Hand in hand with the development of orchestral accompaniment, the seventeenth century witnessed a wonderful development of organ and clavier playing. In this also Italy took the lead. The first great artists in organ playing were Italians; the most prominent of whom were Claudio Merulo and Giovanni Gabrieli, appointed organists at St. Mark’s in Venice in 1551 and 1557. A noted disciple of this Venetian organ school was the Netherlander, Jan Pieters Sweelinck, who studied under Zarlino and Cyprian de Rore. Later he was the teacher of various German organists, among whom was Samuel Scheidt (1587–1654). The “father of true organ playing,” Girolamo Frescobaldi (1587–1640), organist of St. Peter’s in Rome, wielded even greater influence on Germany through his famous pupils, Caspar Kerl and Jacob Froberger. Various forms of composition, whose names suggest their Italian origin, became common in Germany at this time; such as the capriccio, the canzona, the toccata and the ricercata. In all these forms fugal imitation is predominant, and the modern fugue begins to take determined shape. Pachelbel (1653–1706), a pupil of Kerl, was the first to combine the various advantages of both the German and Italian schools, and his works also mark the establishment of the modern tonal system. He made important advances in fugal art. We of to-day recognize the wonderful artistic consistency of Bach’s master-works in the fugue form. We note that they are composed of various sections which include separate developments of a principal theme, and that these sections are connected by episodical passages of a character similar to that of the rest of the composition. But we are apt to lose sight of the fact that this perfection of form was of very gradual growth. Pachelbel was the first to feel the necessity of attaining such artistic unity by careful attention to these details of construction. His successful endeavors to individualize and to group his ideas give a hitherto unknown clearness of form to his organ fantasias and toccatas. In his fantasias especially he employs rich figurations, but always with the evident purpose of making such ornamentation naturally grow out of the thematic material of the work, and all is carefully designed with reference to the nature of the instrument. His contemporary, Johann Adam Reinken, who died in 1732, at the age of ninety-nine, was, as composer and player, a veritable virtuoso. Sebastian Bach made two journeys to Hamburg for the purpose of hearing this master play. But, among all the predecessors of Bach in this branch, the most prominent was Dietrich Buxtehude, organist at Lübeck from 1669 to 1707. In all respects he elevated the art of organ composition and organ playing. The structure of his themes shows the greatest appreciation of the peculiar character of the instrument. Two years before Buxtehude’s death Bach became his pupil, and the influence of Buxtehude[23] is seen in the earlier organ compositions of Bach.