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The articles on Chanson in this Dictionary, and Frankreich in Mendel's Musikalisches Lexicon.
The present writer is also indebted to M. Mathis Lussy and M. Gustave Chouquet for valuable advice aud assistance.

Further information may be found in:—

'Barzas-Breiz, chants populaires de la Bretagne, par Hersart de la Villemarqué.'
'Chansons et Airs populaires du Béarn, recueillis par Frédéric Rivarez.'
'Chants populaires des Flamands de France, recueillis par M. de Coussemaker.'
'Noels Nouviaux, sur des vieux airs, par Ch. Ribault de Langardiere.'
'Noëls Bressans, par Philibert le Duc.'
'Album Auvergnat, par J. B. Bouillet.'

Spain.

In Spain and Portugal the Song can scarcely be said to have had a history. While both countries can boast of having produced celebrated composers of polyphonic and ecclesiastical music, in neither has there been any systematic development of the secular and monodic departments. The latter remains what it was in the earliest times; and all the best songs of Spain and Portugal are the compositions of untaught and unlettered musicians.

With regard to the national songs of Spain there is an initial difficulty in determining whether they are more properly Songs or Dances, because at the present day all the favourite songs of Spain are sung as accompaniments to dancing; but it is of course, as songs, and not as dances, that they concern us here.

Spanish literature is rich in remains of antique poetry, and of poetry which from the time of the 'Trobadores' was intended to be sung. Among such literary relics are the celebrated cancioneros of the 15th century, large miscellaneous collections of songs, containing a vast number of canciones, invenciones, motes, preguntas, villancicos and ballads.^[1] The ballads are in eight-syllabled asonante verses (i.e. with the vowels only rhyming), and they are stated to have been sung to 'national recitatives,' or as accompaniments to dances; but not a vestige of their music has been preserved. The villancicos, or peasants' songs, with their refrains and ritornelles, were also evidently sung, as the six-voiced villancicos of the 16th century by Puebla would show; but in proportion to the quantity of extant words to these songs very little of their music has come down to us.^[2] Again, in collections of the romanceros of the 16th century, the old ballads are said to have come from blind ballad-singers, who sang them in the streets; but not a note of music was written down, though hundreds of the ballads survive. And, these old ballads are still sung by the people in Spain to traditional airs which have passed from mouth to mouth through many a generation. Moreover such melodies as are really genuine in modern collections of Spanish songs have almost without exception been taken down from the lips of blind beggars, who are now, as they were in the mediæval times, the street-singers of Spanish towns.^[3]

The national songs of Spain may be divided into three geographical groups, those of (1) Biscay and Navarre; (2) Galicia and Old Castile; (3) Southern Spain (Andalusia). In the first of these groups are the songs of the Basques, who are believed to have been the earliest inhabitants of the Peninsula.

(1) The exclusiveness with which the Basques have kept themselves a distinct and separate race has made it difficult, if not impossible, to trace their music to any primeval source. There bas been a good deal of speculation on this point; but it is not necessary to give the numerous conjectures put forward as to its origin. The time and rhythm of the Basque songs are most complicated; the zorzico, for instance, is in 5-8 or 7-4 time, thus—

or in alternating bars of 6-8 and 3-4 time. The melodies are apparently not founded on any definite scale; quarter tones regularly occur in the minor melodies; and the first note of a song is always surrounded by a grupetto,^[4] which gives it an indefinite and undecided effect. The last note, on the other hand, has always a firm, loud, and long-sustained sound. In Arragon and Navarre the popular dance is the jota, and according to the invariable usage of Spain, it is also the popular song. The jota is almost always sung in thirds, and has the peculiarity that in the ascending scale the minor seventh is sung in the place of the major. [See Jota.]

(2) The songs of the second group are less interesting. The rule of the Moors over Galicia and Old Castile was too brief to impart an Eastern colouring to the music of those provinces. It is, however, gay and bright, and of a strongly accented dance rhythm. The words of the songs are lively, like the music, and in perfect accord with it. To this geographical group belong the boleros, manchegas, and seguidillas; but this last

1. The fashion of making such collections of poetry, generally called cancioneros, was very common in Spain just before and after the introduction of printing. Many of these collections, both In manuscript and printed, are preserved. The Bibliotheque Nationale Paris, contains no less than seven. See 'Catalogo de MSS. Españoles en la Biblioteca Real de Paris,' Paris 1844, 4to. pp. 378–525. For further information see Ticknor's 'History of Spanish Literature,' chap, xxiii. p. 391.
2. There may, however, still be in existence more of ancient Spanish music, both polyphonic and monodic, both ecclesiastical and secular, than we are aware of. Owing to the jealousy with which foreigners are excluded from Spanish libraries valuable specimens of ancient music may yet survive, unknown to us. In an account of Spanish music, published in the 19th vol. (No. I) of the 'Académic Royale de Belgique,' Gevaert complains of the difficulties thrown in his way.
3. See 'Echos de l'Espagne,' p. 83, where MM. Lacome and J. Pulgy Alsubide give a Malagueña faithfully transcribed from the lips of blind beggars. The blindness of these singers gives a certain value to the derivation of the name Chaconne, from cisco 'blind.'
4. 'Une sorte de grupetto intraduisible, qui est à la phrase musical ce qu'est une paraphe précurseur d'une majuscule dans certaines exercises calligraphiques.' (Madame, de la Villehélio's 'Airs Basques.') Thus the Austrian violin-player at Milan began the Adagio of the Kreutzer Sonata (Mendelssohn's letter, May 1831); and thus too does Mendelssohn's own Quartet in E♭ begin with a grupetto.