THE V I O LIN AND ITS MUSIC, GEORGE HART, "HE VIOLIN: ITS ...

THE VIOL IN THE NE THERLANDS. 29
If we examine into the condition of Music
among the Netherlanders about the same period,
we shall find that much of that which the Van
Eycks achieved for their Art, Okeghem, and in
a higher degree, J osquin Despres accomplished
for theirs. Although Music had been cultivated for
more than a century by the people of the Low
Countries before the advent of these remarkable
Musicians, to an extent which left other nations far
behind, yet that which then passed for the Science
of Music was in reality a system crippled and
cramped with meaningless dogmas, bearing apparently
about the same relation to Music as Alchemy
to Chemistry. With the appearance of Okeghem
and his pupil Josquin, the haze which had so long
enveloped the Art was at length dispelled. What
these Musicians accomplished amounted to little else
than a re-creation. The Science and Poetry of the
Art were joined.
The fame bf the Musicians of the Netherlands was
European, but particularly that of J osquin Despres.
Louis XI I. of France, Lorenzo di Medici, and the
Emperor of Germany, were among his princely
patrons. Luther said of him, "other Musicians do
what they can with notes, J osquin does what he
likes with them ;" in short, some years before the
close of the fifteenth century he was looked upon
as the greatest Musician of any time or nation.
That a people should have had such men as the
brothers Van Eyck, Okeghem, and J osquin in