institutions was the Church of St. Mark's, founded in the 9th century, and, from the 11th, famous as one of the richest and most splendid of cathedrals. Here the powerful patronage of the state developed a musical establishment that in the 16th century attained fame in all Europe.
The excellence of the music at St. Mark's first became notable in the 14th
century. The successive organists after 1400 were Zuane (1406-19), Bernardino
(1419-45), Bernardo di Stefanino Murer (1445-59), Bartolommeo Vielmis
(1459-90 and later), Francesco d' Ana (1490-?), Zuan Maria (1504-7), Baldassare da Imola (1533-41), Jachet de Buus (1541-51), Annibale (1552-66),
Merulo (1557-84), Andrea Gabrieli (1556-86), Giovanni Gabrieli (1585-1612),
Vincenzo Bell'Haver (1586-88) and Gioseffo Guami (1588-91). From 1490
there were two organs, and the overlapping dates above signify terms of
service beginning on the second organ and passing to the first. The list of
choirmasters begins in 1491 and includes Pietro de Fossis, a Netherlander
(1491-1525), Willaert (1527-62), De Rore (1559-65), Zarlino (1565-90) and
Donato (1590-1603). From 1403 there was a special school for choristers.
The peculiar eminence of Venice in the early 16th century
was due to the extraordinary genius of Willaert, choirmaster at
St. Mark's for thirty-five years from 1527, who is commonly
called the founder of the Venetian school. In all the technical
mysteries of counterpoint he was fully as expert as his predecessors,
while he excelled in interesting extensions of their style.
Chief of these advances was the free use of double-choir effects,
probably suggested by the fact that St. Mark's had two organs
facing one another across the chancel. Antiphony of this
kind involved important changes in current method—partition
into sections, with some symmetry between them, more clear
cadences, more massing of voices in pure harmony, conciser
handling of the words, etc. Progress in all these was novel
and a grateful addition to the older procedures. In general, emotional
effects were pushed forward, with richer combinations of
chords and more freedom with chromatic tones, while mere precision
or intricacy of imitation was less prominent. In all this
we see the working of the typical Italian love of color, warmth
and sentiment. Though not the first to grasp the possibilities
of the madrigal-form, Willaert was one of the first strong
writers in it, exercising a dominant influence on its development
(see sec. 69). For all these reasons Willaert is counted
as, on the whole, the ablest master between Des Près and
Palestrina.
