ot been well developed at the time of the production of Poliziano's
"Orfeo," while the frottola was the most popular song of the people.

The frottola was a secular song, written in polyphonic style. The
polyphony was simple and the aim of the composition was popularity. It
is essential for us to bear in mind the fact that in the fifteenth
century the cultivation of part singing was ardent and widespread. The
ability to sing music written in harmonized form was not confined to the
educated classes. It extended through all walks of life, and while the
most elaborate compositions of the famous masters were beyond the powers
of the people, the lighter and more facile pieces were readily sung.[22]

[Footnote 22: "During the fifteenth century the love of
part-singing seems to have taken hold of all phases of society in
the Netherlands; princes and people, corporate bodies, both lay
and clerical, vying with each other in the formation of choral
societies." Naumann, "History of Music," Vol. I, p. 318.

"The practice of concerted singing was not confined to the social
circles of the dilettanti, but was also very popular in the army;
and we have before alluded to the fact that Antoine Busnois and
numerous others followed Charles the Bold into the field." Ibid.,
p. 320.]

The teachings and practice of the Netherlands masters spread through
Europe rapidly, and some of the masters themselves went into Italy,
where they became the apostles of a new artistic religion. The
Netherlands musicians began early to write secular songs in a style
which eventually developed into the madrigal. Frequently they took folk
tunes and treated them polyphonically. Sometimes they used themes of
their own invention. In time musicians of small skill, undertaking to
imitate these earliest secular songs, developed the popular form called
frottola. Later we find some of the famous masters cultivating this
music of the people. Adrian Willaert, who settled in Venice in 1516,
wrote frottole and gondola songs in frottola form. It was from such
works that he advanced to the composition of the madrigal of which he
was so famous a composer and which he raised to the dignity of an art
work.

The residence of Josquin des Pres in Italy doubtless had an immense
influence on the development of the Italian madrigal, but at a period
later than that of Poliziano's "Orfeo" and of the best of the frottole.
Josquin was a singer i