Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/273

accessible to the general reader, are well represented in the 'Dodecachordon.' Petrucci, too, has printed three entire volumes of Josquin's Masses, besides many others by contemporary writers; and the same publisher's 'Odhecaton,' and 'Canti B. and C.' contain a splendid collection of sæcular Chansons by all the best Composers of the period. The most important example, in modern Notation, is Choron's reprint of Josquin's 'Stabat Mater,' the general style of which is well shown in the following brief extract.^[1]

Modus XIII (vel XI) Transp.^[2]

IV. The style of The Fourth Flemish School presents a strong contrast to that of its predecessor. The earlier decads of the 16th century did, indeed, produce many writers, who slavishly imitated the ingenuity of Josquin, in utter ignorance of the real secret of his strength; but the best Masters of the time, finding it impossible to compete with him upon his own ground, struck out an entirely new manner, the chief characteristic of which was, extreme simplicity of intention, combined with a greater purity of Harmony than had yet been attempted, and a freedom of melody which lent a fresh charm, both to the Ecclesiastical and the Sæcular Music of the period. The greatest Masters of this School were, Nicolaus Gombert, Cornelius Canis, Philippus de Monte, Jacobus de Kerle, Clemens non Papa; the great Madrigal writers, Philipp Verdelot, Giaches de Wert, Huberto Waelrant, and Jacques Archadelt; Adrian Willaert, the Flemish Founder of the Venetian School; and the last great genius of the Netherlands, Roland de Lattre (Orlando di Lasso), of whose work we shall have occasion to speak at a later period. To these industrious Netherlanders the outer world was even more deeply indebted than to those of the preceding century, for its knowledge of the Art, which, so well nurtured in the Low Countries, spread thence to every Capital in Europe; and it is chiefly by the peculiar richness of their otherwise unpretending Harmonies that their works are distinguished from those of earlier date—a characteristic which is well illustrated in the following example, from Philippus de Monte's 'Missa, Mon cueur se recommande a vous,' and to which we call special attention, as we shall frequently have occasion to refer to it, hereafter, in tracing the relationship between cognate schools.

That the style we have described was the result of a reaction, neither unhealthy in its nature, nor revolutionary in its tendency, though not altogether free from violence, there can be no doubt. Singers were growing weary of the conundrums which had so long been offered to them as substitutes for the truer Music which alone can reach the heart. In the hands of Josquin, these puzzles had never lacked the impress of true genius. In those of his imitators, they were as dry as dust. With him, the solution of the ænigma led always to some harmonious result; while they were perfectly

1. Performed by the 'Gluck Society' on May 24. 1881; and reprinted in the 'Notenbellagen' to Ambros's 'Geschichte.'
2. Zarlino quotes this Composition as an example of the Eleventh Mode; the Ionian and Hypoionlan Modes being numbered, in his system, XI. and XII, instead of XIII and XIV. [See vol. ii. p. 342a.] Pietro Aron, ignoring the Transposition, and evidently regarding the B as an often-recurring Accidental, speaks of the work as being written in the Fifth Mode. The Student of Antient Music will at in once understand that this divergence of opinion involves no theoretical incongruity.