New-York tribune., 1921-03-27
A Valuable Contribution
To the History Of Music
William j. Henderson's Early History of Singing
Traces Development of Art of Song From Begin
ming of Christian Era Through 18th Century

which established the authoritative de-
livery of the musical liturgy for ali of
Europe. The students were required to
spend nine years in study, a period de-
termined by the rule that all chants
were to be mem orized. All the singers.
Boys and men, had their heads shaved
and wore the chasuble
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries
the music of the troubadours, poly
phonic composition, the art of descant
or discant and mensural music were
among the influences which affected
the development of song. Mr. Hender-
son, with Pierre Aubry and Jean
Beck, reminds his readers that most
of the troubadours were not poets but
composers. trained musicians, edu-
Gated in abbeys, who received the same
courses of instruction, which included
ecclesiastic song, followed by young
men preparing to take holy orders.
The Spread of Cultivated Song
In chapter on "Vocal Teachers and
Secular Song" Mr.. Henderson says that
! part singing was practiced throughout
Europe in the fifteenth century and
that choral societies were more numer-
Gus at that time than in modern Ger
many. There was general spreading
J of interest in cultivated song. An
educated gentleman of the period was
expected to sing at sight and even to
be familiar with the art of descant, so
that he could improvise part on a
given melody.
/; Erasmus, who died in 1886, wrote:
"The English challenge the preroga-
tive of having the handsomest women,
of keeping the best table, and of being
the most accomplished in the skill of
music of any people"
The ladies of Elizabeth's court read
at sight and accompanied themselves
on lutes and other instruments. Henry
VIII studied music. Anne Bullen liked
the compositions of Josquin des Pres.
In 1851 Edward vi impressed the
French Ambassador by playing the lutte.
But in singing, as it was then prac-
ticed, the expression of tragic passion
was still lacking. The birth of drama
tic recitative occurred at the close of
| the sixteenth century, when an effort
was made to make texts Ineligible
to listeners and to impart direct hui
man expression to vocal music.
Worship of Opera Singers Begins
The dawn of the seventeenth CEN
tury brought the most important pc
riod in the early history of opera.
The art of singing was significantly
affected. The century began with gen
uine lyric drama, in which vocal ideals
founded on pure classic beauty were
, revealed. 1t ended with opera as a
superficial spectacle, a mere amuse-
ment for n pleasure-loving populace.
The sun of the virtuoso singer had
risen.
The idolatry of opera singers began.
Among these were male soprani and
contralti. Loreto Vittorio, male So
prano, the protege of Cardinal Ludo-
= visi, caused such transports by his
singing that many people, suffocated
Dy emOJiOU, naStlly Threw open tnelT
garments. When he died, in 1870, a
monument was erected to him in the
Church of Minerva, Rome.
Fierce rivalry existed between these
singers, and partisanship ran high. III
1925 operate strife ragged in Rome
over the individual merits Of two
soprani, Margherita Corta and Fran
cesca della Laguna. Mediators sought
to bring about an honorable peace by
providing the rival singers with roles
of equal Importance in Tronsarelli's IS
opera, LA Catena d'Adone." But fear
ing riot in the theater the Princess
Aldobrandini forbade both women to
sing and ordered their roles given to
two evirati.
Leonora Baroni, chamber singer of
the time, counted Popes and poets
among her admirers. Clement TX called
Iher "a sweet siren" and praised her
lglowing eyes, while Cardinal Mazarin
ordered the French Ambassador at