consists of about sixty voices'; while another of the suite, Gabriel Tetzel, a German, says 'After the ball came the king's singers and sang. I believe there are no better singers in the world.' Edward showed due consideration for the ears of his subjects, and this policy was followed by all the sovereigns of the Tudor line. Hence the universally favourable reports of foreigners upon public musical performances in England during this and the following century. Among the Remembrancia of the City of London recently brought to light, No. 16 is a letter from the Lord Keeper, Sir John Puckering, to the Lord Mayor, requesting him to see that William Warren, lately chosen Master of the Musicians' Company, but prevented from the peaceful exercise of his office by some of the members of the company, be not further interfered with. As this letter is dated Sept. 29, 1594, it may be assumed that the company acted under the old charter during Elizabeth's reign, and until the granting of a new one by James I on July 8, 1604. In this the powers of the company were restricted to the City of London and within three miles of its boundaries, but it gave their freemen virtually a monopoly in out-door performances, and at weddings, dances, playing under windows, etc., because all performers under one of the company's bye-laws required its licence. This obnoxious regulation induced Charles I to restrict the powers of the company to within the City of London itself. The charter of James dispenses with the sisterhood and makes the election of the master an annual one, instead of, as before, for life. It gives the power to sue as a body corporate, a common seal, and the right to hold land and houses. But its powers to examine musicians and to control them have become a dead letter, and its income is derived from the subscriptions of its members and of those of former days. The cost of taking up the livery is £15 17s. 6d. and the freedom confers a vote for the election of members of parliament, for bridge-master, and other offices. The livery dinner, with music, is annual, and the court dine after three of the quarterly meetings for the transaction of business. Of late years some eminent musicians, amateurs of music, and others interested in the progress of the art and science, have joined the company as a social centre and to increase its funds, with the ultimate object of advancing music educationally or otherwise. Among them are John Hullah LL.D, Dr. W. H. Stone, Dr. Stainer, Dr. Bridge, Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B., Mr. Deputy Sheriff Crawford, Mr. Wilbye Cooper, Mr. Frank Chappell, Mr. Henry Phillips, Mr. Molineux, Mr. Crews, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Porter, and other members of the Madrigal Society. Mr. George Wood, Mr. W. Stewartson Collard, and Mr. W. Chappell are members of the court. The Musicians' is the only city company for the exercise of a profession.
MUSIC-PRINTING. There are several ways in which an unlimited number of copies of designs or characters may be produced. If a block of wood or metal is cut away so as to leave in relief the required shapes of the characters, then by inking the raised surface an impression is easily obtained on paper. A great improvement on such block -printing was effected by making each letter a separate type in cast metal, so that the types might be used over and over again for different works. The converse of surface printing is copper-plate printing: here the design is engraved in intaglio on a sheet of metal, and the ink is contained in the sunken lines of the engraving and not on the surface of the plate. A third way is by lithography, in which characters are drawn with peculiar greasy pencils on the surface of certain porous stones. The stone being wetted, the ink is applied; and it adheres to the drawing, but refuses the stone. All these methods have been applied to the printing of music.
I. Block-printing was of course the earliest plan adopted, and the oldest known example is a book with Gregorian notes printed at Augsburg by Hans Froschauer in 1473.[1] A little later, Gregorian music was printed by types, at two printings, as in a missal published by Oct. Scotus (Venice, 1482), in the possession of Alfred Littleton, Esq. Wenssler and Kilchen, of Basle, in 1488, produced the 'Agenda parochialium,' and in 1492 Ratdolt, probably at Augsburg, a missal. In these the stave-lines were red and the notes black, all being from type, but at two printings, one for the stave and another for the notes. Figurated or florid song, however, presented greater difficulties to the type printer. Block-printing therefore continued to be employed for the musical portions of such books as the 'Musices Opusculum' of Nicolaus Burtius, printed at Bologna in 1487, by Ugo de Rugeriis, in open lozenge-shaped notes; and the 'Practica Musicæ' of Franchinus Gafforius, printed at Milan, 1492. Even as late as 1520, Conrad Peutinger published at Augsburg a collection of motets for five voices in wood-engraving.[2] On the following page we give a facsimile from Burtius's work.
Meanwhile Ottaviano dei Petrucci (born at Fossombrone, 1466) so advanced the art that, practically speaking, he may be considered as the inventor of printing florid song with moveable types. He was settled in Venice, and there produced his first work, a collection of 96 songs, in 1501. Another of his publications appeared in 1503, and is a collection of masses by Pierre de la Rue, a copy of which may be seen in the British Museum. The stave lines and the notes are produced at two separate printings; the lines being unbroken and perfectly continuous, and the notes set up in moveable types. The annexed specimen gives a tolerable idea of the
- ↑ The Mayence Psalter, now [App. p.727 "a copy of which is"] in the British Museum, is the oldest printed book known, with one exception. It was printed by Fust & Schoeffer at Mayence in 1457 in a fine large black-letter type, and on vellum. Where musical notes were required, the four lines of the stave were printed in red Ink, but the notes were inserted afterwards by hand. In a second edition, 1459, the lines were black. This cannot therefore be cited as an example of true music printing, any more than similar books in which the notes were added to the printed stave by means of inked stamps or punches worked by hand, called pattern printing.
- ↑ See Eitner's Bibliographie,' p. 14. The illustrations to Ouliblchefs great work on Mozart (Moscow, 1843) are all cut in wood.
