inment was a prose comedy
of Landi, preceded by a prologue and provided with five intermezzi. In
the first intermezzo Aurora, in a blazing chariot, awakened all nature
by her song. Then the Sun rose and by his position in the sky informed
the audience what was the hour of each succeeding episode. In the final
intermezzo Night brought back Sleep, who had banished Aurora, and the
spectacle concluded with a dance of bacchantes and satyrs to
instrumental music. The accounts which have come down to us note that
the song of Aurora was accompanied by a gravicembalo, an organ, a flute,
a harp and a large viol. For the song of Night four trombones were used
to produce a grave and melancholy support. The music for this
entertainment was composed by Francesco Corteccia, Constanzo Festa,
Mattio Rampollini, Petrus Masaconus and Baccio Moschini. All these
musicians were composers of madrigals, and Corteccia was at the time
Cosimo's chapel master. In this spectacle was heard the solo madrigal
for Sileno already mentioned. Here is the opening of this piece; the
upper voice was sung and the other voice parts were played as an
accompaniment.

[Musical Notation]

In 1554 Beccari of Ferrara (1510-1590) produced his "Il Sagrifizio," a
genuine pastoral drama, in which the actors were Arcadian shepherds with
Roman manners. The dialogues were connected by a series of dramatic
actions, and the music was composed by Alfonso della Viola, a pupil of
Willaert. Among the personages was a high priest who sang, like
Poliziano's Orpheus, to the accompaniment of his own lyre. The same
composer wrote choruses for Alberto Lollio's pastoral, "Aretusa" (1563)
and several musical numbers for "Lo Sfortunato" by Agostino Argenti, of
Ferrara (1571).

In 1574 on the occasion of the visit of Henri III to Venice, the doge
ordered a performance of a piece called simply "Tragedia," which had
choruses and some other music by the great Claudio Merulo, composer of
the first definitely designed instrumental works. For the wedding
festivities attendant upon the marriage of Francesco de Medicis and
Bianca Capella in 1579 Gualterotti arranged a grand tournee in the
interior court of the Pitti Palace at Florence. This entertainment was
of a nature similar to that of 1539 above described. It was composed of
mythologic episodes spectacularly treated. The verse was by Giovanni
Rucellai, the distinguished author of "Rosamunda" and the "Api," and the
music by Pietro Strozz