Prosperity of Italy in fifteenth century — great cathedrals and public works — conservatories founded at Naples — Willaert at St. Mark's, Venice — Zarlino — his reforms in theory — Cypriano de Rore — Goudimel — Palestrina — the council of Trent — Palestrina's music — Martin Luther.
General direction of musical progress toward classification and the establishment of unities of various kinds — early letter notation of the Greeks and Romans — Roman notation as used by Guido of Arezzo — neumæ — with lines — additional lines — "Lament for Charlemagne" — notation employed by the French Trouvères — clefs — new staff proposed by an American reformer.
Progress in tonal perceptions — influence of harp and lute — description of the latter — system of stringing — locating the frets — the violin — bow discovered in India — early forms of bowed instruments — rebec — barytone — viol da Gamba — Amati — Stradivari — peculiarities of his instruments — Maggini — Stainer — antiquity of the organ — early forms — organ sent Charlemagne — organs at Munich — Malmesbury Abbey — measure of organ pipes — portable organ — clumsiness of the old keyboards — the organ in 1500 A.D.
Justification of the name "apprentice period" — office of domestic musicians in England in the reign of Elizabeth — great fondness for music everywhere — casual influence of counterpoint in educating harmonic sense — madrigal — multiplicity of collections of this kind — absurd use of madrigals for dramatic monody — the work of the seventeenth century, free melodic expression — the new problem of the musical drama — the representative principle in music — music last of the arts — Florence and Venice the centers — statistics of books published from 1470 to 1500.