Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SONG 555
songs had their popularity. These also wore
love-songs, sung in the spring-time by bands
of young men. The hunting-songs or cacci^
equally deserve mention. The most celebrated
were written by Soldanieri and Sacchetti, and
the words are far better than their music by
Mcolaus da Perugia, Laurentius, and Ghirardellus.
Some are realistic, imitating the sounds
of the hunt ; ^ others are canonic in form, and
others again interesting from the historic side,
as they bring in the street-cries of the time.'
When later the Canti Camascialeschi came into
vogue they at first were Carnival songs, but
under the skilful hand of Lorenzo di Medici
a kind of consecutive drama grew out of them.*
During the 14th century there existed a class
of dilettante musicians called cantori a liuto,
whose business it was to set other poets' verses
to music and sing them. They differed from
the Trovatori who were poets, and who sang
their own verses to their own music or to that
of others, and equally from the Cantori a libra,
who were the learned professional musicians.^
Casella (see above) and Minuccio d' Arezzo,
mentioned by Boocaecio,* would belong to the
canton u, livio. It was the habit of these
musicians to improvise,^ for until the 16th
century musical notation remained so difficult
that only learned musicians were able to avail
themselves of it. This is the reason why the
melodies of the strophic songs, which contemporary
writers ^ show to have been so popular
and univei-sal during the 1 4th and 1 5th centuries,
have not survived.
The compositions of the Netherlands school
of music, with their severe contrapuntal style,
found their way into Italy in the 15th century,
and in time began to exercise a strong influence
there. But the prevailing type of Italian
secular songs continued to be of a very light
order during this and the following century.
Petrucei, who issued in 1502 the motets and
masses of the Netherland composers, had
nothing better to offer of native productions
than froitole and villanelle, tuneful but light
part-songs. In form the villaiielle adhered to
the contrapuntal style, though in spirit they
Frederick II., and of another by Dante. See Le RiwHuzioni del
Teatro mumetUe ItaUano, i. pp. 187, 190.
* They may have been written specially for hunting, but Gaspari,
in hishistory of Italian Literature, proves that any quick movement
at that time would be called a Caccia.
2 In this they resemble the Peootole.
3 They are counterparts of the Oris de Parts, which Jannequin
brought into his motet *Voulez ouyr les cria de Paris,' the
'Cries of London,' and 'Court Cries' used by Kichard Deering.
See J. Wolfs article FTorenz in der BftuikfiegcTiieJite des iUen
JahrhunAerta, Samjnelbdnde, LAf.O., 1901-2, iii.
^ Many of these were written by special invitation by Heinrich
Isaak (born 1445). Naumann'e HUt. of Mua. i. 438.
s The important part played in Italian music by such a one as
Francesco Landini (1325-90) is well described by Fdtis, v. 310 et geg.
s Decam. Giom X. No. "7. See Ambros, Oea. der Mus. ii. 497.
' The ' improvisatore ' has been for centuries a well-known figure
In Italian life.
8 We read in Sacchetti's novels that Dante's daUate were everywhere
known and sung, and how Dante overheard a blacksmith
singing his song and scolded him for having altered it. And
Trucchi quotes, in proof of Dante having made the music for his
own poems, an anonymous writer of the 13th century, who says
Dante was ' dilettossi nel canto e in ogni suono ' [Paegte Italiane
inedite, ii. 140). See also Ambros. Gea. der JAm. ii, 489, for further
account of the songs in the OeciemeroTi,
were essentially popular. Gradually the term
frottola disappeared ; the more serious froitole
passed into the madrigal, while the gayer,
merrier type was merged in the villanelle.^
But although the froitole were despised by
contrapuntists they showed a sense of form
in repeating the first part again, and attention
was paid to the words by having different
music for each verse, whereas the villaiielle
were strophical—that is, the same melody was
repeated for each stanza, i" Other songs, light in
character, were the rustic songs. Canzone Villanesche,
or Villotte, which peasants and soldiers
used as drinking-songs. More refined and yet
more trifling were the Villotte alia Napolctana.^^
The so-called fa-la-la was a composition of a
somewhat later date and more merit. Those
which Gastoldi wrote (about 1590) were good,
and so too his balleiti.
The vocal music to which our attention has
been thus far directed, consisted either of songs
in parts, or unisonous chorus with little or no
accompaniment. Sometimes the principal or
upper voice had a sort of cantilena, but solosinging
was yet unknown. The first instance
of solo-singing is supposed to have occurred in
1539, when Sdeno sang in an Intermezzo '^ the
upper part of a madrigal by Corteccia, accompanying
himself on the violone, while the
lower parts which represented the satyrs were
taken by wind instruments. But the piece
itself shows it was far from being a song for one
voice with accompaniment ; the under parts
are as much independent voices as the upper
one. (See Ex. 1 on next page.)
During the last decades of the 16th century
a sweeping change came over music in Italy.
Hitherto the highest art -music belonged exclusively
to the Church, from which the elements
of rhythm, modern tonality, and human expression
were rigorously excluded. But the
spirit of the Renaissance, which had affected
the other arts of poetry, painting, and sculpture
many years earlier, gradually asserted an influence
over music. "With the awakening of
the human mind, and its liberation from the
bonds of the mediaival Church, which is the
real meaning of the Renaissance, it was inevitable
that men should seek for a new form in
music wherein to express themselves. Each
individual now desired to think and speak for
himself, and was no longer content to be merged
9 A.^ottoIa, printed in Junta's aomau collection of 1526. evideBtly
became, ere long, a viHan^Ua, for it is still auug in Venice with the
same words and melody, 'Le son tre E^ntinelle, tutti tre da
maridar.' Originally, however, it was a part-aong with the tune
In the tenor. Ambros, iii. 495.
IS See Frottola, also Ambros, iv. 150 et aeq. ; Fhyrenz in der
ifusif^ffeschichie d. iMen JahrJnmderti, J. Wolf; Sammelbande,
iii. I.M.6., 1901-2, ; Die FrottoU in tstenjajirhundert, E. Schwarz
Viert^aJiTSSchrift /. Ulueikv^sentdhaft, 1686.
" These were gallant addresses from singing-masters to their
feminine pupils. They were as popular in northern Italy as in
Naples. For examples, see in Kiesewetter's ScMcJardi- urui Betchaffenlieit
des vjeltlichpn Oesatiges, app. Nos. 12, and 13 by Cambio
(1547) and Donati (15!)5). Several collections of these songs still
exist in the various libraries, and a specially important one at
Naples,
12 The Intermezsi were usually madrigals interspersed in the
earlier Ital fan plays.