MUSIC AND THE DRAMA. bv9 
of David and the hymns preserved in the Old Testament. In the year 340 
after Christ, singing at the Lord’s supper was introduced ; for this purpose 
they at first doubtless made use of heathen sacrificial melodies, to which 
Christian hymns were adapted. 
B. The Middle Ages. 
As early as the 4th century the Popes, e. g. Damasus, Ephraem Syrus, 
and Ambrose bishop of Milan (a4. p. 396) exerted themselves for the 
improvement of music; and Pope Gregory the Great founded in the 
beginning of the 7th century a singing-school, for which the best ancient 
melodies were collected and arranged as chorals. Guido of Arezzo intro- 
duced an entirely new order into music, and was the first who attempted to 
write it with notes; his notation was improved by Franco of Cologne (1046) 
and John de Mar In the year 980 Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
introduced part-singing into use. Thus far music had been the property of 
the church; but now arose the master-singers, troubadours, and minne- 
singers, who either recited their poems in a melodramatic manner to the 
accompaniment of the cither and harp, or sang them to tunes of their own 
composing. In this manner the foundation of secular music was laid, and 
it flourished especially in the South of France, where music soon began to 
be used as an accompaniment to dancing. The troubadours and minne- 
singers led partly a wandering life, performing at courts and at the castles 
of knights; while sothe of them found a fixed abode in the residences of 
princes and of the highest per sonages among the knights: the real minne- 
singers were everywhere held in high esteem, and many a nobleman 
regarded it as an honor to belong to their order. Among them were Wol- 
fram von Eschenbach, Walter von der Vogelweide, Otto von Bottenloben, 
and many others. 
C. Modern Trmes. 
At the revival of letters and science at the close of the fifteenth century, 
music also came in for its share of improvement, and particularly the part- 
music in the churches, which then assumed the character it has since main- 
tained. And in this as in the other fine arts, Italy decidedly took the 
lead of the rest of Europe. The old church music still preserved in St. 
Peter’s at Rome, consisting of the productions of Gafor, Patavino, Porta, 
and Zarlino, testifies to the great knowledge possessed by these masters of 
the rules of counterpoint, which at length degenerated in the hands of 
Berardi and Buocini into artificial triflmg. But Paleestrina, and after him 
Anexis, Nanina de Vallerana, Velletri, and Allegri, restored church-music 
to its former dignity. At the close of the sixteenth century, music began 
to be applied to the ballad, canzonet, and madrigal, and still later to accom- 
panying the choruses in theatrical representations. Then, too, arose the 
opera, and Galilei, Caccini, Peri, and Monteverdo, effected an immense 
improvement by laying aside the difficult contrapuntal style of the church- 
music, by venturing on a freer musical phrasing, and by striving to connect 
the words with the music, and thus creating recitative. The first comic 
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