i. One of the singers was a certain young Giulio
Caccini, who lived to be famous.

Torquato Tasso's pastoral play "Aminta" (1573) had choruses though we
cannot say who composed the music. It is known that Luzzasco Luzzaschi,
pupil of Cyprian di Rore, master of Frescobaldi, and composer of
madrigals and organ toccatas, wrote the chorals in madrigal style for
Guarini's famous "Pastor Fido." There were choruses to separate the acts
and two introduced in the action. These two, which had a kind of
refrain, were the chorus of hunters in Act IV, scene sixth, and the
chorus of priests and shepherds in Act V, scene third. There was also an
episode in which a dance was executed to the music of a chorus sung
behind the scenes.

In 1589, on the occasion of the marriage in Florence of the Grand Duke
Ferdinand with Princess Christine of Loraine, there was a festal
entertainment under the general direction of Giovanni Bardi, Count of
Vernio, at whose palace afterward met the founders of modern opera.
Indeed, the members of the young Florentine coterie were generally
concerned in this fete and doubtless found much to move them toward
their new conception. The Count of Vernio's comedy "Amico Fido" was
played and was accompanied by six spectacular intermezzi with music. The
first of these was by Ottavio Rinuccini, author of "Dafne" and
"Euridice," usually called the first operas. It was named the "Harmony
of the Spheres," and its music was composed by Emilio del Cavaliere
(originator of the modern oratorio) and the chapel master Cristoforo
Malvezzi. The second intermezzo dealt with a contest in song between the
daughters of Pierus and the muses. The judges were hamadryads and the
defeated mortals were punished for their presumption. The text was by
Rinuccini and the music by Luca Marenzio, the famous madrigalist. The
contesting singers were accompanied by lutes and viols, while their
judges had the support of harps, lyres, viols and other instruments of
the same family.

Bardi himself devised the third intermezzo, Rinuccini wrote the verse
and Bardi and Marenzio the music. It had some of the essential features
of both ballet and opera and represented the victory of Apollo over the
python. The god descended from the skies to the music of viols, flutes
and trombones. Later when he celebrated his victory and the acclaiming
Greeks surrounded him, lutes, trombones, harps, viols and a horn united
with the voices. Strozzi wrote the fourth in