Critical and Historical Essays
former was composed of entirely different melodic and rhythmic
material. This gave rise to the science of counterpoint, which,
as I have said, consists of the trick of making a number
of voices sing different melodies at the same time without
violating certain given rules. The given melody or "principal"
soon acquired the name of _cantus firmus_, and the other parts
were each called _contrapunctus_,[11] as before they had been
called tenor and descant. These names were first used by Gerson,
Chancellor of Notre Dame, Paris, about 1400.
In the meantime (about 1300-1375), the occasional use of thirds
and sixths in the diaphonies previously explained led to an
entirely different kind of singing, called _falso bordone_
or _faux bourdon_ (_bordonizare_, "to drone," comes from a
kind of pedal in organum that first brought the third into
use). This system, contrary to the old organum, consisted of
using only thirds and sixths together, excluding the fourth
and fifth entirely, except in the first and last bars. This
innovation has been ascribed to the Flemish singers attached
to the Papal Choir (about 1377), when Pope Gregory XI returned
from Avignon to Rome. In the British Museum, however, there
are manuscripts dating from the previous century, showing
that the _faux bourdon_ had already commenced to make its way
against the old systems of Hucbald and Guido. The combination
of the _faux bourdon_ and the remnant of the organum gives us
the foundation for our modern tone system. The old rules,
making plagal motion of the different voices preferable to
parallel motion, and contrary motion preferable to either,
still hold good in our works on theory; so also in regard to
the rules forbidding consecutive fifths and octaves, leaving
the question of the fourth in doubt.
To sum up, we may say, therefore, that up to the sixteenth
century, all music was composed of the slender material of
thirds, sixths, fifths, and octaves, fourths being permitted
only _between_ the voices; consecutive successions of fourths,
however, were permitted, a license not allowed in the use of
fifths or octaves. This leads us directly to a consideration
of the laws of counterpoint and fugue, laws that have remained
practically unchanged up to the present, with the one difference
that, instead of being restricted to the meagre material of
the so-called consonants, the growing use of what were once
called dissonant chords, such as the dominant seventh, ninth,
diminished seventh, and latterly the so-called altered chords,
has brought new riches to the art.
Instead of going at once into a consideration of the laws
of counterpoint, it will be well to take up the development
of the instrumental resources of the time. There were three
distinct types of music: the ecclesiastical type (which of
course predominated) found its expression in melodies sung
by church choirs, four or more melodies being sometimes sung
simultaneously, in accordance with certain fixed rules,
as I have already explained. These melodies or chants
were often accompanied by the organ, of which we will speak
later. The second type was purely instrumental, and served as
an accompaniment for the dance, or consisted of _fanfares_
(ceremonial horn signals), or hunting signals. The third
type was that of the so-called _trouveres_ or _troubadours_,
with their _jongleurs_, and the minnesingers, and, later, the
mastersingers. All these "minstrels," as we may call them,
accompanied their singing by some instrument, generally one
of the lute type or the psaltery.
[09] There is much question as to Hucbald's organum. That
actually these dissonances were used even up to 1500 is
proved by Franco Gafurius of Milan, who mentions a Litany
for the Dead (_De Profundis_) much used at that time:
[G: {f' g'} {f' g'} {g' a'} {g' a'} {g' c''} {e' a'} {f' g'}]
[W: De profundis, etc.]
[10] Counterpoint is first mentioned by Muris (1300).
[11] Only principal (tenor or cantus firmus) was sung to words.
X
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS--THEIR HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
In church music, the organ is perhaps the first instrument to
be considered. In 951, Elfeg, the Bishop of Winchester had
built in his cathedral a great organ which had four hundred
pipes and twenty-six pairs of bellows, to manage which seventy
strong men were necessary. Wolstan, in his life of St. Swithin,
the Benedictine monk, gives an account of the exhausting work
required to keep the bellows in action.
Two performers were necessary to play this organ, just as
nowadays we play four-hand music on the piano. The keys went
down with such difficulty that the players had to use their
elbows or fists on each key; therefore it is easy to see that,
at the most, only four keys could be pressed down at the same
time. On the other hand, each key when pressed down or pushed
back (for in the early organs the keyboard was perpendicular)
gave the wind from the bellows access to ten pipes each, which
were probably tuned in octaves or, possibly, according to the
organum of Hucbald, in fifths or fourths. This particular organ
had two sets of keys (called manuals), one for each player;
there were twenty keys to each manual, and every key caused
ten pipes to sound. The compass of this organ was restricted
to ten notes, repeated at the distance of an octave, and,
there being four hundred pipes, forty pipes were available for
each note. On each key was inscribed the name of the note. As
may be imagined, the tone of this instrument was such that it
could be heard at a great distance.
There were many smaller organs, as, for instance, the one in the
monastery of Ramsey, which had copper pipes. Pictures of others
from the twelfth century show that even where there were only
ten pipes, the organ had two manuals, needed two players, and at
least four men for the bellows. The great exertion required to
play these instruments led to the invention of what is called
"mixtures." From the moment fifths and fourths were considered
to sound better together than the simple notes, the pipes were
so arranged that the player did not need to press two of the
ponderous organ keys for this combination of sounds. One key
was made to open the valves of the two sets of pipes, so that
each key, instead of sounding one note, would, at will, sound
the open fifth, fourth, or octave. With the addition of the
third, thus constituting a perfect major triad, this barbarous
habit has come down to our present day almost unchanged, for by
using what is called the "mixture stop" of our modern organs,
each key of the manual gives not only the original note,
but also its perfect major triad, several octaves higher.
Originally the organ was used only to give the right intonation
for the chanting of the priests. From the twelfth century, small
portable organs of limited compass were much used; although the
tone of these instruments was necessarily slight, and, owing to
the shortness of the pipes, high in pitch, the principle of the
mechanism was similar to that of the larger instruments. They
were hung by means of a strap passed over the shoulders;
one hand pressed the keys in front of the pipes (which were
arranged perpendicularly), and the other hand operated the
small bellows behind the pipes. These small instruments rarely
had more than eight pipes, consequently they possessed only
the compass of an octave. With slight variations, they were
quite universally used up to the seventeenth century. Organ
pedals were invented in Germany about 1325. Bernhard, organist
of St. Mark's, Venice (1445-1459), has been credited with the
invention of organ pedals, but it is probable that he merely
introduced them into Italy.
As the Greek modes formed the basis for the musical system of
the church, so the Greek monochord is the type from which the
monks evolved what they called the clavichord. The monochord
has a movable bridge, therefore some time is lost in adjusting
it in order to get the different tones. To obviate this
inconvenience, a number of strings were placed side by side,
and a mechanism inserted which, by pressing a key (_clavis_),
would move the bridge to the point at which the string must
divide to give the note indicated by the key. This made it
possible to use one string for several different notes, and
explains why the clavichord or clavicembalo needed comparatively
few strings. This instrument became obsolete toward the end
of the eighteenth century.
The other species of instrument, the harpsichord, which was
invented about 1400, and which may be considered as having
sprung from the clavichord, consisted of a separate string for
each sound; the key, instead of setting in action a device
for striking and at the same time _dividing_ the strings,
caused the strings to be plucked by quills. Thus, in these
instruments, not only was an entirely different quality of tone
produced, but the pitch of a string remained unaltered. These
instruments were called _bundfrei_, "unbound," in opposition to
the _clavicembalo_, which was called _gebunden_, or "bound." The
harpsichord was much more complicated than the clavichord,
in that the latter ceased to sound when the key which moved
the bridge was released, whereas the harpsichord required what
is called a "damper" to stop the sound when the key came up;
once the string was touched by the quill, all command of the
tone by the key was lost. To regulate this, a device was added
to the instrument by means of which a damper fell on the string
when the key was released, thereby stopping the sound.
We have now to consider the instrumental development of the
Middle Ages.
An instrument of the harpsichord family which has significance
in the development of the instruments of the Middle Ages is
the spinet (from _spina_, "thorn"; it had leather points up
to 1500), first made by Johannes Spinctus, Venice, 1500. It
was a harpsichord with a _square_ case, the strings running
diagonally instead of lengthwise. When the spinet was of
very small dimensions it was called a virginal; when it was
in the shape of our modern grand piano, it was, of course,
a harpsichord; and when the strings and sounding board
were arranged perpendicularly, the instrument was called
a clavicitherium. As early as 1500, then, four different
instruments were in general use, the larger ones having a
compass of about four octaves. The connecting link between the
harpsichord, the clavichord, and the piano, was the dulcimer or
hackbrett, which was a tavern instrument. Pantaleon Hebenstreit,
a dancing master and inventor of Leipzig, in 1705 added an
improved hammer action, which was first applied to keyboard
instruments by Cristofori, an instrument maker at Florence
(1711). His instrument was called _forte-piano_ or _pianoforte_,
because it would strike loud or soft.
These instruments all descended from the ancient lyre, the
only difference being that instead of causing the strings to
vibrate by means of a plectrum held in the hand, the plectrum
was set in motion by the mechanism of the _claves_ or keys. The
system of fingering employed in playing the harpsichord, up to
1700, did not make use of the thumb. J.S. Bach, F. Couperin,
and J.P. Rameau were the pioneers in this matter. The first
published work on piano technique and fingering was that by
C.P.E. Bach (1753).
With the advent of bowed instruments the foundation was laid for
the modern orchestra, of which they are the natural basis. The
question of the antiquity of the bowed instrument has often been
discussed, with the result that the latter has been definitely
classed as essentially modern, for the reason that it did not
become known in Europe until about the tenth to the twelfth
centuries. As a matter of fact, the instrument is doubtless