[129] Tasso’s fervent love for music is well known and reflected in his writings. The particular musician of his choice was Don Carlo Gesualdo, prince of Venosa, who set the music for a number of Tasso’s madrigals.
[130] B. Florence, ca. 1533, d. there, 1600, was a pupil of Zarlino, an excellent musician and an able lutenist and violinist. He published two books of madrigals and made the first known experiments in the “representative” style of melody. He was a deep student of Greek music, discovered the hymns of Mesomedes (transcribed successfully only 200 years later) and published ‘Dialogue on Antique and Modern Music’ (1581), a diatribe against Zarlino and his methods. His son, Galileo Galilei, the great astronomer, is said to have constructed his first telescope from an organ pipe belonging to his father.
[131] Giulio Caccini (surnamed Romano), b. Rome ca. 1550; d. 1618 in Florence, where he had lived since 1564 and was employed at court as a singer. During the winter of 1604-1605 he sojourned in Paris at the request of Queen Maria (de Medici). Besides the works mentioned in our text, he wrote Fuggilotio musicale (madrigals, etc.) and a sequel to his Nuove musiche.
[132] Jacopo Peri (b. Florence, Aug. 20, 1561, d. there Aug. 12, 1633) was a pupil of Christoforo Malvezzi. He became chief director of music at the court of Florence under Francesco, Ferdinand I and Cosimo II de Medici. Besides his Dafne and Euridice, he published Le varie musiche del Sig. Jacopo Peri, etc. (1609), the recitatives for Monteverdi’s Arianna, a war-play (barriera), La precedenza delle dame, and a part of Gagliano’s opera, La Flora.
[133] Emilio de’ Cavalieri (or del Cavaliere), b. ca. 1550; d. March 11th, 1662, in Rome, was, before his appointment at Florence, organist of the Oratorio del S. Cruciffisso in S. Marcello (Rome). His earliest works are madrigals, as we know from a reference to the “eighty-sixth, in six parts,” in his preface to the Rappresentazione.
[134] Publikation älterer praktischer und theoretischer Musikwerke, Vol. X.
CHAPTER XII
NEW FORMS: VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL
Résumé of the sixteenth century—Rhythm and form; the development of harmony; figured bass—The organ style; canzona da sonar; ricercar; toccata; sonata da chiesa; great organists—The genesis of violin music; canzona and sonata—The sonata da camera; the suite—Music for the harpsichord—The opera in the seventeenth century; Heinrich Schütz.
During the sixteenth century a style of music attained perfection, and, as we have seen, two composers, Palestrina and Orlando Lassus, put upon it the final stamp of great personal genius. This style is known as the vocal polyphonic style. The music was written for choruses and for the most part was intended to be sung without accompaniment. Centuries of endeavor had gone to its development, during which composers bore in mind first and always a great ideal—the combination of many melodies in one euphonious whole. The result was a texture of music so nicely woven that in the mass of smooth flowing sound no one melody was evident to the ear, though many melodies moved simultaneously forward with seeming independence, each crossing and recrossing the others, each free to sustain a note while the others moved above and below it, all coming at certain points to dwell together in rich chords. Intended only for service in the church, it was a music perfectly expressive of a rapt and exalted state of religious devotion, from which had been expelled all the elements that might disturb and excite, all harsh intervals, all suddenness, all lively rhythm. It was woven about the Latin text of the mass and of other rites and ceremonies of the church; but except for this connection with words it was without form and unconfined. Without rhythm and without symmetrical form—the very foundations upon which most music rests—it seems like an edifice floating in mid-air, without foundation, ethereal, mystical, and perfect. Such a music could indeed be brought no further after Palestrina and Lassus; but it left to the world a model of polyphonic technique which was to aid in the development and enrichment of subsequent music, and which has had an indirect influence upon every great composer since that time.