ot a literal quotation, but partly
a paraphrase and partly a condensation of the text of Ambros.]

Castiglione (1478-1529) wrote somewhat later than the period of
Poliziano. The "Cortegiano" dates from 1514, though it was not published
till a few years later, and the frottola was at the zenith of its
excellence in the time of Bernado Tromboncino, who belongs to the latter
half of the fifteenth century. But the frottola was well established
before the date of Poliziano's "Orfeo," for minor Italian composers had
poured forth a mass of small lyrics for which they found their models in
the polyphonic secular songs of Antoine de Busnois (1440-1482) and
others of the Netherlands school, especially such writers as Loyset
Compere, of St. Quentin, who died in 1518. Two of his frottole appear in
the Petrucci collection, showing that he was acquainted with this
Italian form, and that his productions in it were known and admired in
Italy. His frottole are distinguished by uncommon grace and gaiety, for
the frottola was generally rather passionate and melancholy, and full of
what Castiglione called "flebile dolcezza."

In view, then, of the state of part song composition in Italy at the
time when Poliziano's "Orfeo" was written we are safe in assuming that
its two choral numbers were set to music of the frottola type. The use
of the refrains, "l'aria di pianti" in the first, and "Ciascun segua, O
Bacco, te," in the second, is an additional influence in moving us
toward this conclusion because we know that it was the employment of the
refrain which helped to lead the frottola toward the strophic form of
the song. We are, moreover, justified in concluding from the character
of the final chorus that it was a ballata or dance song and hence a
frottola of the carnival song variety. No student of classic literature
will need any demonstration of the probability that the Maenads in their
Bacchic invocation danced; and here we have in all likelihood the origin
of that fashion of concluding operas with a chorus and a dance which
survived as late as Mozart's "Die Zauberfloete."

CHAPTER VIII

The Solos of the "Orfeo"

The failure of the vocal solo in the field of artistic music of Europe
might be traced to the establishment of the unisonal chant in the
service of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet in defining such ground we
should easily be led to exaggerate the importance of the solo. In the
infancy of modern music the solo exis