[113] That these vocal compositions were often performed entirely by instruments is indicated by the direction which we meet frequently on sixteenth century title pages: ‘practical for all instruments.’ The kind of instruments was not indicated and the choice was left to the direction of the performer. Not till the end of the century did musicians begin to discriminate and to recognize the value of instrumental timbre. In the intermezzi arrangements of madrigals, etc., were often performed by many instruments, as for instance in those produced in 1565 by Striggio and Fr. Corteccia (d. 1571), who assembled an orchestra of 2 clavicembali, 4 violini, 1 liuto mezzano, 1 cornetto muto, 4 tromboni, 1 flauti diritti, 4 traverse, 1 liuto grosso, 1 sotto basso di viola, 1 soprano di viola, 4 liuti, 1 viola d’arco, 1 lirone, 1 traverso contralto, 1 flauto grande tenore, 1 trombone basso, 5 storte, 1 stortina, 2 cornetti ordinarii, 1 cornetto grosso, 1 dolzaina, 1 lira, 1 ribecchino, 2 tamburi.
CHAPTER X
THE GOLDEN AGE OF POLYPHONY
Invention of music printing—The Reformation—The immediate successors of Josquin; Adrian Willaert and the Venetian school; Germany and England—Orlando di Lasso—Palestrina; his life—The Palestrina style; the culmination of vocal polyphony—Conclusion.
I
The deep vital forces which had for two hundred years been urging Italy to magnificent achievement broke through into music during the course of the sixteenth century. Music was, as she has always been, the last to respond to a general movement; but the response, when it came, entailed an entire reconstruction of the art. All through the century the process of reconstruction was active. It was, however, gradual in its working. Only toward the very end of the century a few bold explorers and experimenters turned their backs upon the past, cut loose from the old art of music and started in to build with new stone and new tools a new art. We have to do in this chapter with the old art; on the one hand, with influences which boldly altered it, and with new developments which were set free through these alterations; on the other, with its ultimate perfection and consequent end.
The invention of music-printing just before the beginning of the century had a powerful influence upon the development of music. The beautiful manuscripts in which early music has been preserved to us were the work for the most part of monks, and are another evidence of the restriction of music to the church. With the invention of printing came a liberation from this restraint. Music circulated through the lay society—all kinds of music, both secular and sacred—it stepped from the dim vast cathedrals and went among the people and entered into their homes and into their lives. The world of men and women welcomed it and changed it, formed it to the expression of their joys and sorrows. The superhuman intricacies of counterpoint and canon little by little withered and fell by the way.
Ulrich Han, of Ingolstadt, in 1476 solved the problem of printing music by means of movable types, but his invention seems to have languished until other enterprising men took it up. In Italy this was done by Ottaviano dei Petrucci, born in 1466 at Fossombrone, near Ancona. Petrucci, one of the first monopolists in the business of printing music, was, like Aldus Manutius, a man of good birth and fortune. Some time before 1498 he had established himself at Venice, and obtained from the municipal council the sole privilege, for twenty years, of printing figured music (canto figurato), and music in the tablature of the organ and lute. This meant that, so far as Venice was concerned, all the published lamentations, frottole, motets, and masses were to issue from Petrucci’s press.
His first publication in 1501 was a collection of ninety-six pieces, most of them written for three or four voices, by Okeghem, Hobrecht, Josquin, Isaak, and others. The printing was done by a double process: first the staff, then the notes, in a small quarto, with fine black ink. The parts stood opposite one another on the open page, thus:
soprano │ tenor
alto │ bass