t of
fine linen and cloth of silver stockings and had costly furs thrown over
him. As he slept the heavens opened and seven angels appeared sitting on
clouds and making "a most pleasant noise with horns, greater and less
viols, lutes and organ.... The music of this and all the other
interludes was the composition of Luca Bati, a man of this art most
excellent." After this celestial music another part of the heavens
opened and disclosed God the Father. A ladder was let down, and God
leaning upon it "sang majestically to the sound of many instruments in a
sonorous bass voice."

The other interludes were also filled with scenic and musical effects.
For instance one showed the ecstasy of David, dancing before the ark "to
the sound of a large lute, a violin, a trombone, but more especially to
his own harp." These references to the employment of many instruments in
accompanying the voice or the dance make us wonder whether our
historical stories of the birth and development of the orchestra are
well grounded. But we shall have occasion to consider this matter more
fully when we approach the study of the musical apparatus of the first
lyric dramas. It may be noted, however, in passing that the Italian word
"violino" was used as late as 1597 to designate the tenor viol. This
instance of uncertainty in terminology warns us to be careful in
accepting all things literally.

Perhaps what is of greater significance is the fact that there seems to
have been more uniformity of effort and style in the first secular
drama, doubtless owing to its great superiority as a piece of literary
art. That sacred plays were seldom written by men of literary rank and
ability we have already noted. That they were long drawn out,
cumbersome, disjointed and quite without dramatic design has also been
indicated. Their real significance as forerunners of opera lies in their
insistent employment of certain materials, such as verse, music and
spectacular action, which afterwards became essential parts of the
machinery of the lyric drama.

Indeed in the profusion of spectacular interludes one finds much that
resembles not only opera, but also the English masque and sometimes even
the French pastoral. Yet close examination will convince any student of
operatic history that almost every form of theatrical performance, from
the choral dance to the most elaborate festival show, exerted a certain
amount of influence on the hybrid product called opera. For ex