113. Literature about Music.—The growth of intellectual interest in music, which began so fruitfully in the 16th century, was maintained and increased in the 17th. The widespread teaching of practical music called forth numerous manuals and text-books, with several philosophical treatises on composition, instruments and performance. The instinct for historical investigation grew stronger and more productive, and the drafting of dictionaries and similar compendiums began. Scholarship busied itself still further with questions of ancient musical theory, assisted now by notable republications of Greek treatises. Musical acoustics appeared as a specialty, though its strong development was deferred till the 18th century. In these varied lines of study and literary production all the leading countries participated more equally than before, England now taking her place with the rest.
No exhaustive catalogue of works will be attempted, only a rapid
enumeration of those temporarily or permanently influential. For convenience,
the century will be taken up in two parts. The usual language
is still Latin, but other languages begin to be used with freedom.
Technical manuals of varying scope during the first years of the century were issued in 1598 by Orazio Scaletta of Padua (d.1630); from 1601 by Scipione Cerreto of Naples; in 1606-10 by Antonio Brunelli of Florence; in 1611-3 by Johann Heinrich Alstedt of Herborn (d. 1638), who also wrote encyclopædia articles; in 1611 by C. T. Walliser of Strassburg (d. 1648); in 1618 by Giovanni Battista Rossi of Genoa; in 1618 by Thomas Campion of London (d. 1620); in 1620 by Francesco Rognoni-Taegio of Milan; in 1626 by Arauxo of Seville (d. 1663); and in 1626, on solmization, by Nikolaus Gengenbach of Zeitz. An early exposition of figured bass (1607) was by Agostino Agazzari (d. 1640) of Rome and from 1630 at Siena, who also wrote (1638) on church music in the light of the action of the Council of Trent. The earliest treatise on conducting as a specialty (1611) was by Agostino Pisa of Rome. Georg Leopold Fuhrmann of Nuremberg wrote upon the lute and its music (1615). Erycus Puteanus [Hendrik van Put] (d. 1646), from 1607 professor in Louvain University, issued two or three works (1599-1602) in which history and theory mingled. He opposed solmization.
Adriano Banchieri (d. 1634), the eminent organist and composer of Bologna, treated importantly of organ-playing and composition (1601-28). Domenico Pietro Cerone (d. after 1613), for about 15 years at Madrid and from about 1608 at Naples, issued two theoretical treatises (1609-13), the latter containing almost 1200 closely printed pages—now known only by a few copies. Heinrich Baryphonus [Pipegrop] of Quedlinburg (d. 1655) wrote extensively (from 1609?), including elaborate mathematical discussions, many now lost.
Michael Prätorius (d. 1621), choirmaster at Wolfenbüttel (see sec. 95), was the most important writer in the early part of the century. His Syntagma
