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Leonin(about 1140) andPerotin(his pupil) were organists at Notre Dame in Paris. The former was noteworthy in the reform of notation, while the latter is known principally for his use of crude Imitation, and a tendency not to use consecutive fourths and fifths, though he never entirely succeeded in eradicating them.Franco of Paris(1150———), often confused with his namesake of Cologne, was a theoretician, improved notation, and wrote a treatise on Mensural Music.Jean de Garlande(1170-125—) not only wrote a very valuable treatise on Mensural Music, but was also a composer of note; his writings contained specimens of Double Counterpoint, though probably used without the intention of producing them.Jerome de Moravie(1260) wrote a scholarly treatise on Discant, and such was his ability that he illustrated it with his own compositions, making it one of the most valuable reference works in existence. It is worthy of mention that all of these men were churchmen in the sense that theirwork was all done in, or with the approval of, the Church, and was therefore influenced by the peculiar beliefs and customs then obtaining in that institution. This point must ever be kept in mind, for any prolonged contact with Folk-music must have changed the entire development of the art; therefore we must regard the Church as the dominant influence of early music.
Summary.—The work of this period can hardly be over-estimated. First we see the influence of the Gothic in architecture, producing a corresponding unity in music; a unity which was concomitant with Measured or Mensural Music. We next see the attempt to combine metrical with unmetrical forms in the Organum Purum, and the final result in the strict form of Organum. Then we note the freedom shown in the Conductus, Roundel and Motet, as well as freedom in the use of more pleasing intervals, with the tendency to eradicate consecutive fourths and fifths; the use of contrary motion instead of parallel, and the consequent melodic freedom of the voices, and finally the use of Imitation, though perhaps unintentionally, except in the Roundel. This period then marks the acquisition not only of new intervals, new forms, new styles of melodic writing, imitation, measured music and simple counterpoint of note against note, but also forms the foundation for a rapid development by bequeathing to the Gallo-Belgic School a wealth of material, bound up with rules and only half-suspected as to its value, it is true, but broad and firm enough to sustain a mighty structure of true Polyphonic Music.
Questions and Suggestions.
How did art influence music?
What made Paris the centre of Europe?
What was Measured Music?
What forms of music were developed in this period? Explain them.
Why is Imitation a logical process toward securing Unity in musical construction?
Who are leading composers of this period?
What are the successive steps of development as shown in this period?
The historical period corresponding with this lesson extends from the death of William Rufus, son of William the Conqueror, to the death of Richard the Lion-Hearted, and includes the Crusade in which that hero was the principal figure. It will be remembered that Richard was a great patron of minstrelsy.
A New Art Centre.—The development of any art, and more especially Music, requires the dominance of wealth, learning and general civilizing forces, to form an epoch-marking school. Paris for a time satisfactorily filled these conditions, and then gave place to a school, stronger and better equipped: that of the Netherlands. There were several reasons for this change in the centre of musical activity. So long as Paris was dominant in wealth and civilization, and so long as she maintained her supremacy in the intellectual fields of the Church and university, so long did she retain the centre of culture; but when her wealth became such as to produce degeneracy in the taste for pure art, and love of show rather than real worth became predominant, then her native pupils began to lose their intellectual strength, and the pupils from foreign countries began to furnish the real culture. The establishment of the Papal See at Avignon in the south of France doubtless contributed to the supremacy of France in music and the liberal arts. When the See was restored to Rome, in 1377, Paris and her school of music were relegated to the background. From this period on it was but a matter of time for these pupils to carry the centre of musical culture from Paris to a place possessing a foundation for musical growth, and a greater number of strong minded scholars, and where political conditions were favorable. The Netherlands surpassed Paris in all of these important particulars, though not at the time when the Paris School ceased to be of importance. There was a school of transition which filled the spaceleft between the important work of Paris and the supremacy of the Netherlands; that school was the Gallo-Belgic, located northeast from Paris on the borderline between France and Belgium, Tournay being the centre. The school at Paris was occupied in acquiring material for use; the school of the Netherlands developed polyphonic music emotionally; the step from acquisition to arrangement of material was necessary before emotional development could occur, and that was the work of the Gallo-Belgic School. This school was located in the country of Hucbald and Odo, who had built up there, a little while before, a system of music which was the foundation of the polyphonic style, and which had prepared the people for a culture of greater value and importance. Thus we see that musical development followed the line of greatest preparation, and utilized the preparatory work furnished by these two men. And finally, it was a direct step toward the Netherlands which were even then beginning the struggle in which they were victorious, for supremacy in commerce, art, and music.
Contribution of the Paris School.—When the Paris school ceased to be of utmost importance to the world of music it had bequeathed to the later schools Measured Music, and its forms of Organum, Motet, Conductus and Roundel, and the use of certain not unpleasing intervals, though occasional consecutive fourths, fifths, and octaves appeared. It was, then, the business of the Gallo-Belgic school to refine these intervals, develop measured music, and so improve and develop these old primary forms, eliminating some and evolving others, as to give the school of the Netherlands, one century later, forms pleasing in intervals and of sufficient unity and design to afford opportunity for the infusion of the emotional. In the matter of intervals much was done to develop and use the old ones, excepting the consecutive fourths and fifths which were abolished never to appear again, and many new, or previously unused intervals, were made use of. In the matter of forms, we hear no more of the crude Organum and Conductus, but a little about the Motet, and nothing at all in regard to the Roundel, as such. It is,however, due entirely to this last form that polyphonic music developed; though we hear no more of the Roundel, we do hear much in regard to the Canon, and the Canon was but a highly developed species of the Roundel.
Imitation and the Canon.—The use of Imitation, as we have seen, gradually became more and more important. The old monks, in the very beginning, imitated melody in the fourth and fifth; at the time of the Paris school these melodies were combined with new ones making Imitation with more than one melody, though the melody underwent no real organic development. Now we see in the inception of the Canon a development of real Imitation of only one melody, but givenVarietyby use of the devices of Inversion, Augmentation, Diminution, etc. And not only did this occur in the Canon, but we find it also in the other forms, in a freer style, adding materially to theUnity. Imitation is the foundation principle of polyphonic music, and this principle was present in the crude efforts of the old monks, in the more intelligent efforts of the Paris school, and now for the first time, receives, in the Gallo-Belgic school, a partial recognition of its real value, and a commensurate use.
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Naumann, History of Music, Vol. I, page 315, extract from a chanson by Dufay. Figure 1 shows the principal melody, figure 2 shows the same at the fifth below. The entire chanson is quoted in Naumann with the various imitations fairly well marked; the student should refer to it.
The Value of Imitation.—We must understand, however, that mere Imitation is in itself not a remarkable phenomenon. We imitate, more orless unconsciously, in all arts, and even in our daily habits; but this would be of no lasting importance did we not take that imitation as a foundation for future development, as did the composers of this school. And in these polyphonic schools the imitation was unintentional, as a definite aid to the structure of a musical idea, until it was seen that theimitationmust beconfinedtoone definite ideaor melody. It was then that the original treatment of melodic development began, and the various devices for developing a melody, without changing its organic structure, inaugurated. This marked the beginning of a school of musical art, a school of definite, and not chance evolution; or in other words, arrangement and development of the earlier acquired ideas.
A Technical Principle.—A little consideration will show how the principle of Imitation was developed. The first step was to imitate a melody at a lower or higher pitch and sing the two or more versionssimultaneously; the next step was to bring in the second and other imitating voicessuccessively, at the same or different pitch; thus making the imitation more prominent. So long as composers confined their efforts to using fixed melodies, they could not go far. When they began to adapt well-known melodies and later to invent their own it became possible to make a lengthy work, this leading to a composition in which each of the accompanying voices imitated the first; sometimes only two voices used imitation, the other having a somewhat free part. A next step was tovarytheimitation, by changing the motion of the imitating part; if the melody moved up, the imitating part moved downward andvice versa; sometimes the movement was reversed, the imitation beginning with the last note of the phrase and proceeding to the first; sometimes it was made in notes of smaller value (diminution), sometimes in larger (augmentation). These and other devices were experimented with and worked out by the Gallo-Belgic composers. One readily sees that this isintellectualwork, that it puts a premium on cleverness and lays expression aside. Yet the technicof an art must first be acquired and the composers of this period were doing this in working out a system of technic in composition with Imitation as the foundation.
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Illustration from Naumann, “History of Music,” page 321, Vol. I, showing at 1 and 2 the principal melody and its imitation, and at 3, imitation and inversion. The student should examine the entire example in Naumann.
The Work of the Gallo-Belgic School.—We note that many of the new ideas came into being at this time, all of them, however, tending toward the arranging of material or the preparing of it for the emotional style. The Canon, and the principle of Imitation, developed a set of strict rules which tended to produce more adequate command of material and assisted in shaping the Fugue; though we, in our own day, regard these rules as positively detrimental to the real expression of emotion, yet they were necessary adjuncts to the real command oftechnic. With Imitation came Counterpoint of a more highly developed form; an inevitable step toward the fugal style of the later polyphonic periods. And lastly came a use ofFolk-music melodiesand theLeading Tone, important because they foreshadow the abandonment of the old Church Modes, and theadoption of the Natural Scale. This marks the important point in the Gallo-Belgic school; for with the introduction of the Natural Scale there came increasing tendency for emotional expression, which could never have occurred had the Church Modes retained their former position in music. The idea of this preparation of material for emotional development cannot be emphasized too strongly. Upon the Gallo-Belgic school rested the burden ofpreparing this material for the later schools, so that these could demonstrate to the world that while polyphonic music could not be surpassed as a means of expressing certain impersonal, almost religious emotions, it could not express to the fullest, the intimate, personal, emotional ideas of the romantic composers.
The Men.—The men of this period are more important than any that have yet been mentioned, and for that reason require more detailed study.H. de Zeelandia(13—-1370), a native of Flanders, was a teacher and composer, and author of a theoretical treatise with musical examples, “De Musica”; with him the use of consecutive fourths, fifths and octaves almost disappears, though it remained for a later composer to abolish these entirely.Guillaume Dufay(1355-1435) was the one to whom this reform must be finally accredited. He used in place of the old church form of Cantus Firmus, the popular melodies of the people with their tendency toward the Natural Scale and the use of the Leading Tone and its decisive tonality; it may be said that these melodies were not used in their entirety, or even in their original form, the rhythm and meter oftentimes being altered so that the airs were hardly recognizable, though the essential parts were there. It is Dufay who is responsible for the first intelligent use of Imitation as a basis for the Canon.Gilles (Ægidius) Binchois(1400-1465) was a noted composer and, with Dufay, a joint founder of the Gallo-Belgic school. He is said to have been a soldier before he entered the Church, and must have been of a light-hearted disposition, as he was called “the father of joyousness.” He was the teacher of Okeghem, Firmin Caron and of Busnois.Antoine de Busnois(1440-1481) was the last famous master of this school before it was merged into the school of the Netherlands. In his works one can note a further progress in smoothness of style and examples of well managed imitation. The character of the latter is so scholarly and so clearly not a matter of improvisation that we must consider him a man given to study and reflection, just the kind of character to give scientific study to the principle of Imitation.
The Importance of this School.—This school occupied only a short period of time (1360-1460), as compared to some of the other schools; but in that time much was done. The material taken from the Paris school was great and capable of being developed, though it was encumbered by unusual intervals and a prejudice against the more euphonious ones, and by a number of obsolete forms; so obsolete, in fact, that with perhaps one exception, the Motet, none lasted until the time of Bach. But the use of Imitation and Measured Music was sufficient for the men of the Gallo-Belgic school, and with this as a foundation, and the constantly-increasing tendency to use the Folk-music and the Natural Scale, they succeeded in so arranging their material that the men of the Netherlands had but to infuse emotion to make it produce great music. Dufay and his contemporaries had done this much: to create organically well-ordered tone combinations agreeable both in melodic and harmonic relations. Both artists and public found pleasure in the many transitions, the free use of suspensions, the altered tones and chords borrowed from other scales, in the ensemble of these methods which did not give rise in reality to chord-relations as we understand them, yet suggested something of the kind, and particularly were they pleased with the use of the variety-giving changing notes. Because the Gallo-Belgic school did not invent new forms, or develop old forms to a high degree of perfection, is no reason why it should not be given a high rank among polyphonic schools, for the process of refining and transition is often more difficult than that of inventing.
Questions and Suggestions.
Why did Paris lose her position as the centre of culture in art?
What did the Paris school contribute?
In what way was Imitation to be valuable to musical composition?
What new methods of Imitation now appear?
What are the important points in the work of the Gallo-Belgic school?
Who were the prominent musicians in this school?
What advance is marked over the work of the Paris school?
The teacher should place on the board an outline of the leading countries of Europe, Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands, showing the cities concerned in the development of music up to the time of Bach and Handel.
The reader can appreciate that the condition of France and Paris was not favorable to the growth of art at this period, which was one of wars between England and France in the territories of the latter. In 1346, Edward III of England won the battle of Crécy; the struggle was continued for the next hundred years at intervals, when the appearance of Joan of Arc (1412-1431) assisted the French. Monasteries were left unmolested, hence the monks near the Belgian border were able to work in comparative peace and quiet.
The English Polyphonic Schoolis at once the least important and the most peculiar of all the schools of the Polyphonic Period. It is usually ignored by the writers on early music, not because there was no musical culture, but because there was not continuous and original development. English writers on this phase of musical development are too apt, through a pardonable pride of nationality, to exaggerate the value of British music, and in consulting such authorities, one should be careful to examine thoroughly all proofs of a dominant national school and discard such statements as are not perfectly authenticated. It is hardly the Englishman’s fault that he has had no definite culture which he may call genuinely English, for native composers have had more encouragement in England than usually falls to the lot of a creative musician. Indeed, England has always been a patron of the best in music, native or foreign, and no one nation has, as a whole, been more generous in appreciation; her treatment of Beethoven on his death-bed is a notable example of disinterested generosity. But in real, original, creative art England has had no great past; and especially is this true of the Polyphonic Period.
A Warlike People.—This is almost entirely due to her geographical position; there are many other reasons but they are almost all dependent on this one, and so must be treated in a subordinate sense. In her early days, England’s position served as a protection and kept intact her wealth of native Folk-music; but with the advent of the Romans and the spread of the knowledge of her natural wealth, came invasion after invasion. Since the first invasion, England has neverbeen at peace; she has either been busily engaged in repelling the enemy from her own shores, or aiding in a conquest of some less fortunate foe. These wars and conquests not only served to cultivate a militant and restless spirit, but also produced a race of fighters from natural inclination. Look at the warlike Angles and Saxons, note the mixture of Romans, Normans, Dutch and Huguenots, all at the zenith of their fighting powers, and then cease to wonder that England’s greatness has been in the power to fight, to govern, to make conquests, rather than to cultivate art. England, when she reached the stage of conquering rather than defending, began to give, more than to acquire, and never reached the acquisitive stage until the present time with Elgar and the lesser lights of the new school, unless we except Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the realm of literature. England’s cathedrals are but the results of European cathedral building and the unity of Government and Church; had the Church and State always been separate, it is safe to say that England would have waited much longer for her cathedrals.
The Kindred Arts.—Literature was the only exception; and it is not necessary to seek for a further reason than the fact that Literature, as an art, always developed before Music. Art, in painting, was in the early days borrowed from other countries, and not until modern times did England acquire a national school of Painting; a noteworthy fact, for like Literature, such an art almost always precedes a national culture of Music. But these examples of the evolution of the kindred arts of Literature and Painting are encouraging rather than discouraging, for, having attained a high standard in these, England may now hope to develop a national culture of Music. In Music much the same conditions obtained as in Literature and Painting. With the exception of one or two isolated composers, and these trained in foreign schools, England always borrowed her music; note for example, Handel, Buononcini, Mendelssohn, to quote just a few noteworthy foreign composers. Each race as it conquered England brought its own music. St. Augustine sang a Gregorian chant as he enteredCanterbury; the Normans and the Dutch had their own music; and Italian and German music long held the boards in England. Thus little time was spent in developing a native music, because the frequent wars and political troubles directed the strength into other channels than those of art; the proximity of a higher culture in Europe, and the tendencies of England’s foreign rulers, enabled them to import and subsist on foreign music when they should have been developing a native style. And finally, the isolation of England in the early days, later became an actual help to the acquirement of an alien style, because of the absolute necessity for students to live abroad to acquire musical learning.
Native Musical Life.—There was a certain amount of native musical life, but this did not tend to produce music along the conventional lines. Of Folk-music there was much, and the development, as a general rule, was aided rather than retarded by the conquests, though the combination of Folk-music of different nationalities does not usually tend to aid its unified evolution. The only real example of noteworthy writing, in the early polyphonic school, is the canon “Sumer is icumen in,” dated 1228, and attributed to an early English writer. There is no proof excepting the fact that the manuscript is in English, that the canon is of English origin; neither is there proof to the contrary. Single instances, however, do not prove the existence of an original school; and especially is this the case when that school, in its writings, far surpasses any other school of that period of which we know. In spite of the fact of the English text, and that this canon may be but one of many surviving the destruction of the English monasteries, impartial historians believe most strongly that the canon is of French origin, reset to English words and carried to England by a student of the Paris school. The Paris school was at its height at this time, and was the only school of such writing in the world; and while we have no other example of that school equal to this canon, yet it is easier to believe it to be French than English, for England had no suchschool at all. She had musicians (like Odington), but they were all pupils of the Paris school; and even had this work been produced in England, it would be safer to credit it to the Paris school, for the man who wrote it would, almost of necessity, have studied there. The only other way of accounting for it is to presume the date to be too early.
It is but fair to say that while this canonmayowe its origin to the principles of the Gallo-Belgic school, it stands alone as an article of historical interest to the musician. Nowhere on the Continent has a work of equal importance of so early a date been brought to view. Mr. Wm. Chappell, the English antiquarian, brought to light several other productions of early English composers, including a hymn in English, scored for two voices, and another in Latin, for three voices. The manuscript has been definitely attributed to the middle of the 13th century. There can be little doubt that when so many monasteries, with their treasures of learning, were suppressed and their inmates scattered, in the time of Henry VIII, owing to the national change from the Romish faith, many valuable manuscripts that would today have the utmost interest to the musical historian were destroyed.
Old English Canon “Sumer Is Icumen In.”
Old English Canon “Sumer Is Icumen In.”
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Whether this is purely English or not matters little, for it is a fine specimen and exemplifies Walter Odington’s rule for the construction of a Roundel, cited in a former lesson. This is more than a mere roundel, having not only a little Inversion and much Imitation, managed in a most ingenious manner, but also the whole canon is founded on a ground bass in two parts, themselves in canonic form. This bass consists of the regulation metrical form as seen at A and the following two measures, has one measure forming a connecting passage, thus bringing in the portion marked B which is the same as A only a fifth higher; the whole forms a remarkable evidence of an early conception of the relation of the Tonic and Dominant, hardly to be believed. This metrical form is introduced, slightly changed and inverted, in the upper voices at A and B. The first voice states in all five melodies and the other voices follow at intervals of 4, 8, and 12 measures; in ending voice number two omits part of theme V, voice number three all of it and voice number four all of V and the imitation of the metrical bass.
Outside this one example, England produced little but moderately good polyphonic music in the form of motets and madrigals, and in the time of Gibbons and Purcell, sonatas and operas. There were also anthems, the old plain chant and much Folk-music, but nothing that can be considered as important. The Folk-music is all that can claim originality, and that ranks favorably with the best examples of other nations and is, indeed, in advance of that of other nations considered more musical.
The Men of the Time.—While English music was not, at this period, very important, there were many composers whose names at least should be familiar. After the passing of the bards and minstrels, the monks controlled the composing of music until the dissolution of the monasteries, when it passed into the hands of the schoolmen of Cambridge and Oxford, where it remains today, though there are, at present, signs of an important awakening, presaging the passing of musical power from the hands of the conservative doctors of Oxford andCambridge, to the present generation of younger and more talented writers.Walter Odington(1180-1250) was a pupil of the Paris school and a theorist of note, writing on the Mensural System as exploited in the French school.Robert DeHandlo(1326) was another theoretician who wrote on the same subject.John Dunstable(1400-1458) was contemporaneous with the men of the Gallo-Belgic school and did the same for English music in reforming it as the latter did for the foreign school. In recent years examples of his writings have been unearthed in the cathedral libraries of Trent and Bologna, as well as elsewhere, making it clear that in his lifetime he was regarded as one of the foremost composers of Europe. The theorist, Tinctoris, of the Netherlands school, considered in the next lesson, speaks of the “source and origin of the new art [Counterpoint] being among the English, the foremost of whom is John Dunstable.” A contemporary who was also well-known in Italy was John Hothby, who wrote several treatises on music. There were other musicians of prominence prior to the Reformation under Henry VIII, but we know little about them save their names.John Merbecke(1515-1585) adapted the Gregorian chant to the English prayer book, which was published in 1550.Christopher Tye(1515-1580) was a teacher and wrote much church music; so also wasThomas Tallis(1515-1585), one of the most learned composers of his time, who set the choral portions in the service to music. He is noted for a celebrated canon in forty parts and for a hymn-tune, known as “Tallis” or “Evening Hymn,” which contains a canon between the soprano and tenor parts.William Byrd(1538-1623) was another noted composer of this school, being also famous as a writer of instrumental music. Queen Elizabeth granted to Tallis and Byrd the exclusive right to print music and to rule music paper.Orlando Gibbons(1583-1625) wrote motets and madrigals and is known as a writer of both polyphonic and monophonic music.Henry Purcell(1658-1695) was the greatest composer of the English Polyphonic school, writing operas in the English and Italianstyle, songs, sonatas, motets and anthems. He seems to have been in many respects a very able writer and musician, but died too young to make any decided impression on his times.
Summary.—From this it will be seen that while England had a musical people composed of a mixture of the most musical peoples of Europe, yet because of geographical position, political disturbances, religious troubles and wars, she was never able to produce a great and commanding school. She did not lack force, but it was directed into other, and for the time being, more important channels. Almost everything of an artistic nature was borrowed, or was a transplanted culture; and while the art of music never lacked men to cultivate it, yet these men were not of the calibre of the men employed in the other works of the nation, so that so far as the Polyphonic period is concerned, England is not important, and but for such men as Dunstable and Purcell and the canon “Sumer Is Icumen In,” England might be completely ignored in respect to her influence on polyphonic development.
Questions.
Why did Music have so uncertain a growth in England?
What is the earliest English composition of value?
What were the causes for the loss of early English music manuscripts?
What principles are shown in this old Canon?
Who were the leading composers in England in the period considered in this lesson?
The Dominance of the Netherlands.—The most important asset of a nation is its commercial activity, for upon that depends its art life. The fine arts are to an extent luxuries, and until a nation has, by commercial activity, acquired wealth, they cannot be earnestly cultivated, for all arts require from the artist his entire time and life, and until there is money and inclination enough among the people to support an artist in his commercially non-productive state, there can be no art; hence we see a shifting of art centres in the Middle Ages, just as the commercial centres changed.
The Netherlands were preëminently fitted to carry on great commercial pursuits by virtue of their geographical situation and long combat and association with the sea. Possessing the natural outlet to a great part of Europe, it was reasonable that the Netherlands should play an important part in the Hanseatic League, and that her fleets should trade on every sea and her coffers be enriched by barter in the produce of every clime. It was a golden age for the Lowlands, from 1350 to 1625, for their trade made them one of the wealthiest and most important nations in the world. Their situation between the trading countries of the South and the North made them, as it were, the commercial exchange of Europe. The consequent wealth could not lie dormant, therefore much of it was used in building notable architectural structures, encouraging Painting, and developing the then infant art of Music. It is unnecessary to mention the famous structures which were the result of this period, and it is but necessary to name Hubert Van Eyck, Rubens, Van Dyck, to understand the prominence givento the art of Painting by the acquisition of this enormous wealth. And it is largely due to this commercial activity that the school of the Netherlands attained such an undying fame.
One other influence, and that dependent on commercial activity, produced great results. Art is not sectional, it is universal; and great art works are produced not by local influences but by association, or contact, with the world. For this reason, the intercourse with the entire world generated by the great commercial activity of the times produced the first great world School of Music. Intercourse developed emotion and produced broader and less localized view-points of life: it brought into close association the art life of different nations and infused a unity of emotion wherever it occurred. In short, Music, by being brought into contact with the ideas of the world instead of a local association, took on a universal form and feeling never before felt and never to be relinquished. For this reason, Music unconsciously advanced from Paris to the Netherlands, toward the greater sphere of influence, stopping for only a short period with the Gallo-Belgic school, where it was prepared technically for its new growth as a world form.
The Gallo-Belgic and the Netherlands Schools Compared.—The Gallo-Belgic school, in the control of churchmen, was isolated from any influence tending to develop a broad emotional scheme. And it is doubtful whether it could have caused any change in musical evolution, for the technical forms were not ready. And so the Gallo-Belgic school, in its retirement from the great world activities, confined itself to attaining the power to manipulate notes, for the sake of mere technical effects, leaving emotional development entirely out of consideration. With such a school, while its work was important, no real art feeling could be gained; and so the school of the Netherlands marks the departure into a new romantic school governed, to a great extent, by the emotional. The Netherlands, because of their more comprehensiveview of the musical activities of the past and their constant intercourse, commercially and artistically, with all nations, acquired a more human sense of the beauty of music, and ceased to manipulate musical material for technical ends, producing instead of cold, lifeless forms, music pulsing with vigor, life and emotion. With this primary change of view-point came a direct growth of form, the Canon being perfected and immediately giving birth to the Fugue; the Madrigal and Canzona and many other lesser forms sprang into being, all capable of emotional development, and almost immediately producing great results. For the first time music was free from consecutive fourths, fifths and octaves because composers created from the standpoint of emotional beauty and not that of technical utility. The result was a musical technic capable of development, and refined beyond need of further reformation.
The Organ and its Influence.—The organ was the third great reformative power in this epoch. All music was vocal and no other conception could be had, for effective instruments and instrumental music were not yet in existence. The organ, because its tones were suited to accompanying the human voice and because its tone color was closely identical with that of the voice, was readily adapted to the vocal forms then in use. This gave a greater resource, for what was often technically impossible with the human voice became easy with the organ. The mechanical improvement of this instrument immediately gave greater freedom and range of technic, and it proved so well suited to polyphonic development that it aided the evolution more than any other one agency. The use of the organ must not be accounted as the beginning of instrumental music, for the organ used only adapted voice-forms, such as the Canon, Fugue, Madrigal, etc.; for this reason it is to be doubted if it aided in emotional development except by making technical resources much less restricted. In this sense, then, the technic of this school was freed from most of its former rules, and Music, previously cramped by narrow vocal restrictions, passed into the comparative freedom of the polyphonic style of the organ.
The Men of this Schoolare hardly to be separated from the men of the Gallo-Belgic school. The work passes from one school to the next with little or no perceptible pause, and the first men of the later school are pupils or disciples of the last men of the Gallo-Belgic period. Another noteworthy fact is, that so great was the musical growth, of this school and the skill and learning of its followers that the composers of the Netherlands expatriated themselves and settled in all parts of Europe, founding famous schools in Paris, Madrid, Naples, Venice, Munich and Rome; the celebratedItalian schoolis really anoffshootof that of theNetherlands. It is this overflow which marks this school as the greatest of the early polyphonic schools and shows why and how it acquired its emotional supremacy.Jean de Okeghem(1430-1512), pupil of Binchois, was the first prominent worker. It is difficult to class him as a composer of the Belgian or Netherlands school, for he has the earmarks of both. He lived during the supremacy of the Netherlands, but worked with the material of the Belgians. He developed the Canon to its highest technical point and took the first step toward the originating of the Fugue. To him is due the credit of introducing the use of retrograde, inverted, diminished and augmented imitation in the Canon. Much of his work was done in France. The tendency of his teaching was toward artificiality, as he delighted in puzzle canons and other exhibitions of ingenuity.
Antonius Brumel(1460-1520), a pupil of Okeghem, is noteworthy because of a foreshadowing of the use of chords in real harmonic progressions.
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Part of a motet by Brumel, Naumann, History of Music, Vol. I, page 333, used to illustrate the idea of the harmonic feeling of some of the polyphonic writers. The rest of the composition is strictly in the polyphonic style.
Jakob Hobrecht(1430-1506) was the first real Dutch composer, and is noted, in his use of technical forms, for their emotional beauty rather than mechanical excellence.
[Listen.]
[Listen.]
Part of a composition by Hobrecht, cited by Naumann, “History of Music,” Vol. I, page 331. Excerpt shows how strictly even this fragment is written and yet how musical it is. At 1 is shown a figure in the bass repeated in imitation a step higher at 2. At A is shown a melody imitated at B in augmentation and with altered rhythm. The student should refer to Naumann.
This is truly a remarkable work for that period, and shows that even then composers were beginning to observe the emotional power of chord relationship.
Johann Tinctor(1446-1511), a disciple of Okeghem, worked in Rome and Naples, and will be considered with the Italian school.Josquin de Pres(1450-1521), also a disciple of Okeghem, worked in Rome and Paris, and must also be considered as one of the Italian school. It may be here mentioned that he was one of the first to usemusic as a vehicle for expressing human emotions rather than technical power. He summed up in himself all the harmonic science of the 15th century. He was renowned through all Europe as a composer, and if his music seems to us somewhat dry and pedantic there is abundant testimony to the deep impression it made upon his contemporaries, which is a test of its power to excite and to express emotion. Compared with the works of his predecessors and even the majority of his contemporaries, Josquin’s writings show freedom from the bonds of the old scholasticism, greater simplicity and esthetic beauty. Among those of his works that have come to us is aMisererefor five voices, and anAve Mariathat cannot be considered other than lovely music.Nicholas Gombert(1495-1570), a pupil of Josquin de Pres, had a natural, tuneful and flowing style similar to that afterwards shown by Palestrina. His work was done in Madrid, and to him Spain and Portugal owe all they have of the ancient polyphonic music.Jacob Arkadelt(1492-1570) andClaude Goudimel(1510-1572) worked in Rome,Adrian Willaert(1480-1562) andCyprian de Rore(1516-1565) in Venice, and will be considered with the Italian school.Orlando di Lasso(1520-1594) worked some in Italy, but mostly in Munich, where his influence was great. His style was broad, flowing and especially emotional, and as a writer of the Netherlands school his name stands as one of the very highest.J. P. Sweelinck(1562-1621) is the last, and while of the Netherlands, studied in Venice, but did his work at home. He was a great organist and the last great master of the school, and had the honor of being the link between it and the German school, serving as an example for Sebastian Bach. His works have recently been published in Germany. Of all these men it may be said that they developed music steadily toward the goal of emotional freedom.
Summary.—The great work of this school was to maketechnic subservient to thought. In all preceding schools, the material and the forms were so new and the methods of handling them so crude, that technic always dominated thought. And it was naturally so, forexpression cannot come until the power to master the material has been attained; it was by this power that the Netherlands developed emotional music. But the student invariably objects and says he does not see any emotion in the polyphonic music of this period! The student must place himself in the position of these old masters, supported by the church and constantly imbibing the religious atmosphere of the institution they served, until they unconsciously expressed, in their music, the grandeur and power of their religion rather than the intimate personal feeling of modern musicians; and then the student will understand what is meant by polyphonic emotion. We must always remember thatpolyphonic emotion is not monophonic emotion, and that its tremendous technic and complexity of device were but the means of expressing its peculiar form of emotion, which to understand, one must study diligently, and then approach with a reverent feeling.
Questions and Suggestions.
Why did the Netherlands become the musical centre?
How did geographical situation favor the Netherlands in the struggle for commercial supremacy?
What circumstances gave their art a general rather than sectional character?
Compare the Gallo-Belgic and the Netherlands schools.
How did the Organ aid in development?
Who are the most famous members of this school of composition?
What are the special characteristics of each?
What is aMiserere?
What is anAve Maria?
What was the Hanseatic League?
What was the contribution of the Netherlands school?
Consult a general history for the events which made the Netherlands so important at this time.
In selecting a historical epoch to accompany the period of the Netherlands school and its successor, the Italian school, the central figure that will be most familiar is Christopher Columbus, whose life and work covered the early period, the close of the old polyphonic school dating with Palestrina’s death in 1594, 100 years after the discovery of America. This hundred years represents the flowering time of polyphony as an art.
Italy the New Centre.—Music developed in the Netherlands because of commercial supremacy and the consequent world association. We shall now see it pass to Italy, but because of a very different reason. From the earliest Christian days Italy was the centre of religious influence; it is only necessary to examine history to observe the ramifications of that power in England, France, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries. This influence, often more political than religious in character, gave to the Italian Church (then the Italian State), a predominance of authority, which was a great power in religious and secular thought. This influence spread to music for various reasons. We must remember that the school at Paris was controlled by the Church, that the Gallo-Belgic school owed its foundation to the same cause, and that the men of all three schools were employed as organists by the Church. It is true that in Italy the Church had not the broadening influence of commercial intercourse, but was more than compensated for that lack by what we may call artistic intercourse. The Church was the one stable institution in these times of war in which painters could find a refuge for their works, and from which patronage flowed in a steady stream to the ever-needy artists. Thus was caused and maintained the artistic atmosphere necessary to the cultivation of Music. As an art, the Church was the only support of artistic music. When Music originated it needed an institution to protect and foster it and safeguard its growth, and this it found in the Church; it repaid this protection by evolving a style eminently suited to the needs of the Church, but absolutely useless for theexpression of secular and natural emotion. To this patronage of its peculiar art is due the importation into Italy of the best in music wherever found, to aid in these services. And so we find singers from the Netherlands engaged for the Church in Italy. This, and the fame of Italy as the home of superior singers, undoubtedly led the majority of those numerous Netherlandish masters to seek their homes abroad, and preferably in Italy. The fact that all music was vocal in style and that the Church was the only institution capable of supporting such a style, cannot be too strongly stated; for upon that depended not only the evolution of Music, but also the very life of the Polyphonic emotional style.
Emotion in Polyphony.—This style is worthy of examination. As a preface we must remember that we have to deal with the Church andhuman voices only, for instruments had not been perfected sufficiently for church use, excepting the organ, and that we must consider a voice because of its peculiar tonal qualities and the adaptation of vocal forms and styles to its use. This vocal style had developed gradually, through a long course of reforms, until it reached its perfection in the later polyphonic schools, and expressed the peculiar emotion suited for the services.Lackofrhythmwas a pointedcharacteristic; for, in the first place, it had been discarded as profane, and in the next place, a long course of treatment in the management of voices to avoid anything like concerted and accentuated dissonances had produced a peculiar flowing movement which, however smooth it might be, certainly possessed no rhythmic force. Then, too, the old scale forms caused anything written in their idioms to sound grave, severe and dignified, if not harsh. The transition to the modern major and minor in the Monophonic school of 1600 and the immediate cultivation of music by the people may be taken as an example of the musical qualities of the two modes. All of these causes tended to produce a suitable form of music and an emotional expression peculiarly suited to the Roman services. In this style there was little storm and stress, little of the personal appeal to God; on the otherhand, it was grave, severe and immovable, or in a better sense, impersonal in its expression. Music of the polyphonic period, even until the time of Sebastian Bach, in whose works it is well exemplified, does not show us the appeal to God from the heart of the active Christian worker, but rather the appeal to a vast impersonal and majestic God far removed from the needs and supplications of the mere individual. It was this kind of emotion that developed in the Italian Polyphonic schools. The human and more expressive emotion of the schools of the Netherlands was transmitted, in the schools of the Italian, into the high, contemplative moods of religious expression; and it was well that it should be so, for polyphonic music could never have expressed the emotion of a Beethoven; and it was not only best that it should express its own peculiar style of emotion, but inevitable that it should do so.