Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 61
61.—A SONG FOR FORTY.
Musical composition may be divided into epochs, each one of which is preparatory to those which follow. That period from 1750, stretching back some three hundred years, was a period of contrapuntal writing in which that composer was considered the best that could produce the best counterpoint,—could combine into a harmonious whole the largest number of independent melodies. In the latter part of the period, however, quantity of parts was not a sine qua non of greatness so much as the most thorough contrapuntal development of a few parts, as witnessed in Bach's and Händel's works.
One English composer, Thomas Tallis, who flourished some three hundred years ago, was a learned contrapuntist; and one of his compositions, written for forty voices, shows his skill at manufacturing music, for there could not have been much musical inspiration in such compositions. In this piece each one of the forty voices had an independent part differing from every one of the other thirty-nine. For 138 bars these forty people are supposed to go "every one to his own way," but not "like sheep," for these mild-mannered animals are supposed to follow one leader instead of forty.
But even this combination was exceeded by a composition in fugal style, written by Raimondi, an Italian composer living in the first half of the present century. This was arranged for sixteen choirs of four voices each, giving a total of sixty-four different parts. This style of composition has been called Gothic. Be that as it may, we may congratulate ourselves that we have passed the day of mathematical composition, and have come to the point where learning is the means, not the end, of a composer's work.