of the word is in dispute, Italian usage favoring the meaning 'flight' or 'pursuit,' German usage, that of 'fitting together.' Meanwhile, fugal passages were frequent in all sorts of writing, though very rarely expanded to entire works based upon a single 'subject,' as in the true fugue. In the 17th century instrumental writing generally tended often to adopt the fugal form, as in many Italian 'sonatas' and French 'overtures.' The final eminence of the organ fugue was due to the aptness of the organ for strong and majestic polyphony under the hands of a single performer. (For some other features of the completed fugue-form, see sec. 139.)
The influence of organ music, then, was highly beneficial to
the whole theory of composition, powerfully advancing the art
of pure harmony, maintaining interest in counterpoint, and
to some extent counterbalancing the drift toward captivating
superficiality that the opera was fostering with alarming success.
All the favorite forms of writing were essentially fantasias, having no
fixed method. On the whole, the 'ricercare' was the closest and strongest,
the 'toccata,' more devoted to passages and other points of virtuosity,
the 'canzona in the French style,' usually based upon a special metric
pattern and disposed in short sections like a song, and the 'capriccio,'
midway between the ricercare and the toccata, with frequent changes of
theme. The treatment was at first almost wholly contrapuntal, though
not confined to a single or extended cantus. Later more solid harmony
came in, but it was hampered by the imperfect theory of tuning, which
made only certain chords satisfactory and precluded free modulation. In
Spain writing was much influenced by the frequency of 'divided stops,'
inviting antiphonal or dialogue passages. Until after 1600 the independent
use of the pedals was unusual. Not until then was there any clear
sense of using solo melodies with accompaniment.
Among the many early organists known, a few stand out in prominence:—
In the 14th century worked Francesco Landino (d. 1397), a blind Florentine of noble family, whose genius as both poet and musician won him renown and of whose varied works many specimens remain; besides several players at St. Mark's in Venice, and one or two in France, like Robert Labbé (d. c. 1432), at Rouen from 1386. Among organ-builders were Jacobello, the reputed builder of the first organ at St. Mark's, Joachim Schund, the maker in 1356 of what became the nucleus of the organ of the Thomaskirche in Leipsic, and Nicol Faber, whose famous organ at Halberstadt (1361) was described by M. Prätorius in 1618.
In the 15th century attention to the church organ increased, and with it the freer use of pedals. In Italy, besides the players at St. Mark's (see sec. 56), appeared Antonio Squarcialupi (d. 1475), a high-born favorite of Lorenzo de' Medici at Florence and organist of the cathedral. Contemporary with him was Konrad Paumann (d. 1473), the blind player at St. Sebald's in Nuremberg from before 1446 and at Munich from 1467, a notable pioneer, famous throughout Germany, Austria and Italy, from whom come the earliest
