The year 1594 was an epoch year in music. The Flemish school ended in that year, with Di Lasso's death; the Italian school lost its chief master in Palestrina; a revulsion against the in tellectuality of music took place,— and the first opera was written.
We pause here, therefore, to sum up a few other points in musical evolution that had pre ceded this important date.
Although the chief scientific music of the world had been ecclesiastical up to this point, the troubadours in France, and the minne singers in Germany, had turned the attention of cultured minds to the beauties of secular sing ing. Instrumental music was as yet a Cinder ella among the arts. The strolling jongleurs and wandering minstrels amused the people, and sometimes the nobility, with displays of skill upon various instruments, combined with juggling tricks. They were generally under the ban of the law and led a very precarious exist ence. Troubadours and minnesingers wrote mel ody only, without harmony.
One of the trouveres of France,—Adam de la Halle,— in the latter half of the 13th century, had written a musical play, entitled 'Robin et Marion,' which was the precursor of light opera. It is the earliest popular work of which we have any record, but it was written by ear, and not by any teachable rules. Venice, partly through the efforts of Flemings, partly through Italian influence, had become a centre of organ playing. Adrian Willaert (1480-1562), a Flem ing, had become organist of St. Mark's in Venice and drew many pupils thither, among them Di Bore, Zarlino and Andrea Gabrieli. The last-named taught his nephew, Giovanni Gabrieli, who became one of the noblest com posers of the Venetian school. He was born in 1557 and died in 1613. Zarlino taught many German pupils, and through the Venetian school of organ-playing. Germany for the first time came in close musical touch with Italy. Zarlino taught Scheidt, Praetorius and Scheidemann, while the elder Gabrieli had Hans Leo Hassler as a pupil. Zarlino and Willaert were the first to agitate for a tempering of the musical scale (see TEMPERAMENT), but its establishment came much later through the wisdom of Bach.
Claudio Merulo (1533-1604) established the organ toccata, probably the earliest form of technical instrumental display in the modern sense. One other form of scientific secular
music had arisen, thanks to the Netherlanders; the madrigal, an unaccompanied vocal compo sition displaying the most intricate counterpoint had come into vogue, and Willaert and Di Lasso had achieved triumphs in this school. Luca Marenzio (1556-99) had also done good work in this field. But the most charming madrigal composers were to be found in Eng land, where this style of singing met with especial favor. It is customary to vaunt the glory of the Elizabethan poets, but if the tremendous name of Shakespeare be eliminated, the excellence of the contrapuntists at this time rivals that of their literary brethren. Tallis, Weelkes, Wilbye, Morley, Farrant, Byrd, Bull, Ford, etc., may well be cited as balancing Beaumont, Fletcher, Massinger, Marlowe, Jon son, etc.
Music-printing (see PAINTING) had also been established, in 1502, by Petrucci of Fos sombrone, and caused the compositions of all these men to spread from country to country with great rapidity.
The change from the old school of pure counterpoint to a more emotional style, from intricate choral works to solos both vocal and instrumental, had its first practical demonstra tion in 1594 (some place the date two years later), by the composition and performance of the first opera, entitled The work was the outcome of the efforts of a coterie of cultivated amateurs who began their meetings in Florence, and endeavored to bring into music something of what they supposed it to have possessed in ancient Greece. The men who were active in this movement, which caused the renascence of music, were Giovanni Bardi (Count Vemio), Vincenzo Galilei, Strozzi, Mei, Rinuccini, Caccini and Peri. Their first opera met with great success, but their second,— was an epoch-making work, since it contained in embryo an entirely new mode of musical treatment. Counterpoint was re placed by monody, solo singing began, and recitative allowed musical declamation to take the place of intricate tonal construction. The libretto was the work of Rinuccini, while the music was written by Peri and Caccini in two versions, that of the former being the better.