The Simplification of Music
Causes which led composers toward a less complex
style--The Renaissance and the Reformation--The Council
of Trent--Palestrina and his music--Last days of the
Roman and Venetian schools--The English cathedral
composers--Characteristics of the period.
It is hardly necessary to tell the reader that the methods employed in
writing church music prior to the dawn of the seventeenth century were
not always judicious. The use of secular tunes together with their texts
prevailed for more than two centuries, and led to great laxity in the
treatment of the liturgy. In the course of time too many composers came
to regard the words of the mass as mere pegs to hang tunes on, and the
tremendous complexity of the huge polyphonic works was such that the
words could not be distinguished. One part would be singing "gloria in
excelsis" while another was thundering "et in terra pax," and there was
such a jumble of words and music that, while it was all very imposing,
it was not comprehensible to the congregation. As long as the
congregation knew very little Latin, and less music, this condition did
not have serious effects; but the time had now come when the people
began to ask questions. It becomes our duty, then, to inquire what
influences led to reforms in church music. I shall first enumerate the
influences and afterward discuss them in detail.
1. The revival of Greek learning in Italy after a lapse of seven
hundred years.
2. The invention of printing.
3. The Renaissance.
4. Popular music.
5. The diffusion of musical learning among the people.
6. The Lutheran choral hymn and congregational singing.
In 1453 the Turks, under Mohammed II., slew Constantine, last of the
Roman emperors, and overthrew Rome's eastern empire, whose capital was
Constantinople. The Christian scholars of Turkey fled toward the home
capital of their fallen empire, and took up their residence in Italy.
These scholars were all masters of the Greek tongue, and they awakened a
new interest in it and its literature. The field had been untouched for
about seven centuries, and the whole treasury of Greek history, oratory,
and poetry was reopened to the Italian mind. Its effects were wide and
general. One of them was to lead to the study of the New Testament in
the original tongue, and this study very speedily demonstrated the
unworthiness of the Latin Vulgate used by the Church. Any blow at Latin
was a blow at the authority of Rome. The whole Italian system of worship
had been built upon the Vulgate, which was in the language authorized in
the Roman Church throughout western Europe, and used as the sole means
of intercommunication between its branches in various nations. Doctrines
and edicts alike proceeded from Rome in the ancient language of the
city, and to throw discredit upon the veracity of that tongue in the
Vulgate was to subject it to general doubt and suspicion. Such doubt did
certainly spread among the people, who began to demand a clearer
comprehension of the liturgy. To this end they desired a less complex
setting of the musical part of the church service.
This demand was powerfully backed by the introduction of printing in
1444. This introduction resulted in lowering the price of books, and a
plentiful supply of cheap reading attracted readers. Hence the mass of
the Roman Catholic laity became readers as well as listeners. The whole
system of worship had been based on the existence of a non-reading
public. But now the age of popular inquiry began, and it became
necessary for church music to abandon its complexity and address itself
to meet the demands of awakening intelligence.
The dawn of the Renaissance in art was caused by the revival of Greek
learning, which reintroduced Greek models. The enormous effect of a new
contemplation by the Italian mind of Doric architecture and Greek
sculpture can hardly be comprehended by us to whom these things are so
familiar. The force and beauty of simplicity were brought home to the
people by the very examples which awoke in them a desire for imaginative
life and personal expression. The Renaissance led to a clearer,
stronger, more eloquent style in all art, and in time it was bound to
make itself felt in music. The fact that Leonardo da Vinci worked before
Josquin des Prés proves nothing except that music was behind the other
arts in the development of her technic, and had to work out her own laws
of existence before she could feel the influence of reformatory thought.
The popular music of the time naturally appealed to composers as their
feeling for distinctly outlined form increased, and this feeling was
directly influenced by the artistic teachings of the Renaissance. As art
remodelled itself on Greek patterns, and architecture found in the Doric
lines a relief to the endless details of the Gothic, so music inclined
toward the simple contours of the song-forms. The elementary attraction
of pure rhythm grew in potency as composers realized more clearly that
it was one of the fundamental components of music; and with a
recognition of this fact came that of the deeper significance of chord
harmony. The folk-song itself had always clung to the major and minor
scales, and had not often employed the purely ecclesiastical modes. The
mode known as the Ionic--the old Greek Lydian mode, condemned by the
ancients as lascivious--was nothing more nor less than our major scale
of G, and as such the church composers knew it. Its possibilities made
themselves more and more clear as the artistic musicians of the day
studied the popular tunes, and so in time it came to its true seat of
honor in music.
A knowledge of music had begun to spread among the people. Not only did
the constant hearing of the noble masterpieces of their time tend to
cultivate their taste, but they began to practise music themselves.
Conservatories had been founded in Venice, Rome, and other cities, and
as far back as Willaert's day it was fashionable for young ladies of
good family to learn to play the monochord, one of the precursors of the
piano. The music written for the instrument was precisely like that for
the organ, polyphonic in style and learned in treatment. The study of
such music was naturally very difficult for beginners, and it became
necessary to supply them with something simpler.
The music of the Roman Church was brought into strong contrast with that
employed by Luther in his work of the Reformation. Luther insisted on
the exercise of individuality in worship. He held, contrary to the
Church, that every man had a right to study the Bible for himself. He
even gave communion to the laity. In direct line with such work was his
revival of congregational singing, which had been generally unpractised
since the days of Ambrose. The first Lutheran hymn-book was published in
1524. Luther employed many extant folk songs and caused new tunes like
them to be written. He is said to have written "A stronghold sure."
These Lutheran hymns were broad and simple chorals, like those of the
Protestant Church of to-day. The spread of their use among the
Protestant congregations of the time was an attraction toward that form
of worship which the authorities of the Roman Church could not ignore,
and hence the Catholic composers moved toward a simpler style.
The story of what followed the recognition of these influences by the
fathers of the Church has been very prettily told, but unfortunately it
has been of late discredited. The story is that two parties arose in the
Church, one of them demanding the abolition of all the extant church
music and a return to the plain chant of Gregory, and the other that the
music of the time be preserved, but its style simplified. The Council of
Trent (1562) discussed the matter, and in 1563 Pope Pius IX. appointed a
commission of eight cardinals to take measures of reform. Cardinals
Borromeo and Vitellozzi, appointed as a sub-committee, went to
Palestrina, whose music had already attracted attention, and asked him
to write a mass demonstrating that the church music of the time could be
preserved. He entered upon his task with such enthusiasm that he wrote
three masses, of which that called the Marcellus mass was performed with
enormous success.
This story has been proved to be a myth. The Council of Trent did pass a
resolution that a complete reform of church music was necessary, but the
demand was based, not on the character of the music, but on the fact
that it made the text of the liturgy unintelligible. The Council
furthermore issued a mandate to bishops to banish improper music from
their churches. This was, of course, aimed at the secular airs, or those
which resembled them. The mass of Marcellus was not written to order,
and there was nothing new in its style. The mass is simply a model of
all that was best in Palestrina's day. It embodied all that was noblest
in the polyphonic style developed by the Netherlands school. Its melody
is pure, sweet, and fluent, and its expressive capacity perfectly
adapted to the devotional spirit of the text. Palestrina's
contemporaries, such as Lasso, and some of his predecessors, wrote in
the same style. Lasso's "Penitential Psalms" are much simpler in style
than this mass. Its apparent simplicity lies in the fact that its
profound mastery of technical resources conceals its superb art. The
polyphonic writing is matchless in its evenness; every part is as good
as every other part. The harmonies are beautiful, yet there is
apparently no direct attempt to produce them. They seem just to happen.
But above all other qualities stands the innate power of expression in
this music. It is, as Ambros has hinted, as if the composer had brought
the angelic host to earth.
With Palestrina church polyphony reached its highest and its final
development. The search after simplicity led composers in a path
diverging widely from the old contrapuntal highway. New developments in
secular music were soon to come about, and still more powerfully to
influence church composition. The harvest and the glory of vocal
counterpoint had come, and thenceforth musical art was to develop
along new and hitherto unexpected lines. A few words should be written
here concerning the career of so great a man as Palestrina, who has been
universally accorded a seat among the Titans of music. His full name was
Giovanni Pierluigi Sante, and he was called Palestrina from the place of
his nativity. The date of his birth is uncertain, but it was probably
1514. The portrait of him in the pontifical chapel at Rome has an
inscription to the effect that he died in 1594, aged eighty. He was the
son of poor peasants and got his first musical instruction as a choir
singer. In 1540 he went to Rome and became a student in Claude
Goudimel's conservatory. At the age of thirty he published his first
compositions, and some of them are still heard in the Sistine Chapel
occasionally.[6.1] He had previously served a short period as organist and
choir master in his native town, and in 1548 he married. In 1551 he
succeeded Arcadelt as choir master of St. Peter's, Rome, and the Pope
made him one of the singers of the Papal Chapel. In 1571 he was made
chapel master of St. Peter's, and later, in conjunction with his younger
contemporary Nanini, he founded a music school in Rome. The influence of
this school was very great, and it kept the "Palestrina style" alive in
Europe for nearly a century. Palestrina died on Feb. 2, 1594, and the
Supreme Council of the Church had his body laid in the basilica of the
Vatican with the honors usually shown to a cardinal.
[6.1] At the time of writing (October, 1897) Palestrina's works
are not performed as often as they used to be in the Papal
Chapel, and there is a determined movement on the part of some
of the clergy for their restoration and a more frequent use of
the Gregorian chant. The movement is a healthful one, and I
wish it success.
Before leaving the subject of Palestrina, let me endeavor to make clear
to the reader wherein his style is so fine. Composers before him had
begun to aim at the simplification of church music. They sought to
accomplish their purpose by breaking the shackles of canonic law. The
canon had demanded the most exact imitation in the different
voice parts. The new style allowed the greatest freedom. The result was
that free polyphony took the place of rigid canon. Consequently,
composers were able to devote more attention to the development of
fluent, beautiful, and expressive melody. The merit of Palestrina's work
was that it carried this style to perfection. His compositions became
the models for succeeding composers, and indeed they remain to this day
unequalled as examples of pure church music. In Palestrina's music one
must note the absence of rhythmic effects, of modern tonality, and of
the note of passion. Palestrina paid little attention to folk-music, but
sought to attain simplicity of style by preserving the old church
scales, avoiding chromatic harmonies, and by generally preserving purity
and contemplative feeling. His writing is marvellous in its contrapuntal
skill, which makes the apparently independent melodies of the different
voice parts constantly combine in simple and lovely chords. The lack of
contrast in his music has often been quoted as a fault; but it was in
accordance with Palestrina's own theory that church music should always
be dignified, and should never contain anything exciting.
As we have now reached the period at which artistic music began to
develop in all its branches, it will be most convenient to narrate the
progress of Roman Catholic church music subsequent to Palestrina's time
before passing to other topics. The reader must bear in mind that this
music was still designed to be sung without accompaniment, in order that
the tone-quality of pure vocal sound might be untainted. When the organ
was first used it simply doubled the voice parts, and when independent
accompaniments began to be written they considerably altered the
character of church music. There were now two distinct schools of
Catholic composition,--that of Rome, and that of Venice. The former
followed the pure diatonic style of Palestrina; the latter was
influenced by the style of Willaert and the chromatic music of Di Rore.
The chief masters of the Roman school were Nanini, Vittoria, Anerio, and
Allegri. Giovanni Maria Nanini was born in 1540 and died in 1607. He was
a coworker with Palestrina, and was the teacher of many of the
succeeding composers. His "Hodie nobis coelorum Rex" is still sung at
Christmas in the Papal Chapel. Tommaso Ludovico da Vittoria was born
about 1540, and died about 1604. He is regarded as one of the greatest
of Palestrina's successors. A goodly number of his works has been
preserved. His Requiem, written for the funeral of the Empress Maria
(1603), is conceded to be his greatest production, and is one of the
most notable compositions of that period. "Technically considered, it is
a marvellous blending of old independent movement of parts with modern
dissonances and progressions. Spiritually considered, it is a wonderful
expression of poignant personal sorrow, chastened by religious
contemplation and devotion." The marks of change here are the use of the
dissonance and the expression of personal feeling. The dissonance in
music embraces all those harmonies which sound harsh to persons
accustomed only to elementary chords like the tonic, dominant, and
subdominant. They are used most freely in modern operatic music,
especially that of Wagner, and have always been employed to express
passion of some kind. Palestrina avoided them. Felice Anerio (1560-1630)
wrote many admirable masses. Gregorio Allegri (1586-1652) is best known
as the composer of very fine "Misere" now sung in Holy Week in the
Sistine Chapel. This work is regarded as equal to some of Palestrina's.
The Venetian school, after its earliest period produced two great
composers from one family. These were Andrea Gabrieli (1510-1586) and
his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1613). The former followed Willaert's
plan of writing for antiphonal choruses, but he employed most frequently
three instead of two. The latter was more of an instrumental composer
than his uncle, and hence conceived the idea of writing instrumental
accompaniments. In his "Surrexit Christus" he used an orchestral
accompaniment of first and second violins, two cornets, and four
trombones. This work of Giovanni Gabrieli's fairly marks the termination
of the era of _a capella_ (unaccompanied) polyphonic church music. The
opera had been born, and so had the oratorio, and church music began to
borrow ideas from them. Giovanni Legrenzi (1625-1690) increased
Gabrieli's orchestra to nineteen violins, two violas, three viole da
gamba, four theorboes (lutes of large size), two cornets, one bassoon,
and three trombones. Antonio Lotti (1667-1740) was an opera writer as
well as a church composer, and he wrote masses full of passionate
feeling. His later works are full of passages in which the voices
alternate with the instruments and there are accompanied solos and
choruses. With Lotti, who used unaccompanied choruses occasionally,
we bid a final farewell to the great period of _a capella_ church
music, and enter upon the era in which music for the church was made
in the same way as other kinds. The masses of Mozart, Beethoven,
Cherubini, and other modern writers are all richly instrumented.
England had fairly kept pace with the Continent in her mastery of
polyphony, which so early produced the remarkable canon "Sumer is
icumen in." Thomas Tallys (born about 1520, died Nov. 23, 1585) was
one of the greatest of the English masters, and is regarded as the
father of English cathedral music. His works do not equal those of
his contemporaries in inspiration,--he was neither a Lasso nor a
Palestrina,--but he had a large command of polyphonic technic. One
of his notable works was a motet, entitled "Spem in alium non habui,"
written for eight choirs of five voices each, in antiphonal style.
His best known work, however, is a Litany and Responses. His pupil,
William Byrd (born about 1538, died July 4, 1623), wrote many
admirable church works notable for the majesty of their style. Orlando
Gibbons (died 1625, at the end of the Netherlands period) was the last
great light of the English school.
During the whole period of church counterpoint, which never lost the
radical elements of its character until after Legrenzi's day, music felt
the influence of the old chant and the early study of the canonic style.
In concluding the account of this period, I cannot do better than to
quote a few luminous sentences from the admirable "Evolution of the Art
of Music" by Dr. C. H. H. Parry: "Of definite principles of design
beyond this elementary device [the canon] these composers had but few.
Their treatment of musical figures and melodic material is singularly
vague. The familiar modern practice of using a definite subject [part of
a distinct tune] throughout a considerable portion of a movement, or at
certain definite points which have a structural importance, was hardly
employed at all. The voices, which entered one after another, naturally
commenced singing the same words to phrases of melody which resembled
each other. But composers' ideas of identity of subject matter were
singularly elastic, and even if the first half-dozen notes presented
similar contours in each voice part successively, the melodic forms soon
melted into something else, and from that point the movement wandered on
its devious way without further reference to its initial phrases." This
points to one of the fundamental differences between the music of the
polyphonic era and that of the monophonic, in which one voice or
instrumental part (as the treble of a piano) uttered a melody full of
periodical repetitions of the germinal tune-thought, and the other parts
supplied an accompaniment of chords. This style of composition was
developed first in the opera and afterward by instruments. It will be
more convenient to take up the progress of instrumental music first, and
at the outset let us review the evolution of the piano.