QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. Tell about early English instrumental music. Tell about music in Queen Elizabeth’s time. Describe the Variation form used by Byrd. What was the Virginal Book? What was the style of the Elizabethan composers? What was the “Parthenia”? Give an account of Purcell and his work. Who was the founder of the French school? What family figures prominently in the French school? Who was the greatest member of this family? Tell about his work. Tell about Marchand and Daquin. What great theorist is prominent in French clavier music? Tell about his work. Note that the English school was at its height in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Purcell, in the reign of Charles II, being the greatest light of the school. The strength of the French school was during the reign of Louis XIV. LESSON XXVIII. THE GERMAN POLYPHONIC CLAVIER SCHOOL. =German Mastery of Polyphonic Music=.—The Italians, with their quick perception of structural beauty, have been the pioneers in the invention and use of most art forms. So it happened, in the history of instrumental music, that they were the ones to invent and give to other nations the vehicle of expression, while it remained for their pupils, notably, in this case, the composers of Germany, to fill these forms out with the expression of real and deep feeling. The German tendency toward serious and philosophical thought found the intricacies of polyphonic music, or the simultaneous flow of independent melodies, admirably adapted to their need of expression; and when this style of voice writing was applied to instrumental compositions, German musicians found a branch of art in which they were admirably qualified to excel. So, from being mere pupils of the Italians, they advanced to the production of works of much more distinguished character and deeper, richer content than was possible to mere beauty of form and melody. =Hasler=.—In the second half of the 16th century, the clavier was popular in Germany, disputing the place of the lute as a social instrument, although organ and clavier compositions were identical, as in Italy. There is a record of the publication of two books of pieces for organ and “instrument”—by which is meant the clavier—in 1575-77, in which there were dance tunes with accompanying chords. =Hans Leo Hasler= (1564-1612), a pupil of A. Gabrieli, and fellow-student with G. Gabrieli, was especially prominent as organ and clavier player and composer during this epoch, publishing a number of such dances written for the organ or the clavier.