transferred to their instruments the voice-parts of the Madrigals and
Canzonas which were then so fashionable.[63] With the development of
instruments--especially of the Violin family--and with the desire for
an instrumental style which should be independent of words, principles
of coherent design had to be evolved; and they were suggested by the
definite metre in the stanzas of the Folk-song and, above all, by the
symmetrical phrases of the Folk-dance, used to accompany the
_rhythmical_ motions of the body. By a utilization of these principles
of balanced phrases, of contrasted keys and of periodic themes,
instrumental music gradually worked out a structure of its own,[64]
of which we find examples in National dances and in the compositions
of such pioneers of instrumental style as the Italians Corelli and
Vivaldi, the Frenchmen Lully, Couperin and Rameau, and the Englishman
Purcell.

[Footnote 63: For a complete account of this process see Parry's
_Evolution of the Art of Music_, p. 115 _seq._]

[Footnote 64: This book makes no attempt to give an historical account
of the development of instrumental form. The subject is set forth
comprehensively in the article on Form in Grove's Dictionary (Vol. II,
p. 73) and in the Fifth and Sixth Chapters of Parry's _Evolution of
the Art of Music_.]

[Music:

Viens dans ce bocage belle Aminte,
Sans contrainte L'on y forme des voeux;
Viens, Viens dans ce bocage belle Aminte,
Il est fait pour les plaisirs et les jeux.]

In this rhythmic and sprightly dance of exactly 8 measures (an old
French _Tambourin_ taken from Weckerlin's _Echos du Temps Passe_) we
see clearly the influence of the metrical stanza of words and of the
balanced phrases in the instrumental part, necessary to accompany the
steps of the dancers. The melody of the accompaniment was played on a
flute or some simple kind of pipe, and the bass on a Tambour de
Basque--a rude form of drum, which repeated continually the tonic and
dominant of the key; the same effect which we associate with the
Bagpipe and Hurdy-gurdy.

[Music: PURCELL: Jig.]

In this Jig, which was a favorite type with the English
peasantry--divided into three sentences of exactly 8 measures
each--the dance rhythm is very sharply defined. From various
dance-patterns a structural type was gradually evolved, of which the
chief features will now be indicated. The music was divided into _two_
distinct halves and it became the conventi