have been set to music. If all other
considerations are set aside there still remains the important fact that
the hero of the play is a musical personage. He is to move the powers of
hell by his impassioned song. It would, therefore, be artistically
foolish to begin this new species of work with a piece of vocal solo
which might rob the invocation of Orpheus of its desired effect. It is
altogether probable that the prologue was spoken, and that the opening
dialogue in the scene between the two shepherds was also spoken. After
the lines

"Forth from thy wallet take thy pipe and we
Will sing awhile beneath the leafy trees;
For well my nymph is pleased with melody."

there follows a number which the author plainly indicates as lyric, for
he calls it a canzona. Beginning with this it seems to me that we may
content ourselves with inquiring into the musical character of those
parts which were without doubt lyrically treated in the performance. In
the early version of the poem we have a stage direction which shows that
the Latin text beginning "O meos longum modulata" was sung by Orpheus.
Again it is made plain by the text, as well as by the details of the
ancient legend itself, that the hero sang to the accompaniment of his
lyre when he was arousing the sympathies of the infernal powers. It is
not certain that song was employed in the scene between him and
Tisiphone. All the choruses, however, were unquestionably sung.

The propositions which must now be laid down are these: First, the
choral parts of the work were in the form of the Italian frottola, and
the final one may have approached more closely to the particular style
of the canto carnascialesco (carnival song) and was certainly a ballata,
or dance song. Second, the solo parts were constructed according to the
method developed by the lutenists, who devised a manner of singing one
part of a polyphonic composition and utilizing the other parts as the
instrumental support. Third, there were two obligato instruments, the
pipe used in the duet of the two shepherds, and the "lira" played by
Orpheus. Fourth, there was probably an instrumental accompaniment, at
least to the choral parts.

In regard to the choruses, then, we must bear in mind the well
established characteristics of the madrigal dramas of the sixteenth
century. In these works the choruses were set to music in the madrigal
style and they were frequently of great beauty. But the Italian madrigal
had n