Guido did more: he invented several instruments;-corrected and modified the cantilenæ, which before him had been played in fourths, and fifths,-and introduced the counterpoint in thirds. He was the first, it is said, to make use of points or notes as well as cleffs. Finally, some authors have attributed to him the invention of counterpoint or harmony; but, as the learned authors of the Biographical Dictionary of Musicians have well remarked, Guido's method of notation is the only sure foundation of his reputation, as we really know nothing more about his labours, and many of the discoveries attributed to him can be distinctly traced to authors anterior to his time. Some years after Guido, Franco subjected the art of singing to the rules of rhythm or measure. He distinguished four kinds of melody, the simple descant, the prolatus, the truncatus, and the copulated descant. To these four species belong the consonances and dissonances, (concords and discords,) which are themselves susceptible of being divided, the first into perfect, imperfect, and mixed; the second into perfect and imperfect only. He speaks of the uses of each, gives rules for their employment, and was the first to point out the use of the major or minor sixth between two oc

taves.

But notwithstanding the efforts of those celebrated men, and of many others, too numerous to be mentioned here, the noble simplicity of music suffered once more some changes, in the twelfth century, by the introduction of the Gothic taste, which, as is well known, degraded architecture, and altered in the musical art the purity of the Gregorian chant, by substituting cantilenæ, sung in a barbarous tongue. Nevertheless, this alteration appears to have merely caused a sort of stationary condition in the art; and if harmony remained feeble and languishing during more than a century, the circumstance must be ascribed as much to the state of agitation in which Europe was then kept by the mania of the Crusades, as to the ignorance and bad taste so fatal to all the arts.

At length, in the thirteenth century, appeared a Walther Bington, a Marchetti, a Muris, and more particularly a Tinctorius, the founder of the celebrated Neapolitan school, who all gave an impulse to the art, improved in many respects the rules of musical composition, and carried the science to a degree of perfection which it was far from having before attained. Yet, notwithstanding the labours of these justly celebrated authors, as well as of their immediate successors, the taste, which we have designated above under the name of Gothic, had, about the end of the sixteenth century, become a habit throughout Europe, and even in Italy; and church music had undergone so many alterations, that it would probably have been abandoned altogether, had not the immortal Palestrina succeeded, in 1550,

in correcting its many defects, and reforming the innumerable and strange abuses that had crept into its composition and practice. He composed, and caused to be executed, a mass for six voices without instrumental accompaniments, which, recalling to mind the ancient simplicity of ecclesiastical music, and removing the Gothic cantilenæ introduced in the latter by the ultramontanes, contributed mainly to revive the pure taste which was nearly extinguished; and he offered, in this mass, a model regarded by the most competent judges as worthy of imitation.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, the number of didactic writers on music had greatly multiplied; and schools had been established under great masters in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. Already the composers attached to these schools wrote fugues, as well as other difficult species of composition, with the greatest ease and correctness. The dogmas maintained during several centuries were converted into fundamental principles; yet the science of counterpoint was far from having been carried to that degree of perfection which it was one day to attain; and it was reserved for a master of the school of Lombardy to succeed, by his genius and his industry, in clearing it of much of the obscurity in which it was involved. We allude to Claudius Monte Verde, who appeared about the end of the sixteenth century, and created the harmony of the dominant,was the first to use the seventh and even the ninth of the dominant, openly and without preparation,-employed the minor fifth as a consonance, which had always before been used as a dissonance, and finally introduced into composition double, and soon after, triple dissonances, and diminished and altered chords. About the same time, Viadana, of Lodi, appeared, who added little to harmony, but may be regarded as the inventor of the instrumental or fundamental bass. To these succeeded Zarlino, Zacconi, Cerone, Sabbatini, who contributed greatly to the advancement of the science.

Whilst such was the state of the musical science in Italy, Rameau appeared in France, who from his genius and learning, may be regarded as the greatest musician of the times, and alone. served to wrest momentarily from Italy the palm of pre-eminence she had so long enjoyed. But this triumph of France was of short duration; for not many years elapsed before the celebrated Tartini appeared, who, though he cannot be said to have removed Rameau from the high rank he occupied in the history of music, contributed to re-establish the supremacy so long enjoyed by his country, and rectified by means of correct observation the musical system of his rival. To him is justly ascribed the discovery of the phenomenon of the third sound. In opposition to Rameau, Tartini, observing that two notes sounded simultaneously whilst in accord with each other produced a

third, which served as their fundamental note, inferred that the bass was derived from the melody (chant); whilst the reverse was affirmed by Rameau. Until this moment, the ear and instinct had constituted the only guides for determining the bass; whereas in consequence of the discovery of Tartini, composers, guided by the laws of natural philosophy, have since found in mathematics the most general basis of the art.

We now come to one of the most interesting periods in the history of Italian music. We allude to that at which attention was directed in a more especial manner to the different kinds of composition, at which also we notice a revival of dramatic music in general, and of the opera in particular. We have already seen, that after its banishment from Rome, music took refuge in the Church; and that to St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, &c., it was indebted for the honour of once more attaining the elevated rank to which it is so justly entitled in the worship of the Divinity; but, as may readily be inferred from what we have said of the aversion of the early Christians for all that appeared even distantly connected with Pagan institutions, and from the afflicting state of Europe, the diatonic mode, owing to its severe character, was the only one in use; and the chromatic, which by the Greeks had been consecrated to theatrical representations and to the pleasures of life, was not only a long time neglected, but in a great measure forgotten. When, however, the invasions of the barbarians had ceased, and when these had established themselves permanently in the countries they had subjugated; and become mixed and confounded with the native inhabitants of the soil,-a fusion due more to the Christian religion than to any other cause-it was found, that the music introduced into the churches had operated as one of the most powerful auxiliaries of the latter. Hence all the efforts of the clergy were directed towards its improvement. Not a long time elapsed, before, becoming dissatisfied with the simple Gregorian chant, they introduced the organ for the accompaniment of the Te Deums, anthems, and masses; and next thought of a new method of honouring the Lord with greater pomp and solemnity; we allude to musical representations of the passion of Christ, the adoration of the Virgin, of the angels, and of the most celebrated of the martyrs. From this moment may be dated, therefore, the revival of dramatic music, and consequently of the chromatic mode of the Greeks. This may be viewed as a second, and not a less signal service, which religion has rendered the cause of music. Among many examples in support of the facts to which we have alluded, it will merely be necessary to state, that by Tiraboschi, Avogaro, and other writers, it is mentioned, that in consequence of the regulations of a society founded at Treves in the 13th century, the monks of that city were required to furnish every year

two clergymen, well instructed in the art of singing, for the purpose of representing the angel and the Virgin, on the day of the Annunciation. Villani also, and Amirato, relate, that Cardinal Riario caused to be represented at Rome The Conversion of St. Paul, the music of which was composed by Francesco Baverini.

It was not presumable, however, that the choice of subjects would long be restricted to sacred history; hence not two centuries had elapsed before dramatic music passed into the hands of the nobility; and profane subjects, as the deeds and actions of great men, and many others, were represented on the stage.* In 1475, Politian composed his drama entitled Orfeo. It is somewhere stated, that in 1480 a musical tragedy was performed t Rome; and nine years after, in the palace of the noble Borgonzio Botta, a musical drama was represented, to which some have thought they could trace the origin of the grand opera. In 1555, Alfonzo Viola composed for the court of Ferrara, a pastoral drama entitled Il Sacrifizio, which was afterwards performed at Venice, in 1574, in celebration of the visit paid to that city by Henry III. of France. But although the lyric drama had already existed in Italy a number of years, it was not yet honoured with a music peculiar and suited to it; and was for the most part made up of sacred airs, or else of madrigals and vulgar songs, of the chromatic kind, it is true, but still very imperfect in their mode of composition. The historical epocha of the origin of dramatic music was undoubtedly that of the invention or revival of recitative or spoken music,-the only kind, as our author observes, that was destined to give to lyric tragedy its true language, and its special and positive constitution. This invention is usually attributed to J. Peri, who, at the instigation of three Florentine gentlemen,† applied to the poem of Daphne, written by Rinuccini, a kind of musical declamation, which had not the support and rhythm of music, but retained the tonality. The success of this piece was so great, as to induce Rinuccini to write two more works of the same kind-Euridice and Ariadne. In the same year that the latter was performed at Florence, say the learned authors of the Musical Dictionary, whom Count Orloff copies almost literally, an oratorio of the same kind, composed by Emilio del Caveliere, and entitled l'Anima e'l Corpo, was represented at Rome. This work, as well as that of Peri, was printed in 1608; and in their prefaces, both authors claim the honour of the invention of the recitative, which they nevertheless state to be the revival of the musical declamation of the Greeks.

• Albertino Muffato, of Padua, speaks of representations of profane subjects, as early as the thirteenth century.

J. Bardi, P. Strozzi, and J. Corsi.

immortalized by more than one composer, and particularly by Grétry, who may be regarded as the Cimarosa of that nation; and the school of Germany, not less immortalized by Mozart, who enriched it with what has been styled the dramatic symphony.

We have thus detailed, at some length, our author's opinion respecting the origin of the opera; and from all that has been said, it will be seen, that the latter is regarded by him as having taken birth in Italy; or at least, that he makes very little mention of the musical tragedies of the Greeks. We have every reason to think, however, that the Italian Opera should be held as a mere revival of the Greek performances to which we have alluded. The latter, as is well known, were accompanied with music; and the same union was borrowed and maintained through the various periods of the Roman empire. Thus Aristotle expressly states, in his Poetics, that music is an essential part of tragedy; and in another passage of the same treatise, he calls it the greatest embellishment that tragedy can receive. All dramas, in fact, both in Greece, and as we have seen, subsequently at Rome, were sung and accompanied with instruments. This practice, therefore, cannot be regarded as of recent origin, but only as having been suspended in Italy after the downfal of the Empire, and during the barbarous ages which succeeded; and to have afterwards been revived in the Church, for the purposes to which we have alluded. Nor are we less inclined to refer some of what are usually denominated improvements in the opera, to a Greek origin; since, as Peri and Cavaliere have admitted, the modern recitative (for the invention of which, however, they claim great credit) should be regarded as a revival of the musical declamation of the ancient Greeks. A reference to the older writers on music will serve to convince any one of the justness of this concession. Thus Plutarch tells us, that Archilochus performed the music of his iambic verses in two different waysreciting some of them to a partial accompaniment, and singing the rest, whilst the instruments played in unison. As in modern recitative, the rhythm was not observed in the ancient musical declamation; and the cythara by which the latter was accompanied, did not continue throughout, but only seemed destined to give the tone. The chromatic genus also, according to Plutarch, was never used in tragedy; from which circumstance, Dr. Burney derives another proof of the analogy of the ancient declamation with modern recitative, in which this kind of musie is never used. The opinion we here maintain is, we believe, further supported by the fact, that the strophe, epode and antistrophe of the Greeks were sung differently and with a different music from melopœia, in the same way as the choruses of modern operas are set to different music from the recitative. In fact, we believe, that no sensible difference can be found between the Grecian and