_Twelfth Period._--From Palestrina until Monteverde (A.D. 1560-1600). Commencement of the flourishing state of the Italian musical artists. Conclusion of the great Netherlandish epoch. Refinement of the stiff Netherlandish style. Romish School. Church Music of a high degree of perfection. _Thirteenth Period._--From Monteverde until Carissimi (A.D. 1600-1640). Commencement of Operatic Music. First attempts in the Recitative style, in the melodious song for a single voice (Monody) and in the Concertante style. _Fourteenth Period._--From Carissimi until Alessandro Scarlatti (A.D. 1640-1680). Improvements in the Recitative and in the Dramatic Melody. Origin of the Cantata and the Oratorio. Introduction of Concertante Instruments to the song. Neapolitan School. _Fifteenth Period._--From Alessandro Scarlatti until Leo and Durante (A.D. 1680-1720). Essential improvement in the Recitative and in Dramatic Music. Increase of the Orchestral Instruments. Development of Instrumental Music. Rise of great Composers in Germany. _Sixteenth Period._--From Durante until Gluck (A.D. 1720-1760). Flourishing state of the Neapolitan School. Reform in Melody. The highest art in Counterpoint in Germany. Oratorios. German Composers study in Italy, and write Italian Operas. _Seventeenth Period._--From Gluck until Haydn and Mozart (A.D. 1760-1780). Reform in the style of the Opera. Introduction of the Ensemble pieces and the Finales. Rise of the French Opera. Development of Instrumental Music. _Eighteenth Period._--From Mozart until Beethoven and Rossini (A.D. 1780-1820). Great improvement of the Orchestra, and of Instrumental Music in general. Development of the German Operatic Style. Tone-artists of the Vienna School. Beginning of the popularity of the Pianoforte. Beethoven brings Instrumental Music to the highest degree of perfection. Flourishing state of the French Opera. With Rossini commences a new and effective epoch in Italian Operatic Music. Numerous Virtuosos on instruments. In the Opera, amalgamation of different styles. In the most recent time, an undecided direction. Thus much about the Eighteen Periods noticed in Section I. of Czerny's work. Only the first seven periods are fully treated in this Section; the others form the subject of Section II., which is divided into Three Principal Epochs, thus:-- _First Principal Epoch._--From the establishment of our Theory of Harmony until the commencement of the Opera (A.D. 1400-1600). Separation of the four chief nations: 1, France (with the Netherlands); 2, Italy (with Spain and Portugal); 3, England; 4, Germany (with Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, and Denmark).