelo + Abrogini Poliziano," per Giosue Carducci. Firenze, 1863.] + +The main movement of Poliziano's poem is intrusted to the traditional +octave stanza, but we find passages of terza rima. There are also choral +passages which suggest the existence of the frottola, the carnival song +and the ballata. The play is introduced by Mercury acting as prologue. +This was in accordance with time honored custom which called for an +"announcer of the festival." The first scene is between Mopsus, an old +shepherd, and Aristaeus, a young one. Aristaeus, after the manner of +shepherds, has seen a nymph, and has become desperately enamored. Mopsus +shakes his head and bids the young man beware. Aristaeus says that his +nymph loves melody. He urges Mopsus: + + "Forth from thy wallet take thy pipe and we + Will sing awhile beneath the leafy trees; + For well my nymph is pleased with melody." + +Now follows a number which the author calls a "canzona"--song. The first +stanza of the Italian text will serve to show the form. + + "Udite, selve, mie dolce parole, + Poi che la ninfa mia udir non vole. + La bella ninfa e sorda al mio lamento + E'l suon di nostra fistula non cura: + Di cio si lagna il mio cornuto armento, + Ne vuol bagnare il grifo in acqua pura + Ne vuol toccar la tenera verdura; + Tanto del suo pastor gl'incresce e dole." + +The two introductory lines preface each stanza. This first one is thus +translated by Symonds,[16] whose English version is here used +throughout. + + "Listen, ye wild woods, to my roundelay; + Since the fair nymph will hear not, though I pray. + + The lovely nymph is deaf to my lament, + Nor heeds the music of this rustic reed; + Wherefore my flocks and herds are ill content, + Nor bathe the hoof where grows the water weed, + Nor touch the tender herbage on the mead; + So sad because their shepherd grieves are they." + + [Footnote 16: In "Sketches and Studies in Italy," pp. 217-224.] + +There are four stanzas. The nymph who has bewitched Aristaeus is Euridice +and the second scene shows us the shepherd pursuing her. It appears that +in trying to escape from the shepherd she was bitten by a deadly snake, +for in the third scene a dryad tells the story of the tragedy to her +sisters. In the first edition, "dei codici chigiano e Riccardiano," the +next scene introduces Orpheus, who sings a song with Latin text +beginning thus: + +"O meos longum modulata lusus + Quos amor primam docuit juventam, + Flecte nunc mecum numeros novumque + Dic, lyra, carmen." + +The most significant matter connected with this scene in the early +version of the poem is the stage direction, which reads thus: "Orfeo +cantando sopra il monte in su la lira e seguente versi latini fu +interotto da un pastore nunciatore della morte di Euridice." The name of +the actor of Orfeo is mentioned as Baccio Ugolino. This stage "business" +in English reads: "Orpheus singing on the hill to his lyre the following +Latin verses is interrupted by a shepherd announcing the death of +Euridice." Thirteen verses of the song are given before the entrance of +the shepherd, and immediately after the announcement Orpheus descends +into Hades. In the Padre Affo's later version of the work this song of +Orpheus does not appear, but a dryad announces to her sisters the death +of Euridice and then follows a chorus: + + "L'Aria di pianti s'oda risuonare, + Che d' ogni luce e priva: + E al nostro lagrimare + Crescano i fiumi al colmo della riva--" + +The refrain, "l'aria di pianti" is repeated at the end of each stanza. +At the conclusion of this chorus the dryads leave the stage. Orpheus +enters singing a Latin stanza of four lines beginning: + + "Musa, triumphales titulos et gesta canamus + Herculis." + +In Padre Affo's edition it is at this point that a dryad tells Orpheus +of Euridice's death. Mnesillus, a satyr, mocks him. The hero now sings +in the vernacular: + + "Ora piangiamo, O sconsolata lyra," etc. + "Let us lament, O lyre disconsolate: + Our wonted music is in tune no more." + +The story now moves similarly in both editions. Orpheus determines to +descend to Hades to try to move the infernal powers "with tearful songs +and words of honey'd woe." He remembers that he has moved stones and +turned the flowing streams. He proceeds at once to the iron gates and +raises his song. Pluto demands to know + + "What man is he who with his golden lyre + Hath moved the gates that never move, + While the dead folk repeat his dirge of love." + +These words leave no doubt that Orpheus sang. Even Proserpine, the +spouse of Pluto, confesses to her lord that she feels the new stirrings +of sympathy. She desires to hear more of this wondrous song. Now Orpheus +sings in octave stanzas. The last stanza of his song is thus translated +by Symonds: + + "I pray not to you by the waves forlorn + Of marshy Styx or dismal Acheron, + By Chaos, where the mighty world was born, + Or by the sounding flames of Phlegethon; + But by the fruit that charmed thee on that morn + When thou didst leave our world for this dread throne! + O queen, if thou reject this pleading breath, + I will no more return, but ask for death." + +Pluto yields up Euridice according to the well-known condition that +Orpheus keep silence and look not back till out of Hades. The poet again +sings four Latin lines and with his bride starts for the upper world. +The catastrophe is treated in much the same manner as it has been in +subsequent versions of the story. Euridice disappears. Orpheus is about +to turn back, but he is stopped by Tisiphone. He then breaks into +virulent raillery, swears he'll never love woman more and advises all +husbands to seek divorce. All this is in resounding octave rime. Then a +Maenad calls upon her sisters to defend their sex. They drive Orpheus off +the stage and slay him. Returning they sing a chorus, which is the +finale of the opera. + + "Ciascun segua, O Bacco, te; + Bacco, Bacco, oe, oe! + Di corimbi e di verd'edere + Cinto il capo abbiam cosi + Per servirti a tuo richiedere + Festiggiando notte e di. + Ognun breva: Bacco e qui: + E lasciate bere a me. + Ciascun segua, O Bacco, te." + +This chorus is translated by Symonds. The first stanza, above given in +the original Italian, is translated thus: + + "Bacchus! we must all follow thee! + Bacchus! Bacchus! Ohe! Ohe! + + With ivy coronals, bunch and berry, + Crown we our heads to worship thee! + Thou hast bidden us to make merry + Day and night with jollity! + Drink then! Bacchus is here! Drink free, + And hand ye the drinking cup to me! + Bacchus! Bacchus! we must all follow thee! + Bacchus! Bacchus! Ohe! Ohe!" + +This is a sketch of the poem of Poliziano, on a story which became the +subject of many operas, down to the time of Gluck. This is the story set +by Monteverde in his famous work, which has recently been revived in +Italy with success. This story was utilized by Peri and Caccini in their +"Euridice," which is accepted as the first opera written in the new +representative style of the sixteenth century to receive a public +performance. + +But, as we have already noted, in this "Orfeo," performed at the Mantuan +court, there was so much of the material of a genuine lyric drama that +it now becomes our business to examine more closely the character of the +musical features and the manner of the performance. The points at which +music must have been heard are clearly indicated by the text. Before +proceeding to a consideration of this music, let us picture to ourselves +how the work was performed. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +The Performance of "Orfeo" + + +The "Orfeo" was performed in a hall of the castle. The lyric dramas of +the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were all presented in private. +There were no opera houses, and the theater, though revived in Italy in +the fifteenth century, had no permanency till Alfonso I, Duke of +Ferrara, at the suggestion of Ariosto built in his capital a real play +house. There is nevertheless no reason to think that the performance of +Poliziano's "Orfeo" lacked admirable scenic and histrionic features. We +have already seen how skilful the Italian managers and mechanicians of +spectacular sacred plays were in preparing brilliant scenic effects for +their productions. Since the form and general apparatus of the sacred +play were seized by Poliziano for the fashioning of his "Orfeo," it is +altogether probable that he accepted from the earlier creation pregnant +suggestions as to the manner of presentation. + +However, as the "Orfeo" was to be given indoors the manner of exhibiting +it had to differ somewhat from that of the open air spectacle. The scale +of the picture had to be reduced and the use of large movement +relinquished. A temporary stage was erected in the great hall of the +Palazzo Gonzaga. A single setting sufficed for the pictorial investiture +of the action. The stage was divided into two parts. One side +represented the Thracian country, with its streams and mountains and its +browsing flocks. The other represented the inferno with Pluto, +Proserpine, and the other personages made familiar by classic +literature. Between the two was a partition and at the rear of the +inferno were the iron gates.[17] + + [Footnote 17: "Florentia: Uomini e cose del Quattrocento," by + Isidore del Lungo.] + +One easily realizes the vivid potency of the picture when Baccio +Ugolino, as Orpheus, clad in a flowing robe of white, with a fillet +around his head, a "golden" lyre in one hand and the "plectrum" in the +other, appeared at the iron gates, and, striking the strings of the +sweet sounding instrument, assailed the stony hearts of the infernals +with song as chaste and yet as persuasive as that of Gluck himself. It +is no difficult task to conjure up the scene, to see the gorgeously clad +courtiers and ladies bending forward in their seats and hanging upon the +accents of this gifted and accomplished performer of their day. + +Of the history of Baccio Ugolino little, if anything, is known. There +was a Ugolino of Orvieto, who flourished about the beginning of the +fifteenth century. He was archpriest of Ferrara, and appears to have +written a theoretical work on music in which he set forth a great deal +of the fundamental matter afterward utilized in the writings of +Tinctoris. But whether this learned man was a member of the same family +as Baccio Ugolino is not known. The fact that he was located at Ferrara +makes it seem likely that he was related to Poliziano's interpreter, who +might thus have belonged to a musical family. + +At any rate Baccio Ugolino possessed some skill in improvisation, and +was also accomplished in the art of singing and accompanying himself +upon the lute or viol. We shall in another place in this work examine +the methods of the lutenists and singers of the fifteenth century in +adapting polyphonic compositions to delivery by a single voice with +accompaniment of an instrument. It was in this manner of singing that +Baccio Ugolino was an expert. Symonds goes so far in one passage as to +hint that Ugolino composed the music for Poliziano's "Orfeo," but there +seems to be no ground whatever for such a conclusion. + +Baccio Ugolino was without doubt one of those performers who appeared in +the dramatic scenes and processional representations of the outdoor +spectacles already reviewed. His pleasing voice, his picturesque +appearance, grace of bearing and elegance of gesture, together with his +ability to play his own accompaniments, marked him as the ideal +impersonator of the Greek poet, and accordingly Poliziano secured his +services for this important part. + +For the other roles and for the chorus the numerous singers of the court +were sufficient. That there was an organized orchestra must be doubted, +yet there may have been instrumental accompaniments in certain passages. +This also is a matter into which we shall further inquire when we take +up a detailed examination of the musical means at the command of +Poliziano and his musical associates. The study of this entire matter +calls for care and judgment, for it is involved in a mass of +misinformation, lack of any information and ill grounded conclusions. +For example, we read in a foot-note of Rolland's excellent work [18] +that in March, 1518, the "Suppositi" of Ariosto was performed at the +Vatican before Pope Leo with musical intermezzi. The author quotes from +a letter of Pauluzo, envoy of the Duke of Ferrara, written on March 8. +He wrote: "The comedy was recited and well acted, and at the end of each +act there was an intermezzo with fifes, bag-pipes, two cornets, some +viols, some lutes and a small organ with a variety of tone. There was at +the same time a flute and a voice which pleased much. There was also a +concert of voices which did not come off quite so well, in my opinion, +as other parts of the music." + + [Footnote 18: "Histoire de l'Opera en Europe avant Lully et + Scarlatti," par Romain Rolland. Paris, 1895.] + +Upon this passage Rolland makes the following comment: "This is the type +of piece performed in Italy up to Vecchi, as the 'Orfeo' of Poliziano +(1475), The Conversion of Saint Paul (Rome, 1484-92, music by Beverini), +Cephale et Aurore (music by Nicolo de Coreggio) 1487, Ferrara, etc." + +This confusion of Poliziano's "Orfeo" with spoken drama interspersed +with intermezzi is unfortunate. There were no intermezzi at the +representation of this lyric drama. It was in itself an entire novelty +and nothing was done to distract the attention of the audience from its +poetic and musical beauties. We can hardly believe that there was any +close consideration of the fact that the work was an adaptation of the +apparatus of the sacra rappresentazione to the secular play. The +audience was without doubt absorbed in the immediate interest of the +entertainment and was not engaged in critical analysis or esthetic +speculations. + +The costuming of the drama presented no difficulties. The skill already +shown in the preparation of the sacred representations and the festal +processions could here be utilized with excellent results. From 1470 to +1520, as we have already seen, was the period of the high development of +the sacred play. Only a few years earlier the civic procession, or +pageant, had shown in brilliant tableaux vivants the stories of the +Minotaur and Iphigenie. The study of classic art and literature had +blossomed in the very streets of Italy in a new avatar of the dramatic +dance. From every account we glean testimony that the costuming of these +spectacles was admirable. It must follow that so simple a task as the +dressing of the characters in Poliziano's "Orfeo" was easily +accomplished at that time when the Arcadian spirit of the story was +precious to every cultured mind. + +There were no mechanical problems of stage craft to be solved. The men +who designed the cloud effects and the carriages for the floating angels +in the open air spectacles might have disposed of them with ready +invention, had they existed, but the theater of action, with its two +pictures standing side by side, was simplicity itself. But let us not +fall into the error of supposing that the scenery was crude or ill +painted. The painter of the scenery of the production of Ariosto's +"Suppositi," described by Pauluzo, was no less a personage than the +mighty Raphael. The accounts of the writers of the latter part of the +fifteenth and all of the sixteenth centuries are prolific in testimony +as to the splendor of the pictorial elements in the festal +entertainments of courts and pontiffs.[19] + + [Footnote 19: "At the end of the fifteenth century, about 1480, + are cited as famous scene painters Balthasar Reuzzi at Volterra, + Parigi at Florence, Bibiena at Rome."--"Les Origines de l'Opera et + le Ballet de la Reine," par Ludovic Celler. Paris, 1868.] + +Celler,[20] in speaking of the theater of the period of Louis XIV, says: +"The simplicity of our fathers is somewhat doubtful; if they did not +have as regards the theater ideas exactly like ours, the luxury which +they displayed was most remarkable, and the anachronisms in local color +were not so extraordinary as we have often been told." The author a +little further on calls attention to the fact that the mise en scene of +the old mystery plays had combined splendor with naive poverty. But he +is careful to note that the latter condition accompanied the +representations given by strolling troupes in small villages or towns, +while the former state was found where well paid and highly trained +actors gave performances in rich municipalities. In the villages rude +stage and scenery sufficed; in the cities all the resources of theatric +art were employed. + + [Footnote 20: "Les Decors, les Costumes et la Mise en Scene au + XVIIe Siecle," par Ludovic Celler. Paris, 1869.] + +Without doubt one of the most serious of all problems was that of +lighting. One cannot believe that at so early a date as that of this +first secular drama of Italy, the system of lighting the stage was such +as to give satisfactory results. Yet it is probable that artificial +lighting was provided, because it would have been extremely difficult to +admit daylight in such a way as to illumine the stage without destroying +much of the desirable illusion. Celler, in the first of his two volumes +already quoted, tells how the "Ballet de la Reine" (1581) was lighted by +torches and "lamps in the shape of little boats" so that the +illumination, according to a contemporary record, was such as to shame +the finest of days. But hyperbole was common then, and from Celler's +second book we learn that even in the extravagant times of Louis XIV the +lighting problem was an obstacle. It caused theatrical enterprises to +keep chiefly to pieces which could be performed in the open air or at +any rate by daylight. "The oldest representation," he says, "given in a +closed hall, with artificial light and with scenery, appears to have +been that of the 'Calandra,' a comedy which Balthazzar Peruzzi caused to +be performed before Leo X in 1516 at the Chateau of St. Ange." Duruy de +Noirville[21] says that Peruzzi revived the "ancient decorations" of the +theater in this "Calandra" which "was one of the first Italian plays in +music prepared for the theater. Italy never saw scenery more magnificent +than that of Peruzzi." This is a matter in which Noirville cannot be +called authoritative, but it is certain that the fame of the production +of "Calandra" was well established. Noirville's authority for his +statements was Bullart's "Academie des Sciences et d'Arts," Brussels, +1682. Whether the comedy had music or not we cannot now determine, and +it is a matter of no grave importance. The interesting point is that the +fame of the scenic attire of "Calandra" seems to have been well +established among the early writers on the theater and that they also +regarded as significant its indoor performance. The performance of +Poliziano's "Orfeo," however, took place some forty years earlier than +that of "Calandra," and it was without doubt in a closed hall and +therefore most probably with artificial light of flambeaux and lamps. + + [Footnote 21: "Histoire du Theatre de l'Opera en France depuis + l'Etablissement de l'Academie Royale de Musique jusqu'a present." + (Published anonymously.) Paris, 1753.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Character of the Music + + +It becomes now the duty of the author to make some examination of the +music of this first lyric drama. But here we unfortunately find +ourselves adrift upon a windless ocean. We are driven to the necessity +of deducing our information from the results of analogical +reconstruction. Nothing indeed can be more fascinating than the attempt +to arrive at a comprehension of the music of Poliziano's "Orfeo." All +record of it appears to be lost and the Italian savants who have given +us illuminating studies of the literary structure of the work, of its +environment and its performance, have hazarded scarcely a remote +conjecture as to the style of its music. + +But we are not without a considerable amount of knowledge of the kinds +of music in use at the time when this work was produced and we can +therefore arrive at some idea of the nature of the lyric elements of the +"Orfeo." First of all we may fairly conclude that some portions of the +text were spoken. It seems, for instance, improbable that the prologue +delivered by Mercury could have been set to music. If all other +considerations are set aside there still remains the important fact that +the hero of the play is a musical personage. He is to move the powers of +hell by his impassioned song. It would, therefore, be artistically +foolish to begin this new species of work with a piece of vocal solo +which might rob the invocation of Orpheus of its desired effect. It is +altogether probable that the prologue was spoken, and that the opening +dialogue in the scene between the two shepherds was also spoken. After +the lines + + "Forth from thy wallet take thy pipe and we + Will sing awhile beneath the leafy trees; + For well my nymph is pleased with melody." + +there follows a number which the author plainly indicates as lyric, for +he calls it a canzona. Beginning with this it seems to me that we may +content ourselves with inquiring into the musical character of those +parts which were without doubt lyrically treated in the performance. In +the early version of the poem we have a stage direction which shows that +the Latin text beginning "O meos longum modulata" was sung by Orpheus. +Again it is made plain by the text, as well as by the details of the +ancient legend itself, that the hero sang to the accompaniment of his +lyre when he was arousing the sympathies of the infernal powers. It is +not certain that song was employed in the scene between him and +Tisiphone. All the choruses, however, were unquestionably sung. + +The propositions which must now be laid down are these: First, the +choral parts of the work were in the form of the Italian frottola, and +the final one may have approached more closely to the particular style +of the canto carnascialesco (carnival song) and was certainly a ballata, +or dance song. Second, the solo parts were constructed according to the +method developed by the lutenists, who devised a manner of singing one +part of a polyphonic composition and utilizing the other parts as the +instrumental support. Third, there were two obligato instruments, the +pipe used in the duet of the two shepherds, and the "lira" played by +Orpheus. Fourth, there was probably an instrumental accompaniment, at +least to the choral parts. + +In regard to the choruses, then, we must bear in mind the well +established characteristics of the madrigal dramas of the sixteenth +century. In these works the choruses were set to music in the madrigal +style and they were frequently of great beauty. But the Italian madrigal +had not been well developed at the time of the production of Poliziano's +"Orfeo," while the frottola was the most popular song of the people. + +The frottola was a secular song, written in polyphonic style. The +polyphony was simple and the aim of the composition was popularity. It +is essential for us to bear in mind the fact that in the fifteenth +century the cultivation of part singing was ardent and widespread. The +ability to sing music written in harmonized form was not confined to the +educated classes. It extended through all walks of life, and while the +most elaborate compositions of the famous masters were beyond the powers +of the people, the lighter and more facile pieces were readily sung.[22] + + [Footnote 22: "During the fifteenth century the love of + part-singing seems to have taken hold of all phases of society in + the Netherlands; princes and people, corporate bodies, both lay + and clerical, vying with each other in the formation of choral + societies." Naumann, "History of Music," Vol. I, p. 318. + + "The practice of concerted singing was not confined to the social + circles of the dilettanti, but was also very popular in the army; + and we have before alluded to the fact that Antoine Busnois and + numerous others followed Charles the Bold into the field." Ibid., + p. 320.] + +The teachings and practice of the Netherlands masters spread through +Europe rapidly, and some of the masters themselves went into Italy, +where they became the apostles of a new artistic religion. The +Netherlands musicians began early to write secular songs in a style +which eventually developed into the madrigal. Frequently they took folk +tunes and treated them polyphonically. Sometimes they used themes of +their own invention. In time musicians of small skill, undertaking to +imitate these earliest secular songs, developed the popular form called +frottola. Later we find some of the famous masters cultivating this +music of the people. Adrian Willaert, who settled in Venice in 1516, +wrote frottole and gondola songs in frottola form. It was from such +works that he advanced to the composition of the madrigal of which he +was so famous a composer and which he raised to the dignity of an art +work. + +The residence of Josquin des Pres in Italy doubtless had an immense +influence on the development of the Italian madrigal, but at a period +later than that of Poliziano's "Orfeo" and of the best of the frottole. +Josquin was a singer in the Sistine Chapel in 1484 and his first +successes as a composer were obtained in Rome. Later he went to Ferrara +where he wrote for the Duke Ercole d'Este his famous mass, "Hercules Dux +Ferrariae." But these activities of Josquin had little relation to the +frottola. + +The point to be made here is that, at the time when Poliziano's "Orfeo" +was produced at Mantua, the Italian madrigal was in its infancy, while +its plebian parent, the frottola was in the lusty vigor of its maturity. +At the same time the popularity of part song was established in Italy +and music of this type was employed even for the most convivial +occasions. This is proved by the position which the variety of frottola, +called "carnival song," occupied in the joyous festivities of the +Italians. Note the narrative (not wholly inexact) of Burney: + + "Historians relate that Lorenzo il Magnifico in carnival time used + to go out in the evening, followed by a numerous company of persons + on horseback, masked and richly dressed, amounting sometimes to + upwards of three hundred, and the same number on foot with wax + tapers burning in their hands. In this manner they marched through + the city till three or four o'clock in the morning, singing songs, + ballads, madrigals, catches or songs of humor upon subjects then in + vogue, with musical harmony, in four, eight, twelve, and even + fifteen parts, accompanied with various instruments; and these, from + being performed in carnival time, were called Canti + Carnascialesci."[23] + + [Footnote 23: "The Present State of Music in France and Italy," by + Charles Burney. London, 1773.] + +Burney errs in supposing that these songs were written in so many parts. +Three and four parts were the rule; five parts were extremely rare. The +actual words of Il Lasca, who wrote the introduction to the collection +of Triumphs and Carnival Songs published in Florence, 1559, are: "Thus +they traversed the city, singing to the accompaniment of music arranged +for four, eight, twelve or even fifteen voices, supported by various +instruments." This would not necessarily mean what musicians call +"fifteen real parts." The subject has been exhaustively and learnedly +studied by Ambros,[24] who has examined the frottola in all its +varieties. He has given several examples and among them he calls +attention to a particularly beautiful number (without text) for five +voices. This, he is certain, is one of the carnival songs which Heinrich +Isaak was wont to write at the pleasure of Lorenzo. + + [Footnote 24: "Geschichte der Musik" von August Wilhelm Ambros. + Leipsic, 1880.] + +The source of our knowledge of the frottola music is nine volumes of +these songs, averaging sixty-four to the volume, published by Petrucci +at Venice between 1504 and 1509, and a book of twenty-two published at +Rome by Junta in 1526. Ambros's study of these works convinced him that +the composers "while not having actually sat in the school of the +Netherlanders, had occasionally listened at the door." The composers of +the frottole showed sound knowledge of the ancient rules of ligature and +the correct use of accidentals; on the other hand it is always held by +the writers of the early periods that an elaborately made frottola is no +longer a frottola, but a madrigal. Thus Cerone[25] in the twelfth book +of his "Melopeo" gives an account of the manner of composing frottole. +He demands for this species of song a simple and easily comprehended +harmony, such as appears only in common melodies. So we see that a +frottola is practically a folk song artistically treated. + + [Footnote 25: "El Melopeo y Maestro," by Dominic Pierre Cerone. + Naples, 1613. (Quoted here from Ambros.)] + +"He who puts into a frottola fugues, imitations, etc., is like one who +sets a worthless stone in gold. A frottola thus ennobled would become a +madrigal, while a madrigal, all too scantily treated, would sink to a +frottola." A typical frottola by Scotus shows observance of Cerone's +requirements. + + [Musical Notation] + +These compositions are what we would call part songs and they are +usually constructed in simple four-part harmony, without fugato passages +or imitations. When imitations do appear, they are secondary and do not +deal with the fundamental melodic ideas of the song. Nothing +corresponding to subject and answer is found in these works. If we turn +from a frottola to a motet by the same composer, we meet at once the +device of canonic imitation and with it a clearly different artistic +purpose. These composers evidently did not expect the people to be such +accomplished musicians as the singers of the trained choirs. + + "Indeed, the frottola descended by an extremely easy transition to + the villanelle, a still more popular form of composition and one + marked by even less relationship to the counterpoint of the low + countries. At the time of the full development of the madrigal the + serious and humorous elements which dwelt together in the frottola + separated completely. The purely sentimental and idealistic frottola + became the madrigal; the clearly humorous frottola became the + villanelle. When these two clearly differentiated species were + firmly established, the frottola disappeared. + + "The madrigal existed as early as the fourteenth century, but its + general spread dates from the time of Adrian Willaert (1480-1562). + The madrigal was originally a pastoral song, but the form came to be + utilized for the expression of varied sentiments and it was treated + with a musicianship which advanced it toward the more stately + condition of the 'durchcomponirt' motet. In the villanelle the + influence of the strophic folk song is clearly perceptible. The + frottola to a certain extent stood in the middle. It is sung verse + by verse, but its musical scheme is almost always conceived in a + much broader spirit than that of the villanelle and gives to it + almost the appearance of a durchcomponirt work. But the systematic + repetition of certain couplets in the manner of a refrain occasions + the recurrence of whole musical periods. Thus does the frottola + acquire from its text that architectural shape which places it in + marked contrast to the swift-paced and fluid contrapuntal chanson of + the Netherlanders. Its rhythm and accents are arranged not by the + needs of contrapuntal development, but by the meter of the line and + the accent of the Italian tongue. This appears most prominently in + the upper voice part, where often the controlling melody seems ready + to break quite through in pure song style, but only partly succeeds. + In the texture of the voices all kinds of imitations appear, but + only subordinated and in very modest setting. + + "All this was a part of the steady progress toward monody, the final + goal of Italian musical art, where, in extreme contrast to the + Netherlandish subordination to school, the emergence and domination + of individuality, the special and significant distinction of the + Renaissance, were taking shape. Hence Castiglione in his + 'Cortegiano' gives preference to the one-voiced song ('recitar alla + lira') and it was quite natural that we find in the Petrucci + collection frottole originally composed for four voices now + appearing as soprano solos with lute accompaniment, the latter being + arranged from the other three voices."[26] + + [Footnote 26: This passage is not a literal quotation, but partly + a paraphrase and partly a condensation of the text of Ambros.] + +Castiglione (1478-1529) wrote somewhat later than the period of +Poliziano. The "Cortegiano" dates from 1514, though it was not published +till a few years later, and the frottola was at the zenith of its +excellence in the time of Bernado Tromboncino, who belongs to the latter +half of the fifteenth century. But the frottola was well established +before the date of Poliziano's "Orfeo," for minor Italian composers had +poured forth a mass of small lyrics for which they found their models in +the polyphonic secular songs of Antoine de Busnois (1440-1482) and +others of the Netherlands school, especially such writers as Loyset +Compere, of St. Quentin, who died in 1518. Two of his frottole appear in +the Petrucci collection, showing that he was acquainted with this +Italian form, and that his productions in it were known and admired in +Italy. His frottole are distinguished by uncommon grace and gaiety, for +the frottola was generally rather passionate and melancholy, and full of +what Castiglione called "flebile dolcezza." + +In view, then, of the state of part song composition in Italy at the +time when Poliziano's "Orfeo" was written we are safe in assuming that +its two choral numbers were set to music of the frottola type. The use +of the refrains, "l'aria di pianti" in the first, and "Ciascun segua, O +Bacco, te," in the second, is an additional influence in moving us +toward this conclusion because we know that it was the employment of the +refrain which helped to lead the frottola toward the strophic form of +the song. We are, moreover, justified in concluding from the character +of the final chorus that it was a ballata or dance song and hence a +frottola of the carnival song variety. No student of classic literature +will need any demonstration of the probability that the Maenads in their +Bacchic invocation danced; and here we have in all likelihood the origin +of that fashion of concluding operas with a chorus and a dance which +survived as late as Mozart's "Die Zauberfloete." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The Solos of the "Orfeo" + + +The failure of the vocal solo in the field of artistic music of Europe +might be traced to the establishment of the unisonal chant in the +service of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet in defining such ground we +should easily be led to exaggerate the importance of the solo. In the +infancy of modern music the solo existed only in the folk song, in the +rhapsodies of religious ecstatics and in the uncertain lyrics of the +minnesingers and troubadours. Of these the folk song, and the troubadour +lyrics had some musical figure, out of which a clear form might have +been developed. But, as all students of musical history know, the study +of the art originated among the fathers of the church and in their +pursuit of principles of structure they chose a path which led them +directly away from the rhythmic and strophic basis of the song and into +the realm of polyphonic imitation. The vocal solo had no place in their +system and hence it never appears in the art music of their time. + +Consequently the advent of the dramatic recitative introduced by Peri, +Caccini and Cavaliere appears to be a striking phenomenon in the growth +of music, and we are easily induced to believe that this new species +burst upon the artistic firmament like a meteor. The truth is, however, +that the vague desire for solo expression had made itself felt in music +for centuries before the Florentine movement. The real significance of +the Florentine invention was its destruction of the musical shackles +which had so long hampered the advance toward truthful utterance. + +We read frequently that the first instance of solo singing was the +delivery of a madrigal of Corteccia in a play of 1539. The character +Sileno sang the upper part and accompanied himself on the violone, while +the lower parts were given to other instruments. But this was nothing +new. This kind of solo was considerably older than Sileno and the +performance of Baccio Ugolino in Poliziano's "Orfeo" was unquestionably +of the same type. And this manner of delivering a solo, which +Castiglione called "recitar alla lira," was a descendant of the art of +singing with lute accompaniment which was well known in the fourteenth +century. + +Doubtless Casella, who was born in 1300 and set to music Dante's sonnet +"Amor che nella mente," was one of the _cantori a liuto_. Minuccio +d'Arezzo, mentioned by Boccaccio, was another. Here again we must recur +to the observations of Burney and the examinations of Ambros. The former +records that in the Vatican there is a poem by Lemmo of Pistoja, with +the note "Casella diede il suono." It is likely that this musician was +well known in Italy and that he would not have had to rely for his +immortality upon the passing mention of a poet if the art of notation +had been more advanced in his day. + +The story of Minuccio, as told by Boccaccio, is this. A young maiden of +Palermo, seized with violent love for the King, begged Minuccio to help +her. Not being a verse-maker himself, he hastened to the poet Mico of +Siena, who wrote a poem setting forth the maiden's woes. This Minuccio +set at once to exquisite and heart-moving music and sang it for the King +to the accompaniment of his own viol. The poem is in the main strophic +and the melody is of similar nature. Whether Boccaccio or Mico wrote the +poem matters not in the historical sense. The important facts are that +such a poem exists and that a hint as to its music has come down to us. + +In the "Decameron" we are told often how some one or other of the +personages sings to the company. Sometimes it is a dance song, as for +example the "Io son si vaga della mia bellezza." To this all the others +spontaneously dance while singing the refrain in chorus. Another time +the queen of the day, Emilia, invites Dioneo to sing a canzona. There is +much pretty banter, while Dioneo teases the women by making false starts +at several then familiar songs. In another place Dioneo with lute and +Fiametta with viol play a dance. Again one sings while Dioneo +accompanies her on the lute. + +Thus Boccaccio in his marvelous portraiture of the social life of his +time has casually handed down to us invaluable facts about vocal and +instrumental music. There is no question that Ambros is fully justified +in his conclusion that the _cantori a liuto_ were a well-marked class of +musicians. They were vocal soloists and often improvisatori, clearly +differentiated from the cantori a libro, who were "singers by book and +note" and who sang the polyphonic art music of the time. + +It is pretty well established that the songs of Dante were everywhere +known and sung. We have reason to believe that many of those of +Boccaccio were also familiar to the people. We may also feel confident +that when most of the Italian lute singers of the time had acquired +sufficient skill to make their own poems as well as their own melodies, +they followed the models provided in the verses of the great masters. +What is still more important for us to note is that these lyrics were +strophical and that they were no further removed from the folk song of +the era than the frottola was. Indeed they bore a closer resemblance to +the frottola. They differed in that they were solos with instrumental +accompaniment instead of being part songs unaccompanied. + +But this difference is not so important as it appears. The part song +method was at the basis of all these old lute songs. This is well proved +by the fact that before the end of the century the device of turning +part songs into solo pieces with lute accompaniment had become quite +familiar. It was so common that we are driven to something more +substantial than a mere suspicion that Casella and Minuccio employed a +similar method and that the domination of polyphonic thought in music +had spread from the regions occupied by the church compositions of Dufay +and his contemporaries downward into the secular fancies of people whose +daily thought was influenced by the authority of the church. + +Furthermore this method of turning part songs into solos survived until +the era of the full fledged madrigal dramas of Vecchi in the latter part +of the sixteenth century, and at what may be called the golden era of +the frottola was generally and successfully applied to that species of +composition. Whatever the troubadours and minnesingers may have done +toward establishing a metrical melodic form of monophonic character was +soon obliterated by the swift popularity of part singing and the immense +vogue of the secular songs of the polyphonic composers. When the desire +for the vocal solo made itself felt in the exquisitely sensuous life of +medieval Italy, it found its only gratification in the easy art of +adaptation. In such scenes as those described by Boccaccio and much +later by Castiglione there was no incentive to artistic reform, no +impulse to creative activity. + +We find ourselves, then, equipped with these significant facts: first, +that the composition of secular music in polyphonic forms was at least +as old as the thirteenth century; that part singing was practised in +Italy as far back as the fourteenth century; that songs for one voice +were made with Italian texts at least as early as the time of Dante and +Boccaccio; that the art of arranging polyphonic compositions as vocal +solos by giving the secondary parts to the accompanying instrument was +known in the time of Minuccio and Casella; that at the time of +Poliziano's "Orfeo" the frottola was the reigning form of part song, and +that then and for years afterward it was customary to arrange frottole +as solos by giving the polyphony to the lute or other accompanying +instrument. + +It seems, then, that we shall not be far astray if we conclude that the +solo parts of Poliziano's lyric drama consisted of music of the better +frottola type and that the moving appeals of his hero were accompanied +on a "lyre" of the period in precisely the same manner as frottole +transformed into vocal solos were accompanied on the lute. For these +reasons an example of the method of arranging a frottola for voice and +lute will give us some idea of the character of the music sung by Baccio +Ugolino in the "Orfeo." The examples here offered are those given in the +great history of Ambros. The first is a fragment of a frottola (composed +by Tromboncino) in its original shape. The second shows the same music +as arranged for solo voice and lute by Franciscus Bossinensis as found +in a collection published by Petrucci in 1509. + + [Musical Notation: two excerpts] + +How far removed this species of lyric solo was from the dramatic +recitative of Peri and Caccini is apparent at a single glance. But on +the other hand it is impossible to be blind to its relationship to the +more metrical arioso of Monteverde's earlier work or perhaps to the +canzone of Caccini's "Nuove Musiche." The line of development or +progress is distinctly traceable. At this point it is not essential that +we should satisfy ourselves that the solo songs of Caccini were +descendants of the lyrics of the _cantori a liuto_, for when the two +species are placed in juxtaposition the lineage is almost unmistakable. +What we do need to remember here is that the method of the lute singers +entered fully into the construction of the score--if it may be so +called--of Poliziano's "Orfeo" and passed from that to the madrigal +drama and was there brought under the reformatory experiments of Galilei +and his contemporaries. This subject must be discussed more fully in a +later chapter. + +The first lyric number of the "Orfeo," that sung by Aristaeus, is plainly +labeled "canzona," and was, therefore, without doubt a song made after +the manner of the lutenists. The words "forth from thy wallet take thy +pipe" indicate that a wind instrument figured in this number. What sort +of instrument we shall inquire in the next chapter. At present we may +content ourselves with assuming that no highly developed solo part was +assigned to it. The existence of such a part would imply the +co-existence of considerable musicianship on the part of the pipe player +and of an advanced technic in the composition of instrumental obbligati. +It might also presuppose the existence of a system of notation much +better than that of the fifteenth century. But this is a point about +which we cannot be too sure. + +The decision must be sought in the general state of music at the time. +The learned masters cultivated only _a capella_ choral music, and the +unlearned imitated them. There was no systematic study of instrumental +composition. Even the organ had as yet acquired no independent office, +but simply supported voices by doubling their notes. It seems unlikely, +then, that the pipe in "Orfeo" could have had a real part. What it +probably did was to repeat as a sort of ritornello the clearly marked +refrain of the song. This would have been thoroughly in keeping with the +growing tendency of the frottola to use refrains and advance toward +strophical form. + +The lyre, with which Baccio Ugolino as Orfeo accompanied himself, may +have been a cithara, but the probabilities are that it was not. As late +as the time of Praetorius's great work (Syntagma Musicum) the word "lyra" +was used to designate certain instruments of close relationship to the +viol family. Praetorius tells us that there were two kinds of Italian +lyres. The large lyre, called _lirone perfetto_, or arce violyra, was in +structure like the bass of the viola da gamba, but that the body and the +neck on account of the numerous strings were somewhat wider. Some had +twelve, some fourteen and some even sixteen strings, so that madrigals +and compositions both chromatic and diatonic could be performed and a +fine harmony produced. The small lyre was like the tenor viola di +braccio and was called the lyra di braccio. It had seven strings, two +of them outside the finger board and the other five over it. Upon this +instrument also certain harmonized compositions could be played. The +pictures of these two lyres show that they looked much like viols and +were played with bows.[27] An eighth century manuscript shows an +instrument with a body like a mandolin, a neck without frets and a small +bow. This instrument is entitled "lyra" in the manuscript. If now we +come down to the period when the modern opera was taking form we learn +that Galilei sang his own "Ugolino" monody and accompanied himself on +the viola. Various pictures show us that small instruments of the bowed +varieties were used by the minnesingers, and again by jongleurs in the +fifteenth century. Early Italian painters put such instruments into the +hands of angels and carvers left them for us to see, as in the cathedral +of Amiens. In fact there is every reason to believe that the wandering +poets and minstrels of the Middle Ages used the small vielle, rebek or +lyre for their accompaniments much oftener than the harp, which was more +cumbersome and a greater impediment in traveling. + + [Footnote 27: Michael Praetorius, "Syntagma Musicum," vol. ii, + Organographia. Wolfenbuettel, 1619-20.] + +The instruments used to support song, that of the troubadour or that of +a Casella, or later still that of a Galilei, being of the same lineage, +the only novelty was the adaptation to them of the lutenist's method of +arranging polyphonic music for one voice with accompaniment. That this +offered no large difficulties is proved by the account of Praetorius. If +at the close of the sixteenth century chromatic compositions, which were +then making much progress, could be performed on a bowed lyre, there is +no reason to think that in Poliziano's time there would have been much +labor in arranging frottola melodies for voice and lyra di braccio. It +is safe to assume that the instrument to which Baccio Ugolino was wont +to improvise and which was therefore utilized in "Orfeo" was the lyra di +braccio and that del Lungo's imaginative picture must be corrected by +the substitution of the bow for the plectrum. We have not even recourse +to the supposition that Ugolino may have employed the pizzicato since +that was not invented till after his day by Monteverde. + +We are, however, compelled to conclude that Baccio Ugolino preceded +Corteccia in this manner of solo, afterwards called "recitar alla lira." +We may now reconstruct for ourselves the classic scene with Orpheus +"singing on the hill to his lyre" the verses "O meos longum modulata +lusus." The music was the half melancholy, half passionate melody of +some wandering Italian frottola which readily fitted itself to the +sonorous Sapphics. The accompaniment on the mellow lyra di braccio, one +of the tender sisters of the viola, was a simplified version of the +subordinate voice parts of the frottola. And perchance there were even +other instruments, an embryonic orchestra. Here, indeed, we must pause +lest reconstructive ardor carry us too far. We must content ourselves +with the conclusion that the vocal music of the entire drama was simple +in melodic structure, for such was the character of the part music out +of which it was made. It was certainly well fitted to be one of the +parents of the recitative of Peri and Caccini with the church chant as +the other. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The Orchestra of the "Orfeo" + + +That there was some sort of an orchestra in the "Orfeo" is probable, +though it is not wholly certain. The letter of the Envoy Pauluzo on the +performance of Ariosto's "Suppositi" at the Vatican in March, 1518, has +already been quoted. From this we learn that there was an orchestra +containing fifes, bag-pipes, two cornets, some viols and lutes and a +small organ. It is a pity that Pauluzzo did not record the number of +stringed instruments in order that we might have some idea of the +balance of this orchestra. On the other hand, as there was no system of +orchestration at that time, we might not learn much from the +enumeration. Rolland, in commenting on this letter, says, as we have +already noted, that this was the type of musical plays performed in +Italy at least as far back as the time of Poliziano. There is no +imperative demand that Rolland's statement on this point should be +accepted as authoritative, for his admirable book is without evidence +that the author gave this matter any special attention. On the other +hand it is almost certain that his assertion contains the truth. All the +instruments mentioned by him were in use long before the date of the +"Orfeo." Furthermore assemblies of instruments played together, as we +well know. But we are without data as to what they played, and are +driven to the conclusion that since there was no separate composition +for instruments till near the close of the sixteenth century, the +performance of the early assemblies of instruments must have been +devoted to popular songs or dances of the time. A little examination +into the character of these early "orchestras" may serve to throw light +on the nature of the instrumental accompaniments in Poliziano's "Orfeo." + +Symonds's description of the performance of Cecchi's "Esaltazione della +Croce," already quoted in Chapter III, shows us that in 1589 a sacred +representation had an orchestra of viols, lutes, horns and organ, that +it played an interlude with special music composed by Luca Bati, and +that it also accompanied a solo allotted to the Deity. Another interlude +showed David dancing to lute, viol, trombone and harp. It is evident, +therefore, that at a period a century after that of the "Orfeo" there +was a certain sort of orchestra. But this period was somewhat later than +that of Striggio, who had already employed orchestras of considerable +variety. In his "La Cofanaria" (1566) he used two gravicembali, four +viols, two trombones, two straight flutes, one cornet, one traverso and +two lutes, and in a motet composed in 1569 he had eight viols, eight +trombones, eight flutes, an instrument of the spinet family and a large +lute, together with voices. To delve backward from this point is not so +easy as it looks, yet however far back we may choose to go we cannot +fail to find evidences that assemblies of instruments were employed, +sometimes to accompany voices and again to play independently. + +The antiquity of music at banquets, for example, is attested by sayings +as old as Solomon, by bitter comments of Plato, by the account of +Xenophon and by passages in the comedies of Aristophanes. The +instrumental music at banquets in Plato's time was that of Greek girl +flute players and harpers. Early in the Middle Ages the banquet music +consisted of any collection of instruments that chanced to be at hand. +In an ancient manuscript in the National Library of Paris there is a +picture of Heinrich of Meissen, the minnesinger (born 1260), conducting +a choir of singers and instrumental performers. The instruments are +viols and wooden wind instruments of the schalmei family. A bas relief +in the church of St. Gregory at Boscherville in Normandy shows an +orchestra of several players. This relief is of the twelfth century. It +presents first on the left a king who plays a three-stringed gamba, +which he holds between his knees, like a violoncello. A woman performer +handles an organistrum, a sort of large hurdy-gurdy, sometimes (as +apparently in this case) requiring two players, one for the crank and +another for the stops. Then comes a man with a pandean pipe, next +another with a semicircular harp and then one with a portable organ. +Next comes a performer on a round-bodied fiddle (the usual form of the +instrument at that time). Next to him is a harper, using a plectrum, and +at the right end of the group is a pair of players, man and woman, +performing on a glockenspiel. This orchestra was probably playing for +dancing, as no singers are in sight. + +In a fifteenth century breviary reposing in the library of Brussels +there is a representation of a similar orchestra, and this brings us +nearer to the era of Poliziano's "Orfeo." The instruments are harp, +lute, dulcimer, hurdy-gurdy, double flute, pommer (an ancient oboe +form), bag-pipe, trombone, portable organ, triangle and a straight +flute with its accompanying little tambour. One of the musicians did +not play, but beat time as a director. It is interesting to make a brief +comparison between the two representations, for this shows the novelties +which entered between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries. The lute, +the trombone, the pommer and the triangle were new acquisitions. If now +we refer again to the orchestra of 1518 mentioned by Pauluzo we shall +seem to have gone backward. But the truth must be clear to all students +that these orchestras were not brought together with any definite +musical design. They consisted of the players who chanced to be at hand. +Even the letter of the Duke of Milan in 1473 (see Chapter III), in which +he announces his intention of engaging a good orchestra from Rome, can +hardly mean anything more than a purpose to get as many good +instrumentalists as he could.[28] + + [Footnote 28: "Although the existence of 'Orfeo' as an opera + appears to me to be problematical, there would be nothing + impossible about the construction of a tragedy accompanied by + music, because instruments were cultivated in Italy more than + in France. Before that epoch the Medici had given concerts at + Florence. Giovanni de Medici died in 1429, and Cosimo, who + succeeded him and reigned till 1464, gave at the Pitti Palace + concerts where there were as many as four hundred musicians. Under + his successors and before the death of Alexander de' Medici in + 1537, the violinists Pietro Caldara and Antonio Mazzini were often + the objects of veritable ovations, and about the same time, 1536, + at Venice, was played a piece called 'Il Sacrificio,' in which + violins sustained the principal parts."--"Les Origines de l'Opera + et le Ballet de la Reine," par Ludovic Celler. Paris, 1868.] + +While, then, it must be confessed that no conclusive evidence can be +produced that an orchestra was employed in the "Orfeo," the indications +are strong that there was one. We may assume without much fear of error +that it was used only to accompany the choral numbers and the dance and +that in fulfilling the last mentioned function it was heard to the best +advantage. Years after the period of the "Orfeo" of Poliziano +independent instrumental forms had not yet been developed. Fully a +century later compositions "da cantare e sonare" betray to us the fact +that bodies of instruments performing without voices merely played the +madrigals which at other times were sung. Such compositions were not +conceived in the instrumental idiom and must have floated in an +exceedingly thin atmosphere when separated from text and the expressive +nuances of the human tone. But the music of the dance was centuries old +and it had in all eras been sung by instruments, as well as by voices. +The invasion of the realm of popular melody by crude imitations of the +polyphonic devices of the Netherlanders could not have crushed out the +melodic and rhythmic basis of dance music and this had fitted itself to +the utterance of instruments. We are therefore justified in believing +that if the accompaniment of the first chorus in the "Orfeo" was +superfluous and vague that of the final ballata must have been clearer +in character and better suited to the nature of the scene. The dance +following the ballata must have been effective. The instruments were +most probably lutes, viols, flute, oboe, and possibly bag-pipe, +hurdy-gurdy and little organ. + +We have already inquired into the nature of the instrument which Baccio +Ugolino carried on the stage and with which after the manner of the +minstrels of his time he accompanied himself. It remains now only to ask +what was the pipe which the shepherd Aristaeus mentions in the first +scene. It was probably not a flageolet, though that instrument suggests +itself as particularly appropriate to the episode. But the good Dr. +Burney says that the flageolet was invented by the Sieur Juvigny, who +played it in the "Ballet Comique de la Royne," the first French pastoral +opera, in 1581. It could have been a recorder, the ancestor of the +flageolet, which was probably in use in the fourteenth and surely in the +fifteenth century. But more probably it was one of the older reed +instruments of the oboe family, the pommer or possibly a schalmei. The +schalmei is mentioned as far back as Sebastian Virdung's "Musica +getuscht und ausgezogen" (1511). Its ancestor was probably the +zamr-el-kebyr, an Oriental reed instrument. The schalmei was developed +into a whole family, enumerated by Praetorius in the work already +mentioned. The highest of these, the little schalmei, was seldom used, +but the "soprano schalmei is the primitive type of the modern oboe."[29] + + [Footnote 29: See "A Note on Oboes," by Philip Hale. Programme + Books of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, season of 1905-06, + p. 644.] + +It is thus tolerably certain that the instrumental tone used to voice +the pastoral character of the scene was the same as that which Beethoven +used in his "Pastoral" symphony, as Berlioz used in his "Fantastic," as +Gounod used in his "Faust," and that thus at least one element of the +instrumental embodiment of Poliziano's story has come down to us. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +From Frottola Drama to Madrigal + + +With such a simple and dignified beginning as that of the "Orfeo" how +came the lyric drama of the next century to wander into such sensuous +luxuriance, such spectacular extravagance of both action and music? In +the drama of Poliziano the means employed, as well as the ends sought, +were artistic and full of suggestions as to possible methods of +development. But whereas the opera in the seventeenth century suffered +from contact with the public, the lyric drama of the sixteenth was led +into paths of dalliance by the dominant taste of splendor-loving courts. +The character of this taste encouraged the development of the musical +apparatus of the lyric drama toward opulent complexity, and the medium +for this was found in the rapidly growing madrigal, which soon ruled the +realm of secular music. In it the frottola, raised to an art form and +equipped with the wealth of contrapuntal device, passed almost +insensibly into a new life. Berlioz says that it takes a long time to +discover musical Mediterraneans and still longer to learn to navigate +them. The madrigal was a musical Mediterranean. It was the song of the +people touched by the culture of the church. It was the priestly art of +cathedral music transferred to the service of human emotion. + +The Italian madrigal had a specifically Italian character. It followed +the path of sensuous dalliance trod by the people of Boccaccio's tales. +It differentiated itself from the secular song of the northern musicians +as clearly as the architecture of Venice distinguished itself from all +other Gothic art. Even in that era those characteristics which +subsequently defined the racial and temperamental differences between +the musical art of northern Europe and that of Italy were fully +perceptible. The north moved steadily toward instrumental polyphony, +Italy toward the individual utterance of the solo voice. That her first +experiments were made in the popular madrigal form was to be expected. +The "Orfeo" of Poliziano and his unknown musical associates set the +model for a century. In the course of that century the irresistible +drift of Italian art feeling, retarded as it was by the supreme vogue of +musicians trained in the northern schools, moved steadily toward its +destination, the solo melody, yet the end was not reached till the +madrigal had worked itself to its logical conclusion, to wit, +a demonstration of its own inherent weakness. We must not be blind to +the fact that while the Netherland art at first powerfully affected that +of Italy, the latter in the end reacted on the former, and these two +influences crossed and recrossed in ways that demand the closest +scrutiny of the analytical historian. But at this particular period that +which immediately concerns us is the manner in which Italian musical art +defined itself. The secret of the differentiation already mentioned must +be sought in the powerful feeling of Gothic art for organization. Gothic +architecture is above all things organic and Teutonic music has the same +character. Its most Gothic form, the North German fugue, which is the +instrumental descendant of the Netherlands church music, is the most +closely organized of musical types. The Italian architecture, on the +other hand, displayed an aversion for the infinite detail of Gothic +methods and found its individual expression in the grand and patent +relations of noble mass effects. This same feeling speedily found its +way into Italian music, even that composed by the Netherland masters who +had settled in Italy. + +Adrian Willaert, who is often called the father of the madrigal (despite +the fact that madrigals were written before he was born), became chapel +master of St. Mark's, Venice, in 1527. He seized with avidity the +suggestion offered by the existence of two organs in the cathedral and +wrote great works "for two choruses of four voices each, so that the +choruses could answer each other across the church. He paid much less +attention to rigid canonic style than his predecessors had done because +it was not suited to the kind of music which he felt was fitting for his +church. He sought for grand, broad mass effects, which he learned could +be obtained only by the employment of frequent passages in chords. So he +began trying to write his counterpoint in such a way that the voice +parts should often come together in successions of chords. In order to +do this he was compelled to adopt the kind of formations still in use +and the fundamental chord relations of modern music--the tonic, dominant +and subdominant."[30] + + [Footnote 30: From the present author's "How Music Developed." New + York, 1898.] + +In music of this kind there was no longer a field for the intricate +working of canonically constructed voice parts. It must seek its chief +results in the opposition of one choir against the other, not in +multiplicity of voice parts, but in imposing contrasts as of "deep +answering unto deep." The development of fundamental chord harmonies was +inevitable and from them in the fullness of time was bound to spring the +pure harmonic style. Chord successions without any melodic union cannot +be long sustained, and the Italians, with the tentative achievements of +the frottolists before them, were not long blind to this fact. Leone +Battista Alberti, father of Renaissance architecture, in writing of his +church of St. Francis at Rimini uses the expression "tutta questa +musica." One understands him to mean the harmonious disposition of the +parts of his design so that all "sound" together, as it were, for the +artistic perception. + +It was feeling of this same kind that led the apostles of the +Netherlands school and their Italian pupils to follow the physical trend +of all Italian art rather than struggle to impose upon it the shackles +of an uncongenial intellectuality forged in the canonic shops of +Ockeghem and his disciples. The seed of beauty had been sown by the +mighty Josquin des Pres what time he was a Roman singer and a Mantuan +composer. The fruit blossomed in the Renaissance music of Willaert, +Cyprian de Rore and others and came to its perfection in the later works +of Palestrina and Lasso. The resistless operation of the tendencies of +the school was such that at the close of the sixteenth century we are +suddenly confronted with the knowledge that all the details of polyphony +so studiously cultivated by the northern schools have in Italy suddenly +been packed away in a thorough bass supporting one voice which is +permitted to proclaim itself in a proud individuality. + +Yet if we permit ourselves to believe that the lyric solo made but a +single spasmodic appearance in the "Orfeo" and had to be born again in +the artistic conversion brought about by the labors of Galilei and +Caccini, we shall be deceived. The fashion set by Poliziano's production +was not wholly abandoned and throughout the remainder of the fifteenth +and the whole of the sixteenth centuries there were productions closely +related to it in style and construction. Not only is the slow +assimilation of the mass of heterogeneous elements thrown together in +these dramas not astonishing, but to the thoughtful student it must +appear to be inevitable. On the one hand was the insatiable desire for +voluptuous spectacle, for the lascivious pseudo-classicism of the +pictorial dance, for the bewildering richness of movement which had +originated in the earlier triumphal processions, and for the stupendous +scenic apparatus made possible in the open air sacred plays. On the +other was the widespread taste for part singing and the constantly +growing skill of composers in adapting to secular ideas the polyphonic +science of the church. Added to these elements was the imperative need +of some method of imparting individuality of utterance to the principal +characters in a play while at the same time strengthening their charm by +the use of song. + +For nearly a century, then, we find the lyric drama continuing to +utilize the materials of the sacra rappresentazione as adapted to +secular purposes by Poliziano, but with the natural results of the +improvement in artistic device in music. It is not necessary here to +enter into a detailed account of the growth of musical expression. Every +student of the history of the art knows that many centuries were +required to build up a technical praxis sufficient to enable composers +to shape compositions in such a large form as the Roman Catholic mass. +When the basic laws of contrapuntal technic had been codified, Josquin +des Pres led the way to the production of music possessing a beauty +purely musical. Then followed the next logical step, namely, the attempt +to imitate externals. Such pieces as Jannequin's "Chant des Oiseaux" and +Gombert's "Chasse du Lievre" are examples of what was achieved in this +direction. Finally, Palestrina demonstrated the scope of polyphonic +music in the expression of religious emotions at times bordering upon +the dramatic in their poignancy. + +We cannot well doubt that the Italians of the late sixteenth century +felt the failure of their secular music to meet the demands of secular +poetry as religious music was meeting those of the canticles of the +church. The festal entertainments which had graced the marriages of +princes had most of the machinery of opera, but they lacked the vital +principle. They failed to become living art entities solely because they +wanted the medium for the adequate publication of individuality. They +made their march of a century on the very verge of the promised land, +but they had to lose themselves in the bewitching wilderness of the +madrigal drama before they found their Moses. It was the gradual growth +of skill in musical expression that brought the way into sight, and that +growth had to be effected by natural and logical processes, not by the +discovery or by the world-moving genius of any one composer. + +The Doric architecture of the frottola had to be developed into the +Italian Renaissance style of the madrigal by the ripening of the craft +of composers in adapting the music of ecclesiastical polyphony to the +communication of worldly thought. Then the Renaissance style had to lose +itself in the baroque struggles of the final period of the madrigal +drama--struggles of artistic impulse against an impossible style of +structure and the uncultivated taste of the auditors. Then and then only +was the time for revolt and the revolt came. + +In the meanwhile we may remark that the intense theatricalism of opera +ought never to be a source of astonishment to any one who has studied +the history of its origins. The supreme trait of the lyric drama of the +fifteenth and sixteenth century was its spectacular quality. The reforms +of Galilei and Caccini were, as we shall see, aimed at this condition. +Their endeavors to escape the contrapuntal music of the madrigal drama +were the labors of men consciously confronting conditions which had been +surely, if not boldly, moving toward their own rectification. The +madrigal opera was intrinsically operatic, but it was not yet freed from +the restrictions of impersonality from which its parent, the polyphony +of the church, could not logically rid itself even with the aid of a +Palestrina's genius. We must then follow this line of later development. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +The Predominance of the Spectacular + + +Throughout the fifteenth century the lyric drama of Italy continued to +be a denizen of courts and to be saturated with what has been called the +"passionate sensualism" of the Italian genius. The rivalry of lords, +spiritual and temporal, of popes, of dukes and princes, in the luxury of +their fetes was a salient phenomenon of the time. The lyric drama became +a field for gorgeous display and its pomp and circumstance included not +only elegant song, but considerable assemblies of instruments, dazzling +ballets, pantomimic exhibitions, elaborate stage machinery, imported +singers and instrumentalists. As the painters had represented popes and +potentates mingling with the holy family at the sacred manger, so the +lyric dramatists assembled the gods and heroes of classic fable to do +honor to Lorenzo and others of that glittering era. + +In 1488 Bergonzo Botta, of Tortoni, prepared a festal play for the +marriage of Galeazzo Sforza and Isabella of Arragon. Arteaga[31] quotes +from Tristan Chalco, a Milanese historiographer, an account of this +production. The entertainment took place in a great hall, which had a +gallery holding many instrumental players. In the center of the hall +was a bare table. As soon as the prince and princess had entered the +spectacle began with the return of Jason and his companions who +deposited the golden fleece on the table as a present. Mercury then +appeared and related some of his adventures in Thessaly with Apollo. +Next came Diana with her nymphs dragging a handsome stag. She gave the +stag to the bridal pair and told a pretty story about his being the one +into which she had changed the incautious Acteon. After Diana had +retired the orchestra became silent and the tones of a lyre were heard. +Then entered Orpheus who began his tale with the words, "I bewailed on +the spires of the Apennines the untimely death of my Euridice." But, as +he explained, his song had changed as his heart had changed, and since +Euridice was no more, he wished now to lay his homage at the feet of the +most amiable Princess in the world. Orpheus was interrupted by the +entrance of Atalanta and Theseus and a party of hunters, who brought the +first part to an end in an animated dance. + + [Footnote 31: "Le Rivoluzioni del Teatro Musicale Italiano della + sua Origine fino al Presente," by Stefano Arteaga. Venice, 1785.] + +The second part introduced Iris, Hebe, Pomona, Vertumnus, and choruses +of Arcadians and others. This part concluded with a dance by gods of the +sea and the Lombardian rivers. The third part began with the appearance +of Orpheus leading Hymen, to whom he sang praises, accompanying himself +on the lyre. Behind him were the Graces, in the midst of whom came +"Marital Fidelity" and presented herself to the princess. After some +other minor incidents of the same kind the spectacle came to an end with +a ballet in which Bacchus, Silenus, Pan and a chorus of satyrs were +principal figures. This lively and comic dance, says Chalco, "brought to +an end the most splendid and astonishing spectacle that Italy had +witnessed." + +In 1487 Nicolo de Corregio Visconti produced at Ferrara his fable +"Cephale et l'Aurore." In this there were choruses of nymphs, vows to +Diana, dialogues between Corydon and Thyrsis and other pastoral +dainties. At the carnival of 1506 at Urbino, Castiglione and his friend +Cesare Gonzaga, of the great Mantuan family, recited the former's +"Tirsi," dialogues in verse. The two interpreters wore pastoral +costumes. The dialogue was couched in the customary pastoral phrase, but +it was made plain that fulsome flattery of living personages was +intended.[32] The musical numbers of which we can be certain were one +solo, sung by Iola, a chorus of shepherds and a morris dance. + + [Footnote 32: "Poesie Volgari e Latine del Conte B. Castiglione." + Rome, 1760.] + +The impulse which brought the "Orfeo" into being had not yet exhausted +itself and the Italians continued to feast their souls on a visionary +Arcadia with which they vainly strove to mingle their own present. But +love of luxurious display slowly transformed their pastorals into +glittering spectacles. As for the music, we may be certain that in the +beginning it followed the lines laid down in the "Orfeo." It rested +first on the basis of the frottola, but when the elegant and gracious +madrigal provided an art form better suited to the opulence of the +decorative features of the embryonic lyric drama, the madrigal became +the dominating element in the music. Together with it we find in time +the dance slowly assuming that shape which eventually became the +foundation of the suite. + +Adrian Willaert became chapel master of St. Mark's in 1527 and his +influence in spreading the madrigal through Italy was so great that he +has been called, as we have already noted, the father of that form of +composition. Certain it is that, despite the earlier publications of +Petrucci, the madrigal became dominant in Italy after the advent of +Willaert. But we must not lose sight of the influence of Constanzo +Festa, the earliest great Italian writer of madrigals, whose first book +of these compositions (for three voices) was published in 1537. We are +therefore to understand that in the plays about to be mentioned the +madrigal style prevailed in the music. + +In 1539 at the marriage of Cosimo I and Eleanora of Toledo there were +two spectacular performances. In the first Apollo appeared in company +with the muses. He sang stanzas glorifying the bride and her husband, +and the muses responded with a canzona in nine parts. Now the cities of +Tuscany entered, each accompanied by a symbolical procession, and sang +their praises to the bride. The second entertainment was a prose comedy +of Landi, preceded by a prologue and provided with five intermezzi. In +the first intermezzo Aurora, in a blazing chariot, awakened all nature +by her song. Then the Sun rose and by his position in the sky informed +the audience what was the hour of each succeeding episode. In the final +intermezzo Night brought back Sleep, who had banished Aurora, and the +spectacle concluded with a dance of bacchantes and satyrs to +instrumental music. The accounts which have come down to us note that +the song of Aurora was accompanied by a gravicembalo, an organ, a flute, +a harp and a large viol. For the song of Night four trombones were used +to produce a grave and melancholy support. The music for this +entertainment was composed by Francesco Corteccia, Constanzo Festa, +Mattio Rampollini, Petrus Masaconus and Baccio Moschini. All these +musicians were composers of madrigals, and Corteccia was at the time +Cosimo's chapel master. In this spectacle was heard the solo madrigal +for Sileno already mentioned. Here is the opening of this piece; the +upper voice was sung and the other voice parts were played as an +accompaniment. + + [Musical Notation] + +In 1554 Beccari of Ferrara (1510-1590) produced his "Il Sagrifizio," a +genuine pastoral drama, in which the actors were Arcadian shepherds with +Roman manners. The dialogues were connected by a series of dramatic +actions, and the music was composed by Alfonso della Viola, a pupil of +Willaert. Among the personages was a high priest who sang, like +Poliziano's Orpheus, to the accompaniment of his own lyre. The same +composer wrote choruses for Alberto Lollio's pastoral, "Aretusa" (1563) +and several musical numbers for "Lo Sfortunato" by Agostino Argenti, of +Ferrara (1571). + +In 1574 on the occasion of the visit of Henri III to Venice, the doge +ordered a performance of a piece called simply "Tragedia," which had +choruses and some other music by the great Claudio Merulo, composer of +the first definitely designed instrumental works. For the wedding +festivities attendant upon the marriage of Francesco de Medicis and +Bianca Capella in 1579 Gualterotti arranged a grand tournee in the +interior court of the Pitti Palace at Florence. This entertainment was +of a nature similar to that of 1539 above described. It was composed of +mythologic episodes spectacularly treated. The verse was by Giovanni +Rucellai, the distinguished author of "Rosamunda" and the "Api," and the +music by Pietro Strozzi. One of the singers was a certain young Giulio +Caccini, who lived to be famous. + +Torquato Tasso's pastoral play "Aminta" (1573) had choruses though we +cannot say who composed the music. It is known that Luzzasco Luzzaschi, +pupil of Cyprian di Rore, master of Frescobaldi, and composer of +madrigals and organ toccatas, wrote the chorals in madrigal style for +Guarini's famous "Pastor Fido." There were choruses to separate the acts +and two introduced in the action. These two, which had a kind of +refrain, were the chorus of hunters in Act IV, scene sixth, and the +chorus of priests and shepherds in Act V, scene third. There was also an +episode in which a dance was executed to the music of a chorus sung +behind the scenes. + +In 1589, on the occasion of the marriage in Florence of the Grand Duke +Ferdinand with Princess Christine of Loraine, there was a festal +entertainment under the general direction of Giovanni Bardi, Count of +Vernio, at whose palace afterward met the founders of modern opera. +Indeed, the members of the young Florentine coterie were generally +concerned in this fete and doubtless found much to move them toward +their new conception. The Count of Vernio's comedy "Amico Fido" was +played and was accompanied by six spectacular intermezzi with music. The +first of these was by Ottavio Rinuccini, author of "Dafne" and +"Euridice," usually called the first operas. It was named the "Harmony +of the Spheres," and its music was composed by Emilio del Cavaliere +(originator of the modern oratorio) and the chapel master Cristoforo +Malvezzi. The second intermezzo dealt with a contest in song between the +daughters of Pierus and the muses. The judges were hamadryads and the +defeated mortals were punished for their presumption. The text was by +Rinuccini and the music by Luca Marenzio, the famous madrigalist. The +contesting singers were accompanied by lutes and viols, while their +judges had the support of harps, lyres, viols and other instruments of +the same family. + +Bardi himself devised the third intermezzo, Rinuccini wrote the verse +and Bardi and Marenzio the music. It had some of the essential features +of both ballet and opera and represented the victory of Apollo over the +python. The god descended from the skies to the music of viols, flutes +and trombones. Later when he celebrated his victory and the acclaiming +Greeks surrounded him, lutes, trombones, harps, viols and a horn united +with the voices. Strozzi wrote the fourth intermezzo with music by +Caccini. This carried the audience into both supernal and infernal +regions and its music, somber and imposing, called for an orchestra of +viols, lutes, lyres of all forms, double harps, trombones and organ. + +The fifth intermezzo must have rivaled the glories of the ancient sacred +plays in the public squares. Rinuccini arranged it from the story of +Arion. The theater, so we are told, represented a sea dotted with rocks +and from many of these spouted springs of living water. At the foot of +the mountains in the background floated little ships. Amphitrite entered +in a car drawn by two dolphins and accompanied by fourteen tritons and +fourteen naiads. Arion arrived in a ship with a crew of forty. When he +had precipitated himself into the sea he sang a solo accompanied by a +harp, not by a lyre as in the ancient fable. When the avaricious sailors +thought him engulfed forever, they sang a chorus of rejoicing, +accompanied by oboes, bassoons, cornets and trombones. The music of this +intermezzo was by Malvezzi, who was a distinguished madrigalist. The +last intermezzo was also arranged by Rinuccini and its music was by +Cavaliere. In this the poet divided the muses into three groups, in +order to give antiphonal effect to their songs. He combined the episodes +so as to furnish the musician with the motives for a dance and in a +manner permit of the use of numerous and varied instruments, from the +organ to the Spanish guitar. Probably this ballet morceau was one of the +first of many medleys of national character dances so familiar now to +the operatic stage.[33] + + [Footnote 33: This account is taken from Bastiano de' Rossi's + "Descrizione dell' apparato e degli intermedi fatti per la + commedia rappresentata in Firenze nello nozze del serenissimo + D. Ferdinando Medici," etc. Firenze, 1589. This work is not in any + of the great libraries and is here quoted from the previously + mentioned history of M. Chouquet, who had access to it in the + private library of an Italian scholar. The voice and instrumental + partbooks were edited by Malvezzi, and published at Venice in 1591 + under the title "Intermedii e concerti, fatti per la commedia + rappresentata in Firenze nelle nozze del Ferdinando Medici e + Madama Cristiana di Lorena." Malvezzi's edition contains valuable + notes and an instructive preface.] + +The published text of these creations shows that they contain much that +rests on the traditions of the lyric drama as it had been known in Italy +for a century, while there is also a little that approaches the new +style then in process of development. This is not strange, indeed, since +several of the men most deeply interested in the search after the +ancient Greek declamation were active in the preparation of this +entertainment. Nevertheless we learn from Malvezzi's publication that +the pieces were all written in the madrigal style, frequently in +numerous voice parts. The entire orchestra was employed in company with +the voices only in the heavier numbers. + +It is plain that in these musical plays there was no attempt at complete +setting of the text. There was no union of the lyrics by any sort of +recitative. The first Italian to write anything of this kind in a play +seems to have been Cavaliere, but unfortunately his "Il Satiro" (1590) +and "La Disperazione di Sileno" (1595) are known to us only through a +comment of Doni, who censures them for pedantic affectations and +artificialities of style, inimical to the truth of dramatic music. The +dates of the production of these works show us that they were not as old +as the movement toward real monodic song, and it is certain that in +France, at any rate, the Italian Balthazarini had already brought out in +1581 a ballet-opera, "Le Ballet Comique de la Reine," which contained +real vocal solos. At the same time the evidence is conclusive that the +madrigal was acquiring general popularity as a form of dramatic music, +and the madrigal drama reached the zenith of its glory at the very +moment when its fate was preparing in the experiments of Galilei and +others in the new monodic style destined to become the basis of modern +Italian opera. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Influence of the Taste for Comedy + + +An illuminative fact in the history of the madrigal drama is the growth +of the comic element. Poliziano's dream of Arcadia was perhaps neither +deep nor passionate, but it was at any rate serious and for some time +after its production the lyric drama aspired to the utterance of high +sentiments. But the incongruous mingling of Arcadian shepherds and +shepherdesses with the gods and heroes of the classic literature in a +series of musical actions, conceived with the desire to gratify that +passionate sensuality which governed Italian thought, was sure in time +to lead the typical insincerity and satiric view-point of the Italian +mind to the delights of physical realism, and the free publication of +mocking comment. Photographic musical imitations of the noises of +battles, the songs of birds and the cries of a great city were certain +to be succeeded by the adaptation to the uses of dramatic action of the +musical means developed in these and this adaptation led the way +directly into the realm of the comic lyric drama. + +The pomp and circumstance of the gorgeous spectacles which we examined +in the preceding chapter were cherished by the traditions of the Italian +court stage and were not obliterated even in the new species of lyric +comedy. But there was far less to dazzle the eye in the comic +performances, and even in this they offered a certain novelty to the +consideration of Italian audiences. The court spectacles, to be sure, +did not go out of existence. We meet them in all their brilliancy in the +early years of the seventeenth century, and at the same time we find +them copied in a somewhat modified form in the spectacular productions +of the young Italian opera houses. On the other hand, when the +Florentine coterie created dramatic recitative, it was to use it in a +drama wholly serious and poetic in purpose. It was not till some years +later that recitative acquired sufficient flexibility to fit itself into +the plan of the rapidly growing opera buffa. Yet even in this lyric +species we discern something of the large influence of the humorous +madrigal play, for in time the comic opera and the ballet spectacle both +found homes after public opera houses had been thrown open to an eager +public. Physical realism, the humors of the streets and satiric assaults +upon the life of the courts made excellent materials for the +entertainment of the Italian mind, especially at such a time as the +close of the sixteenth century, when the country had reached the +completion of that state described by Symonds: + + "The intellectual and social life of the Italians, though much + reduced in vigor, was therefore still, as formerly, concentrated in + cities marked by distinct local qualities and boastful of their + ancient glories. The courts of Ferrara and Urbino continued to form + centers for literary and artistic coteries. Venice remained the + stronghold of mental unrestraint and moral license, where thinkers + uttered their thoughts with tolerable freedom and libertines + indulged their tastes unhindered. Rome early assumed novel airs of + piety, and external conformity to austere patterns became the + fashion here. Yet the Papal capital did not wholly cease to be the + resort of students and artists. The universities maintained + themselves in a respectable position--far different, indeed, from + that which they had held in the last century, yet not ignoble. Much + was being learned on many lines of study divergent from those + prescribed by earlier humanists. Padua, in particular, distinguished + itself for medical researches. This was the flourishing time, + moreover, of Academies in which, notwithstanding nonsense talked and + foolish tastes indulged, some solid work was done for literature and + science. The names of the Cimento, Delia Crusca and Palazzo Vernio + at Florence remind us of not unimportant labors in physics, in the + analysis of language, and in the formation of a new dramatic style + of music. At the same time the resurgence of popular literature and + the creation of popular theatrical types deserved to be particularly + noticed. It is as though the Italian nation at this epoch, + suffocated by Spanish etiquette and poisoned by Jesuitical + hypocrisy, sought to expand healthy lungs in free spaces of open + air, indulging in dialectical niceties and immortalizing street + jokes by the genius of masked comedy." + +We shall perceive, then, in the productions of some representative +masters of the madrigal drama in the latter half of the sixteenth +century, an expression of this Italian eagerness to abandon even the +external attitude of serious contemplation, which the spectacular +delights of the intermezzi and the serious lyric drama had made at least +tolerable, and to turn to the uses of pure amusement the materials of a +clearly defined form of art. We shall find the dramatization of the +chatter of the street and the apparition of types familiar to the +farcical comedies and operas bouffes of later days. In the washerwomen +of Striggio we are not far from _Madame Angot_, and some of the +personages whom Vecchi humorously treated in his "Amfiparnaso" are +treading the stage of to-day. In these madrigal dramas, as we shall see, +the attempts to overcome the musical unsuitability of polyphonic music +to the purposes of dramatic dialogue led composers further and further +from the truth which had stood at the elbows of Poliziano's +contemporaries and immediate successors. Musicians went forward with the +madrigal till they found themselves in Vecchi's day confronted with a +genuine _reductio ad absurdum_. It was only at this time that the +experiments of the Florentines uncovered the profound musical law that +the true dramatic dialogue is to be carried on by single-voiced melodies +resting on a basis of chord harmony. + +In the meantime, we must delay our approach to the golden era of the +madrigal drama (when indeed it faced that _reductio_) to look for a +moment at the representative work of a Mantuan master of the lyric +comedy. Alessandro Striggio, born in Mantua, about 1535, died in the +same city in 1587, was for a time in the service of Cosimo, but for at +least fifteen years of his life was known simply as a "gentleman of +Mantua." Striggio was one of the most active and talented of the +composers of his time, and his creations are found in both religious and +secular fields. He utilized instruments freely in connection with voices +and his works give an excellent insight into the general condition of +vocal composition in Italy in his day. He became prominent as one of the +early composers of intermezzi and he was employed also to write church +music for wedding festivals. One of his motets calls for an orchestra of +eight trombones, eight violas, eight large flutes, a spinet and a large +lute. Without doubt his most significant work in the domain of the lyric +drama was "Il Calamento delle Donne al Bucato," published at Florence in +1584. + +This is a series of rustic scenes, of which the first begins with an +introductory recitation by the poet, set for four voices: "In the gentle +month of May I found myself by chance near a clear stream where some +troops of women in various poses washed their white linen, and when they +had spread it to the sun on the grass, they chattered thus in lively +repartee, laughing." Then begin the action and the dialogue. The +scenario may be set forth in this wise: boisterous salutations, +hilarious talk and accounts of flirtations; tittle tattle about +neighbors and lively scandals; exchange of commiserations on the +insupportable humor of masters and the fatigue of service; cessation of +laughing, kissing and shouting, the day being ended; quick change of +scene to a levee of washing mallets; one of the women steals a trinket +from another, and a general riot ensues, after which there is a +reconciliation as the sun goes down and the women disperse with +embraces, tender words and cries of adieu.[34] + + [Footnote 34: Something suggestive of a similar train of musical + thought is found in some reflections of George Moore on Zola: + "I had read the 'Assomoir,' and had been much impressed by its + pyramid size, strength, height and decorative grandeur, and also + by the immense harmonic development of the idea; and the fugal + treatment of the different scenes had seemed to me astonishingly + new--the washhouse, for example: the fight motive is indicated, + then follows the development of side issues, then comes the fight + motive explained; it is broken off short, it flutters through a + web of progressive detail, the fight motive is again taken up, + and now it is worked out in all its fulness; it is worked up to + _crescendo_, another side issue is introduced, and again the theme + is given forth." ("Confessions of a Young Man.")] + +One can have no difficulty in imagining how this story, furnished as it +must have been, with some very free action, was set to music in the +madrigal style. The contrast of moods provides an excellent background +for variety of musical movement and for a generous exercise of the +expressional skill which the composers of that period had acquired. +Lovers of the ballet of action will perceive that the scenario of +Striggio's musical comedy could also serve perfectly for that of a suite +of pantomimic dances. + +Nor can the reader fail to discern in this story some of the germs of +the opera buffa. What is lacking here, to wit, the advancing of some +individual characters from the choral mass to the center of the stage, +was better accomplished in the earlier or more serious works. The +Orpheus of Poliziano was doubtless a striking figure in the minds of the +Mantuan audience of 1484. While perhaps there was a distinct decline in +directness of expression in the attempts of later lyric dramatists, the +departure was possibly not as large in the case of the serious writers +as in that of the humorists. We shall in all likelihood better +understand this after a survey of the labors of the dominant figure of +the artistic period of the humorous madrigal drama. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Vecchi and the Matured Madrigal Drama + + +The fully developed madrigal drama of the latter years of the sixteenth +century was an art form entirely dissimilar to anything known to the +modern stage, and, as we shall presently see, it was in itself a frank +confession of utter confusion in the search for a musical means of +individual expression. If no other evidence were at hand, the works of +Vecchi would be sufficient to prove that the logical progress of the +medieval lyric drama in one direction had led it into the very mazes of +the polyphonic wilderness. This new form lacked the spectacular glories +of the really operatic shows described in Chapter XI and it abandoned +even their ways of voicing the utterances of individual characters. Much +misinformation concerning this madrigal drama has been disseminated by +the comfortable process of repeating without scrutiny errors early +fastened upon histories of music. + +The master spirit of the madrigal drama was Orazio Vecchi, born about +1551 at Modena. He became a priest and was canon of Corregio in 1586 and +in 1591 deacon. He became chapel master at the cathedral of Modena in +1596 and after numerous vicissitudes died in 1605. His most important +work was "L'Amfiparnaso, commedia harmonica," performed at Modena in +1594. This has been preserved in its entirety, together with the +author's preface, from which valuable information may be gathered. The +work is an attempt to turn into a lyric form the "Commedia dell' Arte," +enacted in early times at village fairs in northern Italy. The +characters are Arlecchino, Pantalone, Doctor Graziano, Brighella, +Isabella, Lelio and others. The story of the play, however, does not +concern us so much as the author's artistic purposes and the methods by +which he sought to achieve them. In the addresses to the reader prefixed +to his scores Vecchi states some of his artistic beliefs. He says: + + "The gross jests, which are found in the comedies of our time, and + which are their meat rather than the spice, are the reasons why he + who says 'Comedy' seems to speak of a buffoon's pastime. They wrong + themselves who give to such gracious poesy a sense so unworthy. True + comedy, properly regarded, has for its object the representation in + divers personages of almost all the actions of familiar life. To + hold the mirror up to human life it bestows attention no less upon + the useful than upon the pleasing, and it does not suffice it to + raise a laugh." ("Amfiparnaso.") + + "It will be said that it is contrary to convention to mingle serious + music with that which is merely pleasing and that one thus brings + discredit on the profession. But the pleasing and the serious + according to report have been mingled from father to son. Aristotle + says so; Homer and Virgil give examples." ("Veglie di Siena," 1604.) + + "I know full well that at first view some will be able to judge my + artistic caprices low and flimsy, but they ought to know that it + requires as much grace, art and nature to draw well a role of comedy + as to represent a wise old grumbler." ("Selva di Varia Ricreatione," + 1590.) + + "Everything has a precise meaning, and the actor should try to find + it; and, that done, to express it well and intelligently in such a + way as to give life to the work." ("Amfiparnaso.") + + "The moral intention of it will be less than that of the simple + comedy, for music applies itself to the passion rather than to the + reason, and hence I have been compelled to use reflective elements + with moderation. Moreover, the action has less scope for + development, spoken words being more rapid than song; so it is + expedient to condense, to restrict, to suppress details, and to take + only the capital situations. The imagination ought to supply the + rest." ("Amfiparnaso.") + +When we turn to the drama itself to ascertain how the composer embodied +his artistic ideas, we find that the score shows a series of scenes +containing speeches for single personages and dialogues for two or more. +All of these are set to madrigal music in five parts. This music +exhibits much variety of style and expressive power. The composer was +undoubtedly a master of his material. How intricate and yet pictorial +his style can become may be seen in these four measures from Act I, +scene second, which contain words uttered by Lelio. + + [Musical Notation] + +That the composer sometimes employed skilfully the contrast of pure +chord sequence is seen in his setting of the "tag" of the play spoken by +Lelio and beginning thus: + + [Musical Notation] + +Interesting as this music is in itself, the temptation to enter upon a +prolonged examination of the score must be resisted for the good reason +that a more important matter demands our attention. It has often been +stated that in the madrigal drama, when the musician wished a single +personage to speak, that character sang his part in the madrigal while +alone on the stage and the other parts were sung behind the scenes. This +error has persistently clung to musical history, despite the fact that +it was long ago exposed by European authors who ought to have commanded +more consideration. The present writer is indebted to Romain Rolland for +guidance in his examination into this matter. + +Vecchi had an enthusiastic disciple in Adriano Banchieri, born at +Bologna in 1567 and died in the same city in 1634. Although he was a +pupil of Giuseppe Guami, organist of St. Mark's, himself an organist of +St. Michele in Bologna, and a serious theoretician, he was none the less +the author of several comedies and satires, which he wrote under the +pseudonym of Camillo Scaligeri della Fratta. He states in the title page +that his comedy, "Il Studio Dilettevole" (for three voices) produced in +1603, is after the manner of Vecchi's "Amfiparnaso." His "Saggezia +Giovenile," produced somewhat later, is equipped with a preface +containing full directions as the method of performing a madrigal drama. +He says: + + "Before the music begins one of the singers will read in a loud + voice the title of the scene, the names of the personages and the + argument. + + "The place of the scene is a chamber of moderate size, as well + closed as possible (for the quality of the sound). In an angle of + the room are placed two pieces of carpet on the floor and a pleasing + scene. Two chairs are placed, one at the right, the other at the + left. Behind the scene are benches for the singers, which are turned + toward the public and separated from one another by the breadth of a + palm. Behind these is an orchestra of lutes, clavicembali, and other + instruments, in tune with the voices. From above the scene falls a + large curtain which shuts off the singers and instrumentalists; the + rule of procedure will be according to the following order: + + "The invisible singers read the music from their parts. They will be + three at a time, or better, six, two sopranos, two tenors, one alto + and one bass, singing or remaining silent according to the occasion, + giving with spirit the lively words and with feeling the sentimental + ones and pronouncing all with loud and intelligible voices according + to the judgment of prudent singers. + + "The actors alone on the scene, and reciting, should prepare their + parts so as to know them by heart and in every detail of place and + time follow the music with all care as to time. It will not be a bad + idea to have a prompter to aid the singers, instrumentalists and + reciters." + +The words, carefully chosen by the writer, prove conclusively that the +actors did not sing; they spoke. The only music was that which came from +behind the curtain at the rear. + +Further directions for the performance of a madrigal drama by Vecchi +tell us that when a single person speaks on the stage, all the musical +parts join in representing him. In the case of a dialogue between two +actors the voices are to be divided into two groups situated so that the +musical sounds shall seem to proceed from the actors. For example, when +Lucio and Isabella converse, men's voices represent the former and +women's voices the latter. The subjoined passage of dialogue between +Frulla and Isabella, Act II, scene fifth, will show how two voices were +represented: + + [Musical Notation] + +In the "Fidi Amanti" of Torelli there is a scene for two men, +a satyr and a shepherd, and one woman, a nymph. In this the two men +are represented always by the tenor and the bass, the latter having +the chief burden of the delineation of the satyr. The soprano and alto +voices are reserved for the nymph. Yet in this scene whenever the +emotion becomes intense, whether sad or joyous, the four voices unite +in singing the principal phrase. + +Rolland, with his customary acumen, notes that in Vecchi's five part +madrigals for the stage the employment of the odd voice is plainly +governed by musical needs. It has to be common to both personages in a +scene for two and hence it is always the least characteristic voice. Its +chief business is to fill in the harmony. + +It is not essential to the purpose of this work that the story of +"L'Amfiparnaso" or any of the other important madrigal dramas should be +told. The significant points are the disappearance of the more gorgeous +elements of spectacle found in the older court shows, the rise to +prominence of the comic element, and above all the entire obliteration +of the tentative methods of solo song found in the earlier lyric drama. +The old-fashioned _cantori a liuti_ sank into obscurity as the madrigal +grew in general favor in Italy, and in the latter years of the sixteenth +century their art seems to have undergone alterations quite in keeping +with the growing complexity of madrigal forms. The madrigal was now the +solo form with an instrumental accompaniment made from the under voices, +and this solo form was not used in the madrigal drama. Its musicians had +laid aside the "recitar alla lira," so much praised by Castiglione in +1514, and were seeking for some new way of setting solo utterance to +music. The method chosen by Vecchi must appear to us to be removed from +possibilities of artistic success still further than the solo +adaptations of frottole, yet the historical fact is that his +"Amfiparnaso" had an extraordinary popularity and set a fashion. + +Some of Vecchi's works were produced and met with favor even after the +pseudo-Hellenic invention of the Bardi fraternity had burst upon Italy. +Indeed the madrigal drama died hard and its final burial was not +accomplished till the opera had begun to take shape more definite than +that found in the experimental productions of its founders. With the +declining years of this curious form we need not concern ourselves. We +may now turn to a consideration of the experiments which led to the +creation of dramatic recitative, the missing link in the primeval world +of the lyric drama. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +The Spectacular Element in Music + + +While the madrigal drama was in the ripeness of its glory the young +Florentine coterie which brought the opera to birth was engaged in its +experiments with monody. The history of its labors has been told in many +books and need not be repeated here. But connected with it are certain +important facts which are too often overlooked or at best denied their +correct position in the story. + +In the first place, then, let us remind ourselves that while the +madrigal drama was utilizing in a novel manner the musical form from +which it took its name, the method of adapting the madrigal to solo +purposes had never been abandoned. The singular path of development +followed by the musical drama had been leading away from its true goal, +that of solo utterance, but the Italian salon still heard the charms of +the madrigal arranged as a lyric for single voice. + +The first secular drama, the "Orfeo" of Poliziano, was equipped with the +elements from which might have been evolved quickly all the materials of +the first experimental operas; but the rapid spread of the polyphonic +music through Italy and the sudden and overwhelming popularity of part +singing soon, as we have seen, relegated the first suggestions of a +manner of setting vocal solos for the stage into a position of +comparative obscurity and in the end this possibility was conquered by +the cumbrous method of Vecchi. Perhaps the unsuitability of polyphonic +composition might have made itself clear earlier than it did, had not +the general state of Italian thought and taste moved in a direction +making this impossible. The noble classic figure of Orpheus, with his +flowing white robe, his simple fillet on his brow, and his lyre in his +arm, standing before the iron gates and moving by his song the powers of +hell, soon gave way to the gorgeous exhibitions in which the splendors +of Night and Dawn were made the subjects of a series of glittering +scenes enveloping a plan much like that of some modern ballet spectacle. + +Throughout the sixteenth century, as we have seen, these court +representations grew in complexity of pictorial detail, while the +importance of the development of a medium for individual expression sank +further and further out of notice. One reads of occasional uses of the +old method of solo recitation to the lyre, but never as a controlling +motive in the dramatic construction. It appears only as an incident in +the general medley of sensuous allurements. So, too, the convocation of +masses of singers, dancers and instrumentalists seems to have been +nothing more than a natural demonstration of that growing appetite for +luxury which characterized the approach of the feeble intellectual era +of the Seicentisti, that era in which "ecclesiastical intolerance had +rendered Italy nearly destitute of great men." + +These quoted words are Symonds's; let him speak still further: "Bruno +burned, Vanini burned, Carnescchi burned, Paleario burned, Bonfadio +burned; Campanella banished after a quarter of a century's imprisonment +with torture; the leaders of free religious thought in exile, scattered +over northern Europe. Tasso, worn out with misery and madness, rested at +length in his tomb on the Janiculan; Scarpi survived the stylus of the +Roman curia with calm inscrutability at St. Fosca; Galileo meditated +with closed lips in his watch tower behind Bello Squardo. With Michael +Angelo in 1564, Palladio in 1580, Tintoretto in 1594, the godlike +lineage of the Renaissance artists ended; and what children of the +sixteenth century still survived to sustain the nation's prestige, to +carry on its glorious traditions? The list is but a poor one. Marino, +Tassoni, the younger Buonarotti, Boccalini and Chiabrera in literature. +The Bolognese academy in painting. After these men expand arid +wildernesses of the Sei Cento--barocco architecture, false taste, +frivolity, grimace, affectation--Jesuitry translated into false +culture." + +Symonds is here speaking of the dawn of the seventeenth century, but the +movement toward these conditions is quite clearly marked in the later +years of the preceding cycle. Its influence on the lyric drama is +manifest in the multiplication of luxurious accessories and superficial +splendors, designed to appeal to the taste of nobles plunged in sensuous +extravagances and easily mistaking delight in them for a lofty +appreciation of the drama and art. The reform of the Florentine coterie +conquered Italy for less than fifty years. The return to showy +productions, to the congregation of purely theatric effects, scenic as +well as musical, was swift, and the student of operatic art can to-day +discern with facility that the invention of the Florentines was soon +reduced to the state of a thread to bind together episodes of pictorial +and vocal display. But in the beginning it was unquestionably the +outcome of a hostility to these very things, or at any rate to their +merely spectacular employment. + +Peri, Caccini, Bardi and others of the Florentine "camerata" were +engaged as composers, stage managers, actors and singers in many of the +elaborate court spectacles, intermezzi and madrigal dramas produced +toward the end of the sixteenth century. Peri and Caccini were +professional singers, and their experiences were not only those of +students, but also those of practitioners. Their revolt against the +contrapuntal lyric drama was largely, though not wholly, based on +deep-seated objection to the unintelligibility of the text. It does not +require profound consideration to bring us to the opinion that the +method of Vecchi was in part an attempt to overcome the innate defect of +the polyphonic style in this matter of intelligibility. The resort to +the spoken text on the stage while the music was sung behind the scenes +appears on the face of it to have been compelled by a wish for some +method of conveying the meaning of the poet to the audience. + +Why, then, did not these young reformers find at hand in the madrigal +arranged for solo voice the suggestion for their line of lyric +reconstruction? Partly by reason of the confusion caused by obedience to +old polyphonic customs in making the accompaniments, and partly because +the madrigal had become a field for the display of vocal agility. +Already the development of colorature singing had reached a high degree +of perfection. Already the singer sought to astonish the hearer by +covering an air with a bewildering variety of ornaments. The time was +not far off when the opera prima donna was to become the incarnation of +the artistic sensuousness which had beguiled Italy with a dream of +Grecian resurrection. The way had been well built, for the attention of +the fathers of the Roman church had been turned early to the necessity +of system in the delivery of the liturgical chants. The study of a style +had developed a technic and to the achievement of vocal feats this +technic had been incited by the rapid rise of the act of descant. + +Hand in hand the technic and the art of descant had come down the years. +The sharp distinction early made between "contrapunctus a penna" and +"contrapunctus a mente" showed that composers and singers to a certain +degree actually stood in rivalry in their production of passage work for +voices. The rapid expansion of the florid element in the polyphonic +music of the composers indicates to us that the improvised descant of +the singer had a sensible influence. We need not be astonished, then, to +learn that long before the end of the sixteenth century a very +considerable knowledge of what was later systematized as the so-called +"Italian method" had been acquired. The registers of head and chest were +understood, breathing was studied, the hygiene of the voice was not a +stranger, and vocalizes on all the vowels and for all the voices had +been written. Numerous singers had risen to note, and the records show +that their distinction rested not only on the beauty of their voices and +the elegance of their singing, but also on their ability to perform +those instrumental feats which have from that time to this been dear to +the colorature singer and to the operatic public. + +In the closing years of the sixteenth century we find that the famous +singers were heard not oftener in public entertainments than in private +assemblies. Occasionally a madrigal arranged as a solo figured in a +lyric play, but the singing of madrigals for one voice was a popular +field for the exhibition of the powers of celebrated prima donnas such +as Vittoria Archilei and eminent tenors like Jacopo Peri. +Kiesewetter[35] gives a madrigal sung as a solo by Archilei. The +supporting parts of the composition were transferred from voices to +instruments apparently with little trouble. Mme. Archilei herself played +the lute and her husband, Antonio Archilei, and Antonio Nalda played two +chitarroni. The music of the madrigal was composed by Signor Archilei. +Here are the opening measures of this lyric: + + [Musical Notation] + + [Footnote 35: "Schicksale und Beschaffenheit des Weltlichen + Gesanges," by R. G. Kiesewetter. Leipsic, 1841.] + +Here is the beginning of the composition as Mme. Archilei decorated it +with her extraordinary skill in the vocal ornamentation of the period: + + [Musical Notation] + +We are told that despite the fine professions of the Florentines, Mme. +Archilei was permitted to embroider Peri's _Euridice_ in something like +this fashion. But we must admit that even in those days a prima donna +had power, and that something had to be conceded to popular taste. +Furthermore, we shall see that the Florentines did not purpose to +abolish floridity entirely. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +The Medium for Individual Utterance + + +A closer examination of the musical reforms instituted by the camerata +which met at the Vernio and Corsi palaces will convince us that they +were directed toward two objects; first, the restoration of the Greek +method of delivering the declamation of a drama, and second, the +reduction of purely lyric forms to a rational musical basis on which +could be built intelligible settings of texts. The revolt was not only +against polyphonic music in which text was treated without regard for +its communicative purpose, but also against the decorative manner of +solo singing, which made words only backgrounds for arabesques of sound. +On this point we have the conclusive evidence of Caccini's own words as +found in the preface to his "Nuove Musiche."[36] He begins by giving the +reasons why he had not earlier published his lyrics in the new style, +though they had long been sung. He continues: + + "But when I now see many of these pieces torn apart and altered in + form, when I see to what evil uses the long runs are put, to wit, + those consisting of single and double notes (repeated ones), as if + both kinds were combined, and which were invented by me in order to + do away with the former old fashion of introduced passages, which + were for wind or stringed instruments rather than the human voice; + when further I see how dynamic gradations of tone are used without + discrimination, what enunciation now is, and how trills, gruppetti + and other ornaments are introduced, I consider it necessary--and in + this I am upheld by my friends--to have my music printed." + + [Footnote 36: "Nuove Musiche di Giulio Caccini detto Romano." + Florence, 1601.] + +Furthermore he will explain in this preface the principles which led him +to write in this manner for the solo voice. He says that for a long time +he has been a member of the Florentine circle of cultivated men and that +he has learned from them more than he acquired in thirty years in the +schools of counterpoint. + + "For these wise and noble personages have constantly strengthened me + and with most lucid reasons determined me to place no value upon + that music which makes it impossible to understand the words and + thus to destroy the unity and meter, sometimes lengthening the + syllables, sometimes shortening them in order to suit the + counterpoint--a real mangling of the poetry--but to hold fast to + that principle so greatly extolled by Plato and other philosophers: + 'Let music be first of all language and rhythm and secondly tone,' + but not vice versa, and moreover to strive to force music into the + consciousness of the hearer and create there those impressions so + admirable and so much praised by the ancients, and to produce which + modern music through its counterpoint is impotent. Especially true + is this of solo singing with the accompaniment of a stringed + instrument when the words are not understood because of the + immoderate introduction of passages." + +This, he declares, can only extort applause of the "crowd" and such +music can only result in mere tickling of the ear, because when the text +is not intelligible there can be no appeal to the understanding. + + "The idea came to me to introduce a style of music which makes it + possible in a certain manner to speak musically by employing, as + already said, a certain noble subordination of the song, with now + and then some dissonances, while however holding the chord by means + of the sustained bass, except when I follow the already common + custom of assigning the middle voices to the accompanying + instrument for the purpose of increasing the effect, for which + purpose alone they are, in my opinion, appropriate." + +He now tells us that, after he found that his principle stood the tests +of practice and he was satisfied that in the new style lay a power to +touch hearts far beyond that possessed by polyphony, he wrote certain +madrigals for the solo voice in the manner described, which manner +"I hereafter used for the representations in Florence." Then he went to +Rome where the dilettanti, particularly Lione Strozzi, gathered at the +house of Nero Neri, expressed themselves enthusiastically about the new +revelation of the power of solo song to move the heart. These amateurs +became convinced that there was no longer any satisfaction to be drawn +from the old way of singing the soprano part of madrigals and turning +the other parts into an instrumental accompaniment. + +Caccini went back to Florence and continued to set canzonettas. He says +that in these compositions he tried continually to give the meaning of +the words and so to touch responsive chords of feeling. He endeavored to +compose in a pleasing style by hiding all contrapuntal effects as much +as possible. He set long syllables to consonances and let passing notes +go with short syllables. He applied similar considerations to the +introduction of passages "although sometimes as a certain ornamentation +I have used a few broken notes to the value of a quarter, or at most a +half note, on a short syllable, something one can endure, because they +quickly slip by and are not really passages, but only add to the +pleasant effect." + +Caccini continues his preface with reiterated objections to vocal +passages used merely for display, and says that he has striven to show +how they can be turned to artistic uses. He deprecates the employment of +contrapuntal device for its own sake, and says that he employs it only +infrequently and to fill out middle voices. He forcefully condemns all +haphazard use of vocal resources and says that the singer should labor +to penetrate the meaning and passion of that which he sings and to +convey it to the hearer. This he asserts can never be accomplished by +the delivery of passages. + +Here, then, we have a clear statement of the artistic ideals cherished +by Caccini, and these, we may take it, were shared by the other members +of the camerata who were engaged in the pursuit of a method of direct, +eloquent, dramatic solo expression. The opening measures of one of the +numbers in the "Nuove Musiche" will serve to show in what manner Caccini +developed his theories in practice and equally what close relation this +style had to that of the new dramatic recitative. + + [Musical Notation] + +In the preface to his score of "Euridice" Peri has set forth his ideas +about recitative. He has told us how he tried to base its movement upon +that of ordinary speech, using few tones and calm movements for quiet +conversation and more extended intervals and animated movement for the +delineation of emotion. This was founded upon the same basis as the +theory of Caccini, which condemned emphatically the indiscriminate +employment of swelled tones, exclamatory emphases and other vocal +devices. Caccini desired that the employment of all these factors in +song should be regulated by the significance of the text. In other words +these reformers were fighting a fight not unlike that of Wagner. They +deplored the making of vocal ornaments and the display of ingenuity in +the interweaving of parts for their own sakes, just as Wagner decried +the writing of tune for tune's sake, and on one of the same grounds, +namely, that nothing could result but a tickling of the ear. Yet these +young reformers had no intention of throwing overboard all the charms of +floridity in song. Here are two examples of their treatment of +passionate utterance in recitative. The first is by Peri and the second +by Caccini. Both are settings of the same text in the "Euridice." + + [Musical Notation: two excerpts] + +Caccini was somewhat more liberal than Peri in the use of floridity and +always showed taste and judgement therein. Here is a sample of his style +taken from a solo by one of the nymphs in "Euridice": + + [Musical Notation] + +Caccini also showed that he was not averse to the lascivious allurements +of two female voices moving in elementary harmonies. Here is a passage +from a scene between two nymphs upon which rest many hundreds of pages +in later Italian operas. + + [Musical Notation] + +This was the immediate predecessor of the well-known "Saliam cantando" +in Monteverde's "Orfeo." + +The innovations of the Florentine reformers included also the invention +of thorough bass, or the basso continuo, as the Italians call it. +Ludovico Grossi, called Viadana from the place of his birth, seems to +have been the first to use the term basso continuo and on the authority +of Praetorius and other writers was long credited with the invention of +the thing itself. But it was in 1602 that he published his "Cento +concerti ecclesiastici a 1, a 2, a 3, e a 4 voci, con il basso continuo +per sonar nell' organo." The basso continuo had been in use for some +time before this. It appears in the score of Peri's Euridice as well as +in the "Nuove Musiche" of Caccini. It was employed in Cavaliere's "Anima +e Corpo" and was doubtless utilized in some of the camerata's earlier +attempts which have not come down to us. + +Just which one of the Florentines devised this method of noting the +chords arranged for the support of the voice in the new style matters +little. The fact remains that the fundamental principle of related chord +harmonies, as distinguished from incidental accords arising in the +interweavings of voice parts melodic in themselves, had been recognized +and the basis of modern melodic composition established. This, indeed, +was not the achievement of the young innovators, but the result of a +slow and steady development in the art of composition. The introduction +of thorough bass shows us that the reformers had found it essential to +the success of their experiments that, in their effort to pack away in +solid chords the tangle of parts which had so offended them in the old +counterpoint, they should codify to some extent the relations of +fundamental chords and contrive a simple method of indicating their +sequence in the new and elementary kind of accompaniments. They at any +rate perceived that the vital fact concerning the new monophonic style +was that the melody alone demanded individual independence, while the +other parts could not, as in polyphony, ask for equal suffrage, but must +sink themselves in the solid and concrete structure of the supporting +chord. Thorough bass was in later periods utilized in such music as +Bach's and Handel's, but its original nature always stood forth most +clearly when it was employed in the support of vocal music approaching +the recitative type. + +Here, then, we may permit the entire matter to rest. It ought now to be +manifest that in their experiments at the resuscitation of the Greek +manner of declamation the ardent young Florentines were impelled first +of all by the feeling that the obliteration of the text by musical +device was a crying evil and that by it dramatic expression was rendered +impossible. Doubtless they felt that their art lacked a medium for the +publication of the individual, but it is by no means likely that they +realized the full significance of this deficiency or of their own +efforts to supply it. Nevertheless, what they did under the incentive +of a genuine artistic impulse was in direct line with the whole +intellectual progress of the Renaissance. The thing that was patent to +them was the importance of studying the models of antiquity to find out +how dramatic delineation was to be accomplished; but in doing so they +discovered the one element which had been wanting in the Italian lyric +drama since its birth in the Mantuan court, namely, the way to set +speeches for one actor to music having communicative potency and capable +of preserving the intelligibility of the text. + +So they completed a cycle of the art of dramatic music, and, having +found the link that was missing in the musical chain of Poliziano's +"Orfeo," reincarnated Italy's Arcadian prophet, and built the gates +through which Monteverde ushered lyric composition to the broad highway +of modern opera. + + + + +INDEX + +Agility, vocal, 214 +Alemannia, Rudolfo de, 41 +Alessandro, Gian Andrea di, 46 +Ambros, August Wilhelm, 107 +"Amfiparnaso," 191 et seq. +"Apollo and the Python," spectacular intermezzo, 174 +Arcadia, the Italian, 62 et seq. +Archilei, Vittoria, 216, 218 +Argyropoulos, John, 69 +"Arion," spectacular intermezzo, 175 +Ariosto, performance of his "Suppositi," 90, 136 + +Ballata, 76, 116, 144 +"Ballet Comique de la Reine," 178 +Banchieri, Adriano, 198 +Banquets, music at, 139 +Basso continuo, 232 +Bati, Luca, 30 +Beccari, 170 +Bembo, Pietro, 61 +Boccaccio, 59 +Botta, Bergonzo, festal play by, 161 +Busnois, Antoine, 115 + +Caccini, Giulio, 172 + "Nuove Musiche," its aim, 221 et seq. +"Calandra," performance of, 96 +_Cantori a liuto_, 119, 121 et seq. +Carnival Song (canto carnascialesco), 76, 105, 116 +Casella, 119 +Castiglione, 61, 114 + performance of his "Tirsi," 164 +Cavaliere, Emilio del, first recitatives written by, 177 +Chant, music of liturgical drama, 11 + disappearance from "Sacre Rappresentazioni," 24 +Chartreux, Jean le, 40 +Chorus, in first secular drama, 89, 116 +Comedy, influence on lyric drama, 179 et seq. + Vecchi's theories, 192 +Compere, Loyset, 115 +Concerts, early, 142 +Corteccia, 119 +Costumes in early lyric plays, 92 + +Dance, dramatic, in church ritual, 2, 3 + in open-air plays, 16 + orchestral music for, 144 + executed to concealed chorus, 172 + characteristic national, 176 +Dante, 58 +Della Viola, Alfonso, 170 +Della Viola, Gian Pietro, 45 +Des Pres, Josquin, 104 +Disciplinati di Gesu Cristo, 22 +"Divozione," 25 et seq. +Drama, lyric, sources, 4 + open-air religious, 13 + at Florence, 19 + revival in Europe, 54 + causes of disappearance, 53 +Dramatic dialogue, in madrigal drama, 184 +Dramatic element, in early church music, 2 + in ceremonials, 4, 5 + +"Esaltazione della Croce," sacred play, 29 + orchestra in, 138 +"Euridice," Peri's, 219 + +Feltre, Vittorino da, 37, 41 +Ferrara, musical relations with Mantua, 46 +Festa, Constanzo, 165 +Fete of the Ass, 14 +Ficino, Marsilio, 70 +Florence, reform of dramatic music, 220, 234 +Florid element, in early church music, 1 + its disappearance, 2 + in madrigal, 214 + in early operas, 231 +Frottola, 76, 101, 102, 104 et seq., 122 + distinguished from madrigal, 108, 112 + arranged for solo voice, 124 et seq. + +Gaffori, Franchino, 43 +Gonzaga, house of, 35 et seq. + Gian Francesco, 37 + Ludovico, 38 +Grecian ideals in Italian literature, 54, 58 et seq., 62 et seq. +Gualterotti, spectacular festal play, 171 + +"Harmony of the Spheres," intermezzo by Cavaliere, 173 +Harmony, modern begun, 233 + +Individuality, medium of expression sought, 155, 157 + found, 220 et seq. +Intermezzi, spectacular in 1589, 173 +Intermezzo, 91 +Isaak, Heinrich, 107 +Italian, Latin preferred to, 59 + Poliziano's use of, 72 +Italian music, defining its character, 149 +Italian thought, state of in sixteenth century, 181, 209, 210, 211 +Italy, lack of national unity, 60 + +Kallistos, Andronicus, 69 + +Landino, 61, 69 +Lauds, 21 et seq. + music of, 23 + development of, 25 +Lavagnolo, Lorenzo, teacher of dance at Mantua, 45 +Lighting in early plays, 95 +Liturgical drama, 1 et seq. + early examples, 6 et seq. + its longevity, 9 + character of music, 5, 6, 10 + French as related to opera, 12 + costumes, etc., 26 + stage used, 26 +Luzzaschi, music to "Pastor Fido," 172 +Lyra di braccio, 134 +Lyre, 130 + +Madrigal, 102, 104, 105, 112 + Italian, 148 + solo, 168, 216, 217, 218, 219, 223 + florid element in, 214 + ornamented by singer, 217, 218 +Madrigal drama, transition to from frottola, 147 et seq. + in maturity, 191 et seq. +Madrigal dramas, 166 + comedy in, 179 et seq. + dialogue in, 181, 198 et seq., 201, 203 + instruments in, 185, 199 + manner of performance, 198 et seq. + voices in, 200 + solo in, 201 + unintelligibility of text, 213 +Mantegna, 38, 39, 40 +Mantua, birthplace of secular drama, 35 + sketch of the marquisate, 35 et seq. + literary and artistic importance, 36 + music at, 40 et seq. + musical relations with Ferrara, 46 +Marenzio, Luca, 50 +"Marienklage, die," liturgical drama, 9 +"Mary Magdalen," sacred play, 33 +Masques, 32, 33 +Medici, Lorenzo de, writer of sacred plays, 29 +Merulo, Claudio, his "Tragedia," 171 +Minuccio, 119, 120 +Monody, movement toward, 149 + Caccini's, 222, 225 +Music, in sixteenth century lyric dramas, 164 + + [Transcriber's Note: The letter "N" is absent from the Index. + Possible entries include: + Namur, Naples, Narcissus, Naumann, Nero Neri, Netherlands, + Noirville, Novellara, Nuremberg.] + +Oboe, 145 +Opera buffa, germs of, 188 +Orchestra, in "Sacre Rappresentazioni," 30, 31 + at Mantua, 44 + in first secular drama, 89, 136 et seq. + Striggio's, 138, 185, 186 + in other early lyric plays, 161, 162, 174, 175, 177, 199 +"Orfeo," performed at Mantua, 52, 55, 68 + Italian estimates of, 55, 56 + importance of its production, 57, 66 + its lyric character, 66, 77, 79 + description of poem, 76 et seq. + how written, 72 + Sismondi's comments on, 73 + Symonds on, 74 + editions compared, 75, 79, 80 + how performed, 85 et seq. + examination of its music, 98 et seq. + choruses, 101, 116 + solo parts, 101, 117 et seq. + solo parts, frottola as basis of, 124 + instrumental parts, 101, 129, 136 et seq., 144 +Orpheus, embodiment of Arcadian ideal, 63, 65 + +Paganism, Italian medieval, 62 +Pageant of St. John's Day, Florence, 28 +Pageants, relation to "Sacre Rappresentazioni," 27 +Part singing, its popularity in fifteenth century, 103 +Passion, early performances of, 17 + French fourteenth century version, 17 +Pastoral drama, 170 +Peri, Jacopo, 216, 219 +Petrarch, 59 +Philosophy, its effect on medieval literature, 64 +Poliziano, Angelo, 52, 55 + sketch of career, 68 et seq. +Procession, succeeds dance, 3 +Prompter, 200 + +Realism, Italian, 61 +"Recitar alla lira," 114, 170 +Recitative, in liturgical drama, 10 + in first secular plays, 114 + Florentine, 118, 212, 224 + beginnings, 177 + in comic opera, 181 + impulses leading to modern, 207 et seq. + Caccini's, 224, 225, 229 + Peri's, 227, 229 +Romano, Giulio, 39 + +"Sacre Rappresentazioni," 13, 21 et seq. + music of, 24 + time of origin, 27 + sources of, 27 + their construction and performance, 29 + scenic effects, 30 + as forerunners of opera, 32 +"Saint Uliva," sacred play, 29 +Sannazzaro, Jacopo, his "Arcadia," 62 +Scene painting, in early plays, 93 +Scenic effects, in "Sacre Rappresentazioni," 30 + in Poliziano's "Orfeo," 86, 93 +Schalmei, 145 +Sensualism, esthetic in Italy, 61 +Singing, development of technic, 214, 215 +Solo, superseded by part song, 117 + in madrigal drama, 198, 205 + vocal, 114, 119, 222 et seq., 227 + adapted from part songs, 119 et seq. + florid element abused, 222 +Songs, arranged for lute accompaniment, 121 +Spectacular, element in early plays, 93, 155, 166 + in early dramatic music, 158 + predominance of the, 160 et seq. + in music of sixteenth century, 207 et seq. + in music of sixteenth century, revolt against, 212 +Striggio, Alessandro, 51, 185 + his art work, 185 + +Table music, 139 +Tasso, "Aminto," music of, 172 +Technic, vocal, 214 +Thoroughbass, 154, 232 +Todi, Jacopone da, 23 +Tromboncino, Bartolomeo, 46, 115 + +Ugolino, Baccio, original _Orfeo_, 79, 87 + +Vecchi, Orazio, 190 et seq. + artistic theories, 192 +Viadana, Ludovico, 232 +"Vierges sages et Vierges folles," 6 et seq. +Villanelle, 112 +Violinists, early, 142 +Virgil, Italian worship of, 59 +Visconti, Nicolo de Corregio, his "Cephale et Aurore," 163 +Voices, in madrigal plays, 200, 203 +Voice, technic in early music, 215 + +Wert, Jacques de, 49 +Willaert, Adrian, 104, 112, 151, 165 + + + * * * * * + + +LAVIGNAC'S MUSIC AND MUSICIANS + +Translated by WILLIAM MARCHANT. _5th printing._ + +With Chapters on MUSIC IN AMERICA and THE PRESENT STATE OF THE ART OF +MUSIC by H. E. KREHBIEL. $1.75 net.[*] Practically a Cyclopaedia of its +subject, with numerous illustrations. + + _W. J. Henderson._ "A style which can fairly be described as + fascinating ... one of the most important books on music that has + ever been published." + + +ANGELO NEUMANN'S PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF WAGNER + +With portraits, etc. 8vo. $2.50 net.[*] + +By the famous manager of the Wagner Traveling Theater that visited +Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Austria, England and Russia. Vivid +personal glimpses of Wagner acting his own characters and many humorous +and dramatic episodes of life behind the scenes. + + "The most important biographic contribution to musical literature + since the beginning of the century, with the exception of Wagner's + Letters to Frau Wesendonck."--_H. T. Finck in New York Evening + Post._ (Circular with complete review and sample pages on + application.) + + +WAGNER'S ART, LIFE, AND THEORIES + +Selections from his Writings translated by E. L. BURLINGAME, with a +Preface and drawings of the Bayreuth Opera House, etc. _5th printing._ +12mo. $1.50 net.[*] + + +WAGNER'S RING OF THE NIBELUNG + +By G. T. DIPPOLD. _Revised Edition. 6th printing._ $1.50. + +The mythological basis is explained. (76 pp.) Then the stories of the +four music dramas are given with translations of many passages and some +description of the music. (160 pp.) + + +BANISTER'S MUSIC + +A hand book on musical theory. _7th printing._ 80 cents net.[*] + + "One would have to buy half a dozen volumes to acquire the contents + of this one little book."--_N.Y. Times._ + + +JOHNSON'S (Helen K., _ed._) OUR FAMILIAR SONGS AND THOSE WHO MADE THEM + +300 standard songs of the English-speaking race, arranged with piano +accompaniment, and preceded by sketches of the writers and histories of +the songs. _12th printing._ $3.00. + + [*: Postage 8% additional on net books.] + + +KREHBIEL'S CHAPTERS OF OPERA + +By the musical critic of the _New York Tribune_, author of "Studies +in the Wagnerian Drama," "How to Listen to Music," etc. With over 60 +full-page illustrations. Second printing, revised. 435 pp., 8vo. +$3.50 net. By mail, $3.72. (Illustrated circular on application.) + +Mr. Krehbiel's most important book. The first seven chapters deal with +the earliest operatic performances in New York. Then follows a brilliant +account of the first quarter-century of the Metropolitan, 1883-1908. He +tells how Abbey's first disastrous Italian season was followed by seven +seasons of German Opera under Leopold Damrosch and Stanton, how this was +temporarily eclipsed by French and Italian, and then returned to dwell +with them in harmony, thanks to Walter Damrosch's brilliant crusade,-- +also of the burning of the opera house, the vicissitudes of the American +Opera Company, the coming and passing of Grau and Conried, and finally +the opening of Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House and the first +two seasons therein, 1906-08. + + "The most complete and authoritative ... pre-eminently the man to + write the book ... full of the spirit of discerning criticism ... + Delightfully engaging manner, with humor, allusiveness and an + abundance of the personal note."--_Richard Aldrich in New York Times + Review._ + + +ROMAIN ROLLAND'S JEAN-CHRISTOPHE + +DAWN . MORNING . YOUTH . REVOLT + +600 pp. $1.50 net; by mail, $1.62. + +It commences with the musician's childhood, his fears, fancies, and +troubles, and his almost uncanny musical sense. He plays before the +Grand Duke at seven, but he is destined for greater things. An idol +of the hour, in some ways suggesting Richard Strauss, tries in vain to +wreck his faith in his career. Early love episodes follow, and after a +dramatic climax, the hero, like Wagner, has to fly, a hopeful exile. + + "As big, as elemental, as original as though the art of fiction + began today."--_Springfield Republican._ + + "The most momentous novel that has come to us from France, or from + any other European country, in a decade.... Highly commendable and + effective translation ... the story moves at a rapid pace. It never + lags."--_Boston Transcript._ + + "He embraces with a loving understanding the seven ages of man.... + It not only contains a picture of contemporary musical life, but + holds a message bearing on our conception of life and art. It + presents genius for once without the morbid features that obscure + its essence."--_New York Times Review._ + + + + +Henry Holt and Company + +Publishers New York + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's notes: + + Errors and Anomalies: + + Pauluzo : Pauluzzo (envoy from Ferrara) + _spelling not regularized_ + _name also recorded in other sources as "Paolucci"_ + Monteverde + _this spelling is used throughout the text_ + + + "machine representing hell was fixed upon the boats, and that the + subject of the drama was the perennially popular tale of 'Dives and + Lazarus'." + _original punctuation:_ + "machine representing hell ... tale of "Dives and Lazarus." + scholars and dilettanti + _text reads "dilletanti"_ + and believed that in the pastoral kingdom + _text reads "belived"_ + Lorenzo passed away and Poliziano wrote + _text reads "Poliliziano"_ + Buccolics appeared to them + _spelling unchanged_ + there were two obligato instruments + _spelling unchanged_ + The teachings and practice of the Netherlands masters + _text reads "Nethererlands"_ + its plebian parent + _spelling unchanged_ + the frottola was in the lusty vigor of its maturity + _text reads "frottole" (plural)_ + Dioneo teases the women + _text reads "Dineo"_ + The large lyre, called _lirone perfetto_ + _text reads "lironi" (plural)_ + small instruments of the bowed varieties + _text reads "varities"_ + arranging frottola melodies + _text reads "aranging"_ + racial and temperamental differences between + _text reads "betwen"_ + the untimely death of my Euridice + _text reads "unitmely"_ + "Before the music begins .... instrumentalists and reciters" + _text has close quote after first and third paragraph-- but not + second-- of inset quotation_ + the four voices unite / in singing + _text reads "unit"_ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME FORERUNNERS OF ITALIAN OPERA*** + + +******* This file should be named 19958.txt or 19958.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/9/5/19958 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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