ignorant as the parochial singers above alluded to? The duties of this office are consequently frequently ill-managed, or else left to the direction of the organist, who has no power, if he have the inclination to enforce them.

What therefore seems to be wanting to rectify all these abuses is, for the precentors of cathedrals and the ministers of parish churches to qualify themselves for taking these matters into their own hands.

It may however be observed, that it is too late in life for most of them to do so, which may be granted; but then I might ask, how happens it that they are not already qualified? and for what essential purpose is a professor of music attached to each university, if the study of sacred music is to form no part of a clergyman's education? Surely as music forms a part of both cathedral and parochial services, (an essential one indeed of the former) it should seem to be incumbent on the clergy in general to acquire what knowledge they can of every part of the service over which they may have to preside. Nor is the want of this to be excused from their not being gifted with a musical ear, or particular taste for the science, as although without this and some degree of musical inspiration it may not be possible for a person to acquire a knowledge of composition, yet any one that chuses may learn the musical scale, and enough of the rules of the art, to enable him to form some judgment of what ought to be the style of the services, anthems, and psalmody performed in his cathedral or choir, and also of the voluntaries on the organ there played.

The musical knowledge thus acquired may also be turned to some other account, as what can be a more innocent and laudable recreation for a clergyman, than the quiet and domestic practice of a musical instrument-the violoncello for instance, piano forte, or organ, which he will find to be the easiest method of acquiring the knowledge here peculiarly recommended.

Although but little attention seems now paid to this science by the superior members of our cathedrals, I cannot but think that formerly matters must have been far otherwise. If not, I would ask, for what purpose do the statutes of Canterbury cathedral (the most ancient choral establishment in the kingdom) require that on the three grand festivals, Christmas-Day, Easter-Day, and Whit-Sunday in every year, the whole service shall be per

formed (and of course should be chanted) by the Dean and Prebendaries themselves? and, as if to prevent this from being evaded by reading instead of chanting the service, it is also directed that upon these occasions the responses shall be accompanied with the organ, so that these must be sung, whatever may be the case with the Priest's part of the service. Yet I believe this is the way it continues to be performed on these days, the Dean and Prebendaries simply reading their parts, whilst the responses are sung by the choir.

With regard to the cause of the evils here treated of, from the low stipends of the singers in cathedrals, that having been sufficiently noticed in one of your former Numbers, I shall only add here, that were the study of sacred music to become generally adopted by the clergy, they would naturally feel more interested in it, and would scarcely be able to tolerate what they now too frequently turn a deaf ear to, and no other incitement to reformation would be wanting.

SENEX.

SCHOOL OF LOMBARDY.

THE HE passion for music which reigns throughout Italy so uncontrollably as to pervade every corner of the peninsula, to exert a certain influence over almost all the actions of the inhabitants, and to form perhaps the most striking feature in the national character, is no where more extensively, more deeply felt than in Lombardy. Various causes may however be assigned as having impeded that high attainment of art which the great masters in the other schools of Italy have reached. Milan, though powerful as a republic in the middle ages, and under the Visconti, has never enjoyed the independence of Venice or Rome. Since that period the territory has been subject to foreign government, which has necessarily interfered in a degree with the independence of the arts. The climate also, on which the temperament of a people so much depends, is less pure and luxurious in Lombardy, from its approximation to the Alps, than in the other parts of Italy, and it must likewise be remembered, that nature is frequently lavish of the gift of genius in certain favoured spots, and as parsimonious in others. The school of Lombardy can nevertheless boast of many great masters, who have not confined themselves to composing in any one particular style, but have written equally well for the church and the theatre. Thus this school cannot be said to possess any distinct character, which is perhaps an additional reason for its comparative mediocrity.

Father Costanza Porta, of Cremona, a Franciscan friar, who was born about the commencement of the 16th century, is styled by the Padre Martini, the Founder of the School of Lombardy. It will thus be observed that this school derived its existence from the same sources as all the rest, and that the church was the mould in which it received its first formation. Porta was the scholar of Willaert, and the fellow student of the celebrated Zarlino. His first situation was that of maestro di capella at Padua; he next went in the same capacity to Osimo, in the March of Ancona ; then to Ravenna; and lastly to Loretto, where he died in 1601. He'

composed eighteen different works for the church, which are highly valued by connoisseurs as elaborate and curious compositions.* Porta left many scholars, the most celebrated of whom were Lodovico Balbo, who flourished in 1578, and Giacomo Antonio Picciolo, in 1588, who both adopted their master's elaborate style, and were great canonists.

Gastoldi, sometimes called Castaldi, was born at Caravaggio, and was the author of thirty musical works of great repute. Of these however his Ballads are the most singular, and particularly deserving of notice, as they prove beyond a doubt the derivation of our compositions of that name. Those of Gastoldi were published at Antwerp, under the following title:—“ Balletti à 5, coi versi per Cantare, Suonare, e Ballare; con una Mascherata di Cacciatori, à 6, e un Concerto di Pastori, à 8." The airs contained in this collection are more lively and graceful than most of those of the old masters before the cultivation of melody for the purposes of the drama. It is a singular fact that some of these ballads were called in the first edition, printed at Venice, 1591, Fa las, which likewise shews the source of another of our own musical fashions, as it was but five years after that Morley published songs in five parts under this title.

Pietro Pontio, who flourished about this time, was a musical writer as well as a composer of great eminence. He published, in 1580, three books of masses, and in 1588, at Parma, his Raggionamenti di Musica. This work is in dialogue, treating of the theory of music in its most extended sense, and containing immense erudition and research.

Orazio Vecchi, born at Milan, was a musician and poet of very high reputation at the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th. He composed masses, cantiones sacræ, and one book of madrigals, which are very superior, but the compositions to which

*This author seems not only to have vanquished all the difficult contrivances for which John Okenheim, Josquin del Prato, and Adrian Willaert, from whose school he sprung, were celebrated, but considerably augmented their number; for, as orators, lawyers, and commentators have the art of twisting and subverting words to any meaning that favours their cause or hypothesis, so Costanza Porta had equal power over any series of musical notes, in a cauon or a fugue, which he could not only work in recte et retro, but invert, augment, diminish, divide, or subdivide, at his pleasure. In this faculty he very much resembled our Tallis, his cotemporary. He began to flourish towards the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII: as did Tallis.—Burney's ilist, vol. 3. p. 225.

he mostly inclined, and in which he particularly excelled, were canzonets. Of these he published large numbers for three and four voices, which were performed all over Europe between the years 1580 and 1613.*

Vecchi was likewise a dramatic writer, and although the style then in vogue was very shortly after exploded, yet as it presents a good idea of the singularity of what was then admired on the stage, we shall give a short account of his opera of L'Anfiparnasso. Recitative was yet unknown, consequently the whole drama was in what may be called air, or rather melody, in its most scientific sense. In fact it is the whole way through written in five parts, and each scene is nothing more than a five-part madrigal in action; when it was necessary to introduce a soliloquy not even then were any of the parts dispensed with, four being sung behind the scenes, whilst the fifth and principal was performed by the character to whom the soliloquy belonged, upon the stage.†

To this opera there is no overture, nor is there a part for any instrument throughout the piece, so that there could be no orchestra

* Our countryman Peacham, who had received instructions in music from this composer, during his residence in Italy, speaks of him in the following manuer: "I bring you now mine own master, Horatio Vecchi, of Modena, who, besides goodness of aire, was most pleasing of all other for his conceipt. and variety, wherewith all his words are singularly beautified, as well his madrigals of five and six parts, as those his canzonets, printed at Norimberge.”— And Milton is said, by his nephew Phillips, in the life which he prefixed to the English translation of his State Letters, to have collected, during his travels, a chest or two of choice music books of the best masters of Italy at that time, but particularly of Luca Marenzio, Monteverde, and Orazio Vecchi.

If the author had strictly composed in plain counterpoint, the effect might have been pleasing, though ridiculous. When a single key of an organ is pressed down, as many sounds are produced as there are stops out; so that when the diapason, principal, twelfth, fifteenth, and tierce are out, we have, for each note that is struck, unison, octave, fifth of the octave, double octave, and its sharp third. Fontenelle, in his History of the French Theatre, giving an account of the mystery, or comedy of the Passion, written by the Bishop of Angers about the middle of the fifteenth century, tells us, that "this piece was a kind of opera; for after the baptism of our Saviour, God the father speaks, and it is recommended that his speech should be pronounced very audibly and distinctly, and at once with three voices, treble, counter-tenor, and base, all well in tune, and in this harmony the whole scene which follows should be sung." Orazio Vecchi supposing himself the inventor of this harmonious speech, did not know what high authority there was for the practice: however, not content with a triple union for one of his characters, his interlocutors had all polyphonic voices, which, by his quintuple alliance, rendered the voice of each individual,per. former a full orgun.-Burney's Hist. vol. 4, p. 125.

VOL. VII. NO. XXVI.-JUNE, 1825.