Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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STEICT COUNTERPOINT STRIGGIO 725
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Students who have mastered all the difficulties
of the Five Orders are recommended by
Fux and his successors to employ two or more
Orders simultaneously, in place of filling in the
free parts with semibreves, and to follow up
this exercise by employing the Fifth Order in
all the parts except that which contains the
Canto fermo.
It wQl be readily imderstood that the rules
we have here endeavoured to epitomise fonn
but a very small proportion of those laid down
by Fux and his successors for the student's
guidance ; more especially with regard to the Five
Orders of Counterpoint in two parts, the laws
of which are excessively severe. We have, in
fact, confined ourselves for the most part to
the regulations which servfe most clearly to distinguish
the Strict Style of the 16th century
from theFreePart-writingofthe 18th and 19th.
Tlie true value of these rules lies in the unvarying
purity of the harmony produced by their
observance. Obedience to their provisions
renders hai'shness of effect impossible. It was
for this reason that they were so diligently
studied by .the great masters of the school of
Vienna ; and after them by Mendelssohn and
the composers of the later period. It is true
that these composers, one and all, have written
exclusively in the Free Style. But we have
already explained that the laws of the Free Style
are not antagonistic to those of Strict Counterpoint.
In their treatment of Consonant Harmonies,
of Suspensions, and of Passing Notes,
the laws of the two styles, as set forth in the
works of the great classical writers, are absolutely
identical. It is only when dealing with
Chromatic Progressions, Appoggiaturas, and Unprepared
Discords generally, that the Free Style
supjjlements the older code with new enactments.
And since these new enactments concern progressions
altogether unknown to the Contrapuntists
of the 16th century, they cannot be
fairly said to oppose the earlier system. Except
when entering upon new ground they neither
increase nor diminish the severity of the ancient
method. On the contrary, it is a^well-known
fact that the greatest writers in the Free Style,
and the most fearless, are those who have
worked hardest at Strict Counterpoint. Hence
Beethoven's ion mot concerning the necessity
for learning rules in order that one might know
how to break them, so often misquoted in
defence of those who break them through ignor-
I Lioenoe. Fifths ssTed by a tiod crotchst. on the authority of
Paleatrina. At bai- 5 the tonor crosses below the bass.
ance. Hence Mendelssohn's microscopic attention
to the minutest details in the lessons he
gave in Free Part-writing ; and Hauptmann's
determined insistence on rules, which, though
mentioned by Fux, are unnoticed by Cherubini.
All these accomplished musicians used Strict
Counterpoint as a stepping-stone to the Free
Style ; and if we would know how much the
process profited them, we have only to examine
Mozart's
'
Zauberflbte, ' Beethoven's Seventh
S3rmphony, and Mendelssohn's 'St. Paul."
[See also the article Counterpoint, vol. i.
pp. 613-623.] w. s. E.
STRIGGIO, Alessandeo, gentleman of
Mantua, was born there about 1535. In the
judgment of his contemporaries he was a cultivated
musician, an organist of renown, a fine
lutenist and viola-player. Bartoli (Eagionainenti
accademici, 1567, p. 376) writes that Striggio
was most excellent in playing of the viola ' e far
sentir in essa quatro parti a un tratto con tanta
leggiadria e con tanta musica, che fa stupire gli
ascoltanti,' adding that his compositions were
as musical and as good as any to be heard at that
time ; andGarkoni (^Lapiazzauniversale,Yenetia,,
1585, p. 450) mentions among famous players
of various instruments ' il Striggio passato nel
lauto.' From about 1560 Striggio was at
Florence, attached to the Court of Cosmo de
Medici, who died 1574 ; on the title-pages of
Stiiggio's works published in 1560, 1565-66,
and 1569, he is described as gentilhuomo man-
'
tovano. Servitore dell' illustrissimo et eccellentissimo
Cosmb de Medici, Duca di Firenze e di
Siena,' but from 1570 to 1585, he is merely
'gentilhuomo mantovano ' and probably was
living in Mantua at this later period. He was
certainly there in 1574, the bearer of a letter
dated Sept. 1, 1574, in which the Emperor
Maximilian II. recommends Striggio, 'a man
eminent in the art of music,' to the good offices
of the Duke Gugliebno of Mantua, with the
result that Striggio was released from a dragging
lawsuit in which he had been involved. He
died in Mantua soon after, Sept. 22, 1587.
Striggio was one of the first to compose music
for the Intermedii in representations at Court
festivities. An interesting example and one of
the earliest is La Co/anaria, Comedia di Francesco
d'Amtra, con gV intermedii di G. B. Cini.
Firenze, J566, written on the occasion of the
mari'iage of Francesco de Medici with Johanna
of Austria. Striggio set the first, second, and
fifth inteiTuedio to music. A copy of this work
is in the British Museum ; on p. 16 a description
of the music is given with a list of the instruments
required, including :
4 Oravicemball doppl.
4 Viole d' arco.
2 Troinboiil.
2 Tenor! di Flantl.
1 Cometto mute.
1 Tx-aversa.
2 Leutl, a Dolzalna, a Stortlna, and a Kibechino.
In the Dialoghi di Massimo Troiamo (Venetia,