THE musical characters hitherto spoken of, were calculated not only for vocal performance, but were applicable to every instrument in use after the time of inventing them, excepting the lute, which, for reasons best known to the performers on it, had a series of characters appropriated to that and others of the same class; when or by whom these characters were invented is not known. This kind of notation, which is by certain letters of the Roman alphabet, is called the Tablature, the first intimations of which are to be met with in the Musurgia of Ottomarus Luscinius. The Fronimo of Galilei is in the titlepage called a Dialogue 'sopra l'Arte del bene in'tavolare:' this kind of tablature differs from the other, the author, according to the manner of the Italians, as Mersennus says, making use of numbers instead of letters, and of straight or hooked lines instead of notes.*

Mersennus says that several skilful men had laboured to improve the Tablature, but yet insinuates that they affected to make a mystery of it, from whence he infers that diversity of notation between them. He adds that Adrian Le Roy is the only one who has in truth given to the world the precepts of the Tablature. This man was a bookseller at Paris, and wrote the book which Mersennus above alludes to, with the title of Briefve et facile Instruction 'pour aprendre la Tablature à bien accorder, con'duire, et disposer la Main sur la Guiterne,' which, together with another book of his of the same kind, intitled Instruction de partir toute Musique des huit 'divers Tons en Tablature de Luth,' were published about 1570, with a recommendatory preface by one Jacques Gohory, a musician, and a friend of the author.

This being the first book of the kind ever published, it was esteemed a great curiosity, and as such was immediately on its publication translated into sundry languages; that into the English has only the initials F. K. for the name of the translator, and was printed by John Kingston in 1574. The first of these books exhibits the lute in this form :-‡

* De Instrumentis Harmonicis, lib. I. prop. xviii. pag. 24. + Ibid.

The above figure represents the lute in its original form, but the many improvements made in this instrument make it necessary to remark that the lute, simply constructed as this is, is called the French lute; the first improvement of it was the Theorbo or Cithara Bijuga, so called as having two necks, the second or longest whereof sustains the four last rows of chords, which give the deepest and gravest sounds; its use is to play thorough bass in the accompaniment of the voice. Brossard intimates that it was invented in France by the Sieur Hotteman, and thence introduced into Italy. But Kircher gives a different account

The lute which Le Roy treats of, is supposed to consist of six strings, or rather eleven, for that the five larger are doubled; and in the Tablature the stave of five lines answers to the five upper strings of the instrument, the lower or base string it seems being sufficiently denoted by its proximity to the fifth string, signified by the lowest line of the stave.

The frets come next to be explained: these are small strings tied about the neck of the lute at proper distances, eight in number, and figured by the letters bcdefghi;§ the letter a is omitted in the above series, forasmuch as whereever it is found the string is to be struck open. The general idea of the tablature therefore is this, the lines of the stave give the chords respectively, and the letters the points at which they are to be stopped, and consequently the notes of any given composition, the instrument being previously tuned for the purpose, as the precepts of the lute require.

As to the characters for time used in the tablature,

of the matter, saying that it received its name from a certain Neapolitan who first doubled the neck of the Testudo or lute, and added several chords to it, He says that the author of this improvement, with a kind of pun, gave to this instrument the name of Tiorba, from its near resemblance to a utensil so called, in which the glovers of Italy were wont, as in a mortar, to pound perfumes. Kircher adds, that Hieronymus Kapsperger, a noble German, was the first that brought the Theorbo into repute, and that in his time it had the preference of all other instruments. The strings of the Theorbo, properly so called, are single, nevertheless there are many who double the bass strings with an octave, and the small ones with an unison, in which case it assumes a new appellation, and is called the Arch-lute. Mersennus is extremely accurate in his description of the lute and the Theorbo, but he has not noted the diversity between the latter and the Arch-lute.

It seems that the use of the small letters of the alphabet in tablature was at first peculiar to the French. The Italians and other nations instead thereof making use of cyphers and other characters. Le Roy, pag. 64. But the French method, soon after the publication of Le Roy's book, became general.

The ninth and last chapter of this latter book of Le Roy is on the subject of strings, concerning which there is much curious matter in Mersennus, as also a rule for trying them, and distinguishing between a true and a false string: but because this rule is • Gohory, in his preface to Le Roy's book, sums up the character of Orlando de Lasso in those words: Here then will I end, after I have 'advertised you that all the examples of this book be taken and chosen out of Orland de Lassis, of whom I will further witness, that he is this 'day, without danger of offence to any man, esteemed the most ex'cellent musitian of this time, as well in grave matters, as meane and 'more pleasaunt; a thing given from above to fewe other, in which he hath attayned not only the perfection of melodie, but also a certaine grace of sound beyond all other, such as Appelles did accompt of Venus por'trature; wherein he hath more than all other observed to fit the har'monie to the matter, expressing all partes of the passions thereof: being the first that hath eschewed bondes and common holdinges of the letter, 'by right placing of the sillabelles upon the notes, and observing the 'accent in French, and quantitie in Latine.

It seems that the method of notation by the tablature was also

also to be found in Le Roy's book, and most probably was by Mersennus taken from thence, the whole of the chapter, which is very short, is here inserted.

To put the laste hande to this worke, I will 'not omitte to give you to understande how to

adapted to the Viol de Gamba. In the second book of Songs or Ayres with Tablature, by John Dowland, printed in 1600, is a lesson in tablature for the lute and bass viol, entitled Dowland's Adew for Master Oliver Cromwell; and in a book printed in 1603, entitled The Schoole of Musicke, by Thomas Robinson, lutenist, is a song for the viol by tablature. Nay, it was also used for the treble violin, and that so late as 1682; and, which is very remarkable, there were then two ways of tuning it, at the choice of the performer, by fifths and by eighths this appears in a book entitled Apollo's Banquet, containing Instructions and Variety of new tunes, Ayres, and Jiggs, for the treble Violin, the third edition published in that year by John Playford. Anthony Wood, who loved and understood music, also played on the violin; and, as he himself relates, practised a still different method of tuning, viz., by fourths. Vide Life of Antony à Wood, at the end of Hearne's Caii Vindiciæ, and lately reprinted by itself,

knowe stringes, whereof the best come to us out of Almaigne, on this side the town of Munic, and from 'Aquila in Italie; before we put them on the lute 'it is nedefull to prove them between the handes in 'maner as is sette forthe in the figures hereafter 'pictured, which shewe manifestlie on the finger and 'to the eye the difference from the true with the 'false; that is to wete, the true is knowen by this, 'that in strikyng hym betwene the fingers hee muste 'shewe to divide hymselfe juste in twoo, and that 'for so muche as shall reche from the bridge belowe 'to the toppe of the necke, because it maketh no "matter for the rest of the stringes that goeth among the pinnes; notwithstandyng ye maie not be satis'fied in assaiyng the stringe holden only at that 'length, but that you must also prove hym in stryk'ing hym, treying holden at shorter lengthes to be 'well assured of his certaine goodness and perfection. 'Also the false strynge is knowen by the shew of many strynges, which it representeth when it is 'striken between the fingers; so muste you continewe 'the same triall in stryking the stryng till you perceive the tooken of the good to separate hym 'from the badde, accordyng to the figures followyng.'

COSTANZO PORTA, a Franciscan friar, and a native of Cremona, is highly celebrated among the musicians of the sixteenth century. In the earlier part of his life he was Maestro di Capella in the cathedral church of Osimo as it is called, from the Latin Auximum, a small city on the river Musone near Ancona, but was afterwards advanced to the same station in the church of Loretto. He was the author of that most ingenious composition published first by Artusi in his treatise Delle Imperfettioni della moderna 'Musica,' and inserted in the earlier part of this work, and which is so contrived, as that besides that the parts are inverted, it may be sung as well backward as forward. He is supposed to have died in the year 1580, and has left behind him Motets for five voices, printed at Venice in 1546, and other works of the like kind, printed also there in 1566 and 1580. In an oration pronounced by Ansaldus

Cotta of Cremona in 1553, 'pro Instauratione Studiorum Cremona,' is the following eulogium on 'him: Constantius Porta non tam hujus urbis, quam 'Franciscanæ familiæ decus eximium, cujus in musica 'facultatem præstantiam plerisque cum Italiæ urbibus Roma potissimum, omnium regina gentium est ad'mirata. Vide Arisii Cremonam literatam, pag. 453. And elsewhere in the same oration he is styled 'Musicorum omnium præter invidiam facile princeps.' Vide Draudii Bibl. Class. pag. 1693.

GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA (a Portrait) was, as his name imports, a native of the ancient Præneste, now corruptly called Palestrina, and still more corruptly Palestina.* He flourished in the middle of the sixteenth century; and the year of his birth is thus ascertained by Andrea Adami da Bolsena, master of the pontifical chapel under Clement XI. who professes to give the particulars of his life. The time of Palestrina's birth is not precisely to 'be ascertained, by reason that the records of the city of Palestrina, which may be supposed to con'tain the register of his birth, were destroyed at the 'sacking thereof by the duke d' Alva in 1557; but 'it appears by a book intitled Le grotte Vaticane, 'written by a person named Torrigio, that he was in 'the sixty-fifth year of his age when he died;' and from other authentic evidences the same writer, Adami, fixes the time of his death on the second day of February 1594, from whence it may be computed that he must have been born some time in the year 1529.†

The author who has enabled us thus satisfactorily to settle the period of Palestrina's life, has been less fortunate in ascertaining the name of his master. He says that he was a scholar of Gaudio Mell, Fiammengo, i. e. a Fleming, or native of Flanders; this assertion is grounded on the testimony of Antimo Liberati, a singer in the pontifical chapel, who has given an account of Palestrina and his supposed

master in these words :

'Among the many strangers who settled in Italy and Rome, the first who gave instructions for sing'ing and harmonic modulations was Gaudio Mell, Flandro, a man of great talents, and of a sweet 'flowing style, who instituted at Rome a noble and 'excellent school for music, where many pupils ren'dered themselves conspicuous in that science, but 'above all Gio. Pier Luigi Palestrina, who, as if 'distinguished by nature herself, surpassed all other

The name Gianetto Palestina occurs in many collections of madrigals and other compositions published about this time; and in the Storia della Musica of Padre Martini, pag. 198, is the following note: Giovanni 'Pier Luigi da Palestrina detto anche Gianetto da Palestrina come dal 'lib. I. intitolato Li Amorosi Ardori di diversi eccell. Musici a 5. raccolti 'da Cesare Corradi.'

The truth of this assertion, notwithstanding the authority on which it is grounded, is at least questionable. In a collection of madrigals, intitled Medodia Olympica, published by Pietro Philippi in 1594, we meet with the name Gio. Prenestini to the madrigals, Mori quasi il mio Core,' and 'Veramente in amore;' and also with the name Gianetto Palestina to Non son le vostri mani,' and 'O bella Ninfa.' And in a collection of motets intitled Florilegium sacrarum cantionum quinque vocum pro 'diebus Dominicis et Festis totius anni e celeberrimis nostri temporis 'musicis,' printed by Petrus Phalesius of Antwerp in 1611, the name Jo. Aloysius Prænestinus occurs in seven places, and that of Gianetto de Palestina in four.

The argument hence arising is, that if both those names were intended to denote the same person, the distinction between them would hardly have been preserved in the instances above adduced in one and the same publication.

↑ Vide Osservazioni per ben regolare il Coro della Cappella Pontificia. fatte da Andrea Adami da Bolsena, pag. 169.

rivals, and even his own masters. This great genius, 'guided by a peculiar faculty, the gift of God, adopted a style of harmony so elegant, so noble, so learned, so easy, and so pleasing both to the connoisseur and 'the ignorant, that in a mass composed on purpose, sung before pope Marcellus Cervinus and the sacred college of cardinals, he made that pontiff alter the 'intention he had of enforcing the bull of John 'XXII. which abolished entirely church-music under 'the penalty of excommunication. This ingenious 'man, by his astonishing skill and the divine melody ' of that mass, plainly convinced his holiness that 'those disagreeable jars between the music and the 'words so often heard in churches, were not owing 'to any defect in the art, but to the want of skill in 'the composers; and Paul IV. his successor, to whom 'he dedicated the mass entitled Missa Papæ Marcelli, 'appointed him perpetual composer and director in 'the pontifical chapel, a dignity which has been. ' vacant ever since his death. This mass is now 'and ever will be performed, as long as there is 'a world, in the sacred temples at Rome, and in all 'other places where they have been so fortunate as 'to procure the compositions of a genius whose 'works breathe divine harmony, and enable us to 'sing in a style so truly sublime the praises of our 'Maker.'+

Adami has adopted the facts contained in this relation, and acquiesced in the assertion that Gaudio Mell, a Fleming, was the master of a noble school at Rome, where the principles and practice of music were taught, and that Palestrina was his disciple.

It is to be feared that Liberati had no better authority for the particulars of his relation than bare report, for evidence is wanting that such a person as Gaudio Mell, a Fleming and musician, ever existed: his name does not occur in the list of Flemish musicians given by Guicciardini in his History of the Low Countries, nor in any of those collections of vocal music published by Pietro Phalesio, Hubert Waelrant, Andrew Pevernage, Pietro Philippi, Melchior Borchgrevinck, and others, between the years 1593 and 1620, nor in Printz's History of Music, nor in that of Bontempi, nor in the Musical Lexicon of John Godfrey Walther, which contains an accurate account of musicians from the time of Pythagoras down to the year 1732.

It may indeed be suspected that Liberati by Gaudio Mell might understand Goudimel, but his Christian name was Claude, for which reason he is by Monsieur Varillas confounded with Claude Le Jeune. Neither

Paul IV. succeeded to the pontificate in 1560, and at that time Girolamo Maccabei was Maestro della Cappella Pontificia; and in 1567 he was succeeded by Egidio Valenti; these were both ecclesiastics, and not musicians, and the latter is styled Maestro del Collegio de Cantoria ' della Cappella Pontificia,' from whence it may be conjectured that this was an office that referred to the government of the college, and not to the performance of service in the chapel; so that by this appointment Palestrina seems to have been virtually Maestro di Cappella, as well of the pope's chapel as of the church of St. Peter, but that he did not choose to assume the title, it having been already appropriated to 'an officer of a different kind.

This is a mistake of Antimo Liberati, and is noted by Adami, for Felice Anerio succeeded Palestrina in the office of Compositore da Cappella Pontificia immediately on his decease, as appears by a memorandum in a book of Ippolito Gamboce, Puntatore, i. e. register of the colleg, or as some say, an officer whose duty it is to appoint the functions for each day's service in the chapel. See the account of Felice Anerio bereafter given.

I Lettera scritta dal Sig. Antimo Liberati in risposta ad una del Sig. Ovidio Persapegi, 1688, pag. 22.

was Goudimel a Fleming, but a native of Franche Comté, as Bayle infers from certain verses which fix the place of his birth upon the Doux, a river that runs by Bezançon; and Franche Comté is not in Flanders, but in Burgundy.§

But besides that the master of Palestrina is said to have been a Fleming, there are other reasons for supposing that Goudimel was not the person. Goudimel was a protestant, and, as Thuanus relates, set the Psalms of David translated into métre by Clement Marot and Theodore Beza, to various and most pleasing tunes, which in his time were sung both publicly and privately by the protestants. He was massacred at Lyons, and not at Paris, as some assert, in 1572, and has a place and an eulogium in the protestant martyrology.||

After stating the above facts it must appear needless to insist on the improbability that Palestrina, whom we must suppose to have been born of parents of the Romish communion, should have ever been the disciple of a protestant, an intimate of Calvin, and a composer of the music to a translation of the Psalms into vernacular metre; and who, so far was he from having instituted a music-school at Rome, as is elsewhere asserted, does not appear by any of the accounts extant of him to have past the limits of his own country.

In

For these reasons it may be presumed that Liberati is mistaken in the name of Palestrina's master, who though in truth a Fleming, and of the name of Mell, seems to have been a different person from him whom he has dignified with that character. a word, the current tradition is, and Dr. Pepusch himself acquiesced in it, that Palestrina was a disciple of Rinaldo del Mell [Renatus de Mell] a well-known composer in the sixteenth century, who is described by Printz and Walther as being a native of Flanders, and to have flourished about the year 1538, at which time Palestrina was nine years old, a proper age for instruction.

At the age of thirty-three, and in the year 1562, Palestrina was made Maestro di Cappella di S. Maria Maggiore, and in 1571 he was appointed to the same honourable office in the church of St. Peter at Rome, in the room of Giovanni Animuccia, which he held for the remainder of his life, honoured with the favour and protection of the succeeding popes, particularly Sixtus V.

Antimo Liberata relates that Palestrina, in conjunction with a very intimate friend and fellowstudent [condiscepolo] of his, Gio. Maria Nanino by name, established a school at Rome, in which, notwithstanding his close attachment to his studies and the duties of his employment, the former often appeared assisting the students in their exercises, and deciding the differences which sometimes arose between the professors that frequented it.

In the course of his studies Palestrina discovered the error of the German and other musicians, who had in a great measure corrupted the practice of music by the introduction of intricate proportions, and set about framing a style for the church, grave, decent, and plain, and which, as it admitted of none