drama consisted of music of the better
frottola type and that the moving appeals of his hero were accompanied
on a "lyre" of the period in precisely the same manner as frottole
transformed into vocal solos were accompanied on the lute. For these
reasons an example of the method of arranging a frottola for voice and
lute will give us some idea of the character of the music sung by Baccio
Ugolino in the "Orfeo." The examples here offered are those given in the
great history of Ambros. The first is a fragment of a frottola (composed
by Tromboncino) in its original shape. The second shows the same music
as arranged for solo voice and lute by Franciscus Bossinensis as found
in a collection published by Petrucci in 1509.

[Musical Notation: two excerpts]

How far removed this species of lyric solo was from the dramatic
recitative of Peri and Caccini is apparent at a single glance. But on
the other hand it is impossible to be blind to its relationship to the
more metrical arioso of Monteverde's earlier work or perhaps to the
canzone of Caccini's "Nuove Musiche." The line of development or
progress is distinctly traceable. At this point it is not essential that
we should satisfy ourselves that the solo songs of Caccini were
descendants of the lyrics of the _cantori a liuto_, for when the two
species are placed in juxtaposition the lineage is almost unmistakable.
What we do need to remember here is that the method of the lute singers
entered fully into the construction of the score--if it may be so
called--of Poliziano's "Orfeo" and passed from that to the madrigal
drama and was there brought under the reformatory experiments of Galilei
and his contemporaries. This subject must be discussed more fully in a
later chapter.

The first lyric number of the "Orfeo," that sung by Aristaeus, is plainly
labeled "canzona," and was, therefore, without doubt a song made after
the manner of the lutenists. The words "forth from thy wallet take thy
pipe" indicate that a wind instrument figured in this number. What sort
of instrument we shall inquire in the next chapter. At present we may
content ourselves with assuming that no highly developed solo part was
assigned to it. The existence of such a part would imply the
co-existence of considerable musicianship on the part of the pipe player
and of an advanced technic in the composition of instrumental obbligati.
It might also presuppose the existence of a system of notation much
better than