at the end of the memorable Council of Trent the general subject of music in public worship came up, a strong presentation was made against all figured music and in favor of Plain-Song only. After hearing from a committee chosen to indicate abuses, the Council simply voted against the use of whatever was "lascivious or impure," and the matter was left to the provincial synods with a general warning.
The definition of what was "lascivious or impure" remained an open question.
The drastic action originally proposed was powerfully combatted by
the influence of various members, among them the Emperor Ferdinand I., who
sent a formal notice that in his judgment figured music should not be excluded,
"since it often arouses the feeling of piety."
In 1564 Pius IV., himself a music-lover, brought the subject before the cardinals, and a small committee was named to consider it. They speedily agreed to the exclusion of all words except those of the prescribed Latin texts, with all careless alterations of the latter, and to the importance of so restricting the expansion of musical phrases upon single syllables and the confusion of conflicting voice-parts as to leave the words and sense of the text obvious to the hearer. Many works conforming to these principles were already in use, but, to make the matter sure, a recent work of Palestrina's was named by the Pope as a model. This is the one now known as the Mass of Pope Marcellus (from the Pope who, in 1555, had made a special effort to purify church music). Hence came in later times an exaggerated estimate of Palestrina as "the saviour of church music," with many perversions of the story. From this time there was a marked improvement in the character of the works regularly used in the Papal Chapel, but it was one that really began before 1564 and to which many composers contributed. In Palestrina's own style there was a distinct advance from about 1560. In 1576 Gregory XII. intrusted the revision of the Gradual and Antiphonary to Palestrina, but most of the actual work was done by his pupil Giovanni Guidetti (d. 1592).
60. Other Roman Masters.—The composers who wrought at Rome after about 1570 were necessarily influenced by the new ideals that had been set up, and this period is justly considered as the best of the Roman school. Within certain natural limits the forms in which Palestrina and his immediate successors worked and the methods they used were thought to be the acme of musical art. This special type continued into the 17th and 18th centuries, and is still supported by the official approval of the Catholic Church. But, as will be seen, progress in absolutely new directions became so absorbing that the Palestrina style was presently overtopped in popular interest and historic importance by styles belonging to a totally different sphere.
