A Sketch of the History of Music-Printing, from the Fifteenth to The

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A Sketch of the History of Music-Printing, from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century ( Continued) Author(s): Friedrich Chrysander Source: The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 18, No. 413 (Jul. 1, 1877), pp. 324-326 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3355495 Accessed: 17-01-2016 05:24 UTC

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This content downloaded from 130.240.43.43 on Sun, 17 Jan 2016 05:24:14 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL 324 TIMES.--JuLY I, 1877.

is only the shallow water that foams and rages. Judging him by this standard of his own, we must Farther out the "blue profound" merely rises in unfortunatelycancel a considerable part of his book. obedience to force and then sinks again to rest upon Poor Schmid! Too much learning often dulls the the spot from which it rose. So with the effect of spirit, if there is not on the other side a little his- fashion on a nation's music. There may be disturbing torical common sense to hold the tongue of the results, but they are transient; and as Handel, with balance upright. However, I am not to speak here his grand artistic qualities, has remained the musician of Schmid, but of Petrucci. of the people through the changes of near upon 150 Ottaviano dei Petrucci is in fact the firstnoteworthy years, so he is likely to remain. Well for England personality, and to this day the most prominent that she has such a sheet-anchor to steady her " when name, that we encounter in the history of music- the stormywinds do blow " and cross-currents vex printing. He is the only one connected with music the waters! whom we could in any sense put by the side of Gutenberg, the great inventor of book-printing; and their histories were similar. Petrucci was born at A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MUSIC- Fossombrone, a town in the duchy of Urbino, PRINTING, FROM THE FIFTEENTH TO June 18, 1466, of noble but not wealthy parents. As THE NINETEENTH CENTURY printer he naturally turned to Venice, which was in his day the central point that art. In the years BY FRIEDRICH CHRYSANDER. for of his best powers, towards the end of the fifteenth (Continuedfrom page 268.) century, he succeeded in discovering a process men had often SECOND PERIOD: TYPOGRAPHY. "which many inventive attempted, without able to overcome the difficulties,"by words of the article direct being THE concluding previous which he to perfection" a thing as welcome to the manner in which we must now trace this brought us as it was difficult,and of public utility." Thus he second Our course is dif- period. present entirely speaks himselfin the preface to the firstwork printed ferentfrom that to which we have kept hitherto. a collection of for several is by him, ninety-sixsongs What has now to be described to us only the entitled " Harmonice musices Odhecaton," of an known on new voices, employment already process that in Venice in 1501. The Privilege of the to the view which has appeared ground; whereas, according of Venice, dated May 1498, confirms it was a new invention without municipality 25, prevailed hitherto, this in the words, " Petrucci has with great expenses There is a learned book on any preparatory stages. and labour executed what many before him, both in this Anton late Custos of the subject by Schmid, and elsewhere, had long attempted in vain." at which bears the title Italy Imperial Library Vienna, Now what had these many attempted so long in vain ? " Petrucci of the first Ottaviano dei Fossombrone, The of the tells us quite distinctly with movable Privilege Signoria inventor of music-printing metallic that it was an easier method of printingflorid-song and his successors in the sixteenth types, century." In consequence of this, the Privilege It is a and I should not desire more (canto figurato). large book, space on to the Gregorian (canto fermo) a work which I sometime to on all goes say, plain-song for hope publish also would be able to be printed with much greater the five It clear fromthe periods together. appears ease. From this expression it has been inferredthat of Schmid's book that he allows of the very title also were thenceforth actually printed by but before Pe- they existence of nothing block-printing Petrucci's method, which was not the case. In the trucci's time. And he after " Not says shortly (p. 3), above words the were only repeating the of the fifteenth after Signoria till the last few years century, which Petrucci had in his request for of hope expressed long pondering, did any one hit upon the invention the but which was not fulfilled,as I showed and privilege, movable types ofmetal forflorid, song, subsequentlyin the article. Petrucci requested and and lute and previous for plain-song also, organ tabulatures, received the for twentyyears, solely for the for the to privilege available printing-press." According this, music in many for singing,organ, and of was an not a printingof parts the printing plain-song imitation, lute.* This makes the matter perfectlyclear. of that of the of forerunner, florid-song, very opposite The earliest works published by Petrucci were what I in the and shall explained previous number, three books of strictly secular compositions. The still furtherdemonstrate in the In Schmid's sequel. firstbook on the of June, 1501. In the which has hitherto been taken all writers on appeared i8th view, by next year he began to publish church music, of the who of the very subject, betray great ignorance pre- which in course of time a great quantity was printed. Petrucci's invention fell down, as ceding fiftyyears, He began with a collection of Motetts, also in three it were, from heaven. He asks pathetically (p. 3), books. In he commenced a collection of " 1504 large Who was the happy man who invented the art of Italian secular in nine books, entitled" Frottole." and works of music means of songs printing multiplying by This forms a to his first publication, which metal ? To whom the pendant movable types belongs glory contains almost pieces by composers of which was so at its out- exclusively of an invention perfect very the Low Countries. To an idea of the great so sound in its and so in its give set, progress, enjoyable which he showed at the very beginning, I to all who were fondof the art ? " The learned activity effects a list of his in the firstfour years, of Vienna assures us in his give publications Custos naively preface, with the dates of printing,and a notice of " As I was anxious to state in book what is together my only the libraries in which copies are preserved. The i.e. facts historical true, guaranteed by documents, Museo Filarmonico at Bologna possesses the greatest I considered myselfbound to treat my subject in the simplest style, and to forego all rhetorical ornament . . . . Octaviano-dei Petrucci . . . . cum molte sue spexe ed vigi- lantissima cura ha trovado quello che molti non solo in Italia ma and superfluous diffuseness, which in many books etiandio de fuora de Italia za longamente indarno hanno investigato wastes so much of our time; but on the other hand che e stampare commodissimamenteCanto figurado. Et per consequens cosa a la I to be conscientious in search molto piu facitmenteCanto fernso: precipue Religon Chris- sought especially my tiana de grande ornamento et maxime necessaria: pertanto el sopra- for historical truth and bibliographical exactitude." scripto supplicante recorre a li piedi de vostra Illustrissima Signoria, quella . se degni concederli de gratia special chome supplicando ... de Vostra * " Ottaviano dei Petrucci da Fossombrone, der erster Erfinder des a primo inventore che niuno altro nel dominio Signoria Intaboladure d' et de mit beweglichen Metalltypen, und seine Nachfolger possi stampare Canto figurado ne Organo liuto the Signoria, May 1498, in Schmid, M]Vusiknotendruckes,im X6nJahrhunderte." Vienna, x845. PP. 342, 8vo, with an Appendix per anni vinti."--Privilege of 25, of Music, Printers' Devices, &c. p. I0.

This content downloaded from 130.240.43.43 on Sun, 17 Jan 2016 05:24:14 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL TIMES.-JULY I, 1877. 325 number; but Vienna, Munich, and Berlin also have to improve. That invention had been made with precious and generally very well-preserved specimens exclusive regard to florid-song,i.e. highly elaborate of the printing in this earliest age:- vocal music for many voices, and was of the greatest Date of Librariespossessing importance for this. As regards its notation and dis- Printing. 1501. Copies. semination, this kind of music was then in a helpless June 18 ... I. Harmonice musices Odhe- position; indeed, as far as its progress was concerned, caton, A ...... Bologna. Feb. 5* .. 2. Canti B, numero cinquanta Bologna. the art of printing was of no' service, for what 1502. xylography could do for it was not worth considering; May 9 ... 3. Motette A, numero tren- amanuenses only could multiply copies of these com- tatre ...... Bologna. In when this Sept. 27 ... 4. Misse Josquin ... .. Berlin. positions. 1450, Gutenberg began, Dec. 27 ... 5. Missarum Josquin, lib. i.... Vienna. difficultydid not exist; but fiftyyears later the state 1503. of things was quite changed. In this short time the 6. Missarum Josquin, lib. ii. of art was let in the and iii. of bright daylight suddenly upon (Second edition at for masters No. 5,much enlarged)... Vienna. attempts writing many voices; arose, May 1o ... 7. Motetti de passione, sig- whose repute spread over all Europe, and who, nati B ...... Bologna (wanting title). all as a home for their June 17 ... 8. Misse Brumel...... Vienna, Berlin. regarding Europe talents, uly 15 ... 9. Misse Ghiselin . Vienna, Berlin. travelled fromcourt to court. Most and the greatest Oct.31 ... 10. Misse Petri de la Rue...... British Museum, Bolog- of them to the Low Countries, but all other na, Rome, Vienna, belonged Berlin. countries vied with them in contributinga contingent Feb. io ... ii. Canti C, cento cinquanta ... Vienna. to the musical army. All, whether Netherlander or March 24 Misse Obrecht ...... Berlin. I2. Vienna, Munich, Frenchman, German or Italian, Englishman or 1504...... had one home, in that (?) ...... 13. Motetti A (?) Spaniard, only Europe, glorious Motetti B ...... (?) of when all educated had (?)...... 14. age humanism, people Sept. 15 ... 5. Motetti C b ...... Vienna, Munich. one Latin. Musicians had been Nov. 28 ... 16. Frottole, lib. i...... Vienna, Munich. only language, long Jan. 8 ... 17. Frottole, lib. ii...... Vienna, Munich. pondering over the mysteries of artificial counter- Feb. 6 ... 18. Frottole, lib. iii...... Munich. point, the forms of which always powerfully fasci- - new edition, Jan. 29, 1507 ...... Vienna. nated susceptible temperaments; but now they No date... 19. Frottole, lib. iv...... Munich. began to develop a capacity for exhibiting more March 23 20. Misse Alexandri Agricole... Bologna, Vienna, Ber- of tone and while lin, Rome. beauty expressive song, retaining perfect mastery over all the devices of counterpoint. In 1505 he was threatened with competition in The number of their hearers increased to for thousands; printing music lute and organ, notwithstanding with the admiration of this the desire to his wherefore he to work at this and, music, privilege; began know it well became general. It was therefore a branch also, producing, however, only works for the wish to works of Canto with and without the general possess figurato. lute voice. But nothing has could no the and con- been heard of his ever of his Copyists longer supply want; thinking trying ingenuity sequently "many both in and outside of Italy" at printingplain-song (canto fermo), and thus making laboured to devise a suitable mode of and assertion that as printing, good his this, well as florid-song in this Ottaviano Petrucci was successful. could be "with much (canto figurato), multiplied But he would never have succeeded, and ease " the new method. He seems to have probably greater by the object would have proved quite unattainable by said this only in the enthusiasm natural to an inventor, means of typography,if the musicians had required exaggerating somewhat the importance of his that their should be as invention. compositions printed they were written, and as are now in full Petrucci was richer in ideas than in he was they printed, cash; score. But they let them appear only in single voice- a "pover homo," as he openly declares in his appli- and in that form were and con- in parts, they copied, cation, 1514, for a prolongation of his privilege. also. Even in for three or With his rash and which sequently printed pieces impetuous temperament, four voices, where all the parts are combined in one could not brook any in the execution of his delay book, they are not arranged one below the other, but plans, as is shown by the succession of his first rapid each by itself,one followingthe other. The masters publications, he would soon have discovered that his kept their draughts of compositions, or full scores, so resources were dried if he had like up, not, Gutenberg, strictly to themselves as secrets of the workshop, found who and companions possessed experience that not a single bar of them is preserved for us from understood accounts-Amadeo Scotti, a bookseller, this early age. In elaborating their compositions in and da He soon left the Nicol6 Raphael. (1511) full score they probably inserted the differentvoices entire to and tried his fortuneas management them, in differentcolours; and this alone would make a printer of musical and first in his literary books, reproduction by typography impossible. Thus the native town of Fossombrone, and afterwards at Rome. Leo hundreds of thousands of pieces of music belonging Pope X. granted him a privilege for to two centuries have been transmittedto us almost fifteen with most but years flattering expressions, exclusively in the formof single parts-a formwhich only for florid-song and for tabulatures for the lute opposes almost insuperable difficultiesto the study and organ. Rome would have been just the place to prove that his method was far the best also for portant period. Only this defective mode of cir- Gregorian plain-song; yet he did not once attempt to culating music in single parts, to the neglect of the test this, but preferred,when to non- necessary, print full score, rendered it possible to assist floridmusic musical books for the sake of or profit patronage. by the use of Thus there was no of missals or other church of typography. Every step further printing development, taken by the art of music, proved the hymn-books. I mention this only in order to de- methods and the of monstrate anew that these sacred insufficiencyof these necessity song-books had new modes of printing. already come to be printed before Petrucci's time in Some say that Petrucci made his types of lead, a way which even his brilliant invention was unable others say of tin; so they were very probably com- posed of a mixture of the two-pewter. His process * This list is given with the dates quoted from the books. The year was a double which is discernible commenced on March 25; so that' Feb, 5,, 5o1" is what we should impression, easily call Feb. 5, I502. in the large and often ornamental initials with the

This content downloaded from 130.240.43.43 on Sun, 17 Jan 2016 05:24:14 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 326 THE MUSICAL TIMES.--JULY I, 1877.

five lines crossing them. He firstprinted these lines, tion; which fact is the most eloquent judgment that and then the notes. The process was therefore can be passed upon it. At the present day it interests essentially similar to that of the printersof Gregorian us mainly because it seems to have leapt over 150 hymn-books, only that instead of printing these years and anticipated the modern round notes; in lines in several separate pieces he took a frame this respect it possesses historical importance. But which covered the whole breadth of the paper, practically it was worthless, not because it deviated in this respect resembling the block-printing. The from the usage of the time, but because it started lines, which he printedvery fine and sharp, give his im- froman incorrect principle. Typography can never pressions their clear, elegant, and firm appearance. be tied down to be an exact copy of handwriting, The notes also are very well executed, though the but must follow laws of its own. Handwriting has perpendiculars are remarkably thick towards the an individual character, and gives pleasure mainly outer end. Altogether Petrucci's impressions bear a through the skill with which it handles its freer very, distinguished appearance, and the ink and strokes. It is not bound to a measured regularity, paper are also excellent. They remind us indeed, and consequently the square and the circle are not more than anything else, of Gutenberg's splendid figures which are exactly imitated in handwriting, works. They possess, moreover, the peculiarity of but rather forms between which the hand is always being difficultto imitate, so that the process was not shiftingto and fro. If this is managed with a grace- permanently maintained in practical use. ful freedom,we call the handwriting beautiful, and For, first, the double impression: was very expen- see in it the expression of individual character. sive. Was it absolutely necessary, or could not a Every mechanical process, on the other hand, must process be invented which would make the printed keep to regular figures of measured proportions. less dependent on the writtenmusic ? Some thought What the writer avoids, the square and circle and so; and a German, Erhard Oglin (Oeglin, Ocellus), regular distances, form the sole rule for the printer. of Augsburg, accomplished it a few years later. On With musical signs all this is even more necessary. the 2znd of August, 1507, he finishedthe printingof a We observe consequently that they always abide by work entitled " Melopoiae sive Harmoniae tetra- fixed forms,and that each has its special law. From centicae," and on the z9th of March, 1508, another. the fifteenthto the seventeenth century the formof called " Stella Musicae juvenibus artisque ejusdem the notes was quadrangular, and since that time it has novellis," in which the music is executed at a single been circular; but it never has been and never will be impression. This method spread rapidly, at all regulated by the formsused in handwriting. events in Germany; for an influentialprinter, Peter I seize the occasion of the firstattempt to assimi- Sch6ffer, managed his musical works printed at late music-printing to music-writingto make these Mainz in and after 1511 in the same manner. How observations, because other trials in the same direc- far these Germans were indebted one to the other tion have cropped up from time to time, and especi- and both to Petrucci it would be very difficult ally because at the present time new experiments to prove; their process was entirely independent of with the aid of photographywould be veryeasy. But that of the Venetian. A glance at the printed even if it were possible to print a facsimile of the Missals, &c. probably first showed them that the manuscript as easily and cheaply as engraved or double impression was not really necessary, if red type-music, still the latter would remain the only lines were not insisted on. The use of types which satisfactory method for the trade and the world. The would allow the notes to be easily joined together, fundamental forms of music types are as firmly became now positively essential. The works which fixedas musical notation itself. these German music-printers published remained In the next number I shall briefly touch on the almost unknown; but their method presented so further fortunes of musical typography during its many advantages that it was soon generally known, gradual extension to all countrics, and then describe and in a few dozen years generally imitated, and the period of Tabulature-printing. nowhere more ably and diligently than at Venice. (To be ctntinued.) Sch6ffer himself had a printing-press there about 1540. After this Petrucci's manner of type-printing belonged to the things of a period already passed, quite AMATEURS. as much as the xylographywhich his invention had set aside. WHEN, many years ago, a pianoforte was con- All the printers gave even to the notes of florid- sidered a luxury in the houses of the middle classes song a quadrangular shape like the notes of plain- I can well remember that an evening where music song, not a round one; yet they were writtenround, was made a prominentfeature was one of humiliation or nearly so. An old choir-master of the Pope, named to the many whose schooling had not included this Eleazar Genet (called Carpentras from his birth- pleasing " accomplishment." A young lady who place), hit upon the idea of printing them in this could play "prettily" was tolerably certain of an shape. On his retirement he went back to his own invitation to a party; but it was scarcely .to be country, to Avignon, arranged his works at leisure, expected that guests of her own age who could draw, and pondered over the best means of getting them cipher, and speak French well enough to carry off printed. At length he found what he sought in the prizes at their academical examinations, should sit principle, " Print as you write." He was of course quietly by whilst the room was ringingwith applause dissatisfied with the printing-types hitherto in use, at the showy pianoforte performanceof a girl who had whether Italian or German, florid or plain. And he received perhaps "bad marks " enough to brand her found at Avignon a very clever man, Stephen Briard as a dunce amongst her schoolfellows in everything of Bar-le-Duc, who cut new types which marvellously but "music." And so it gradually became the imitated the essential figures of the usual mode of fashion to play; not that a love of the art had any- writing music. Jean de Channay, of the same city, thing to do with it, but parents, seeing that their printed the works. There were four of these, as far daughters' hands were made prettymuch like those of as is known, the first(in the year 1532) being " Liber other people, and that their fingerswere not deformed, primus Missarum Carpentras." No other place and no reasonably imagined that, if they bought an instru- other printer ever made use of this original innova- ment and paid a master's terms for "pianoforte " at

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