MUSICAL COMPOSITION

THE TREATMENT OF VOICES 147of Beethoven, and "Tod und das Miidchen" of Schubert.(4) Unaccompanied Choral Writing. The purest andfinest examples of vocal part-writing are to be foundin Palestrina and the Roman school. They are atonce the most grateful to sing and the most effectiveto listen to. The Venetian, Neapolitan and Spanishschools are less perfect, and the Dutch and Englishare rougher and more experimental.Complete command of the technique of modalcounterpoint is the first necessity in writing for unaccompaniedvoices. The limitations imposed beingset down in the interest of the singers only, practicewithin those limitations will lay the foundation ofgrateful vocal writing in a way which no other methodcan approach. The chief consideration.~ are (1) tostart every vocal phrase on a note for which the otherparts have prepared the way, and which can be attackedwithout difficulty; (2) to avoid intervals which aredifficult to sing in tune.Palestrina allowed no skips between the minor sixthand the octave, and forbade all diminished and augmentedintervals such as(A)(tJ)(The importance of knowing the pure scale will beevident here, for in equal temperament (IX) is a minorthird, and (f3) is a major third.)Modern developments have made the ear able tomaster even more difficult intervals than these, but aslong as the human voice exists it will find the samedifficulty in producing them satisfactorily as it found