•674 KEPOKT — 1891. 



A Short History of Vocal Music from its Earliest Times to 

 the Time of Palestrina (Sixteenth Century), together with 

 a Brief Description of Some of its Principal Forms of 

 Developyncnt from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Cen- 

 turies. 



A Lecture by G. F. Tendall, Mus. Bac. Oxon. and N.Z., 

 Organist and Choirmaster of Christchurch Cathedral, and 

 Honorary Member of the College of Organists, Lond. ; 

 given at the Fourth Evening Meeting, 20th January, 1891. 



I HAVE the honour of addressing you this evening on a sub- 

 ject in which, I presume from your presence here, you are all 

 more or less interested — viz., the history of vocal music. 

 Such a subject covers a very wide field of inquiry — so wide 

 that only to a very limited extent, and as succinctly as pos- 

 sible, can I hope to traverse it this evening. I shally how- 

 ever, endeavour to the best of my ability to trace as clearly 

 as my limited time will allow the history of vocal music from 

 its root, through its stem, and through some of those principal 

 branches which will, I think, prove naost interesting to you. 



To show that it is necessary to so far limit my field of dis- 

 course, let us think for one moment of a few of the forms of 

 development suggested by the term "vocal music" — namely, 

 Egyptian, Hebrew, and Greek music ; Ambrosian and Gregorian 

 ecclesiastical music ; monotone, or melody ; songs, duets, trios, 

 quartetts, canons, fugues, motetts, masses, anthems, oratorios, 

 operas, madrigals, glees, part-songs, &c. Each of these forms 

 may be said to possess a distinct history, and to treat "of them 

 individually would require our full attention for many lectures, 

 instead of the one allotted to us this evening. 



One of the first of these items — Gregorian music — possesses 

 a history of the greatest interest, though perhaps to the 

 student and enthusiast chiefly, and so likewise do such forms 

 as the madrigal, the oratorio, and the opera. 



Many of us are proud — perhaps too proud— of our own per- 

 sonal accomplishments in the vocal art, however great or small. 

 Most of us think very highly — probably, again, too highly — 

 of the vocal powers of the community in which we live, as 

 exhibited in the performances of our choral societies, our 

 choirs, and the like. Such a state of things may be the result 

 of vanity or some other weakness of human nature, but is, as a 

 rule, an innocent failing, a pardonable result of the delight and 

 pleasure we take in the vocal performances of ourselves and of 

 our friends. A thousand years ago our forefathers had pro- 

 bably the same weaknesses and failings, just the same vanity, 

 notwithstanding that their m;isic as an art was very crude, 

 and would be to us intolerably harsh. 



