Pieces called _intonazioni d’organo_ (‘Intonations’) were short preludes, from five to twenty measures long, in the nature of free improvisations; they were used to precede the larger organ pieces in the services of the Roman Church. The _fantasia_ was a form of very respectable age, probably as old as the _ricercare_. It seems to have been descended from the accompanied madrigal, in which the instruments played the same parts with the voices. Hawkins in his History speaks of fantasias as abounding ‘in fugues and little responsive passages and all those elegances observable in the structure and contrivance of the madrigal.’ Usually they were utterly free in form, differing radically from the more formal structure of later fantasias, such as those by Mozart and Beethoven. St. Mark’s at Venice was destined to play such a distinguished part in the development of organ-music that a word of historical comment will here be appropriate. Venice was a republic until 1797, its government being vested in the hands of a Doge, or Duke, and a Council made up of representatives of the nobility. From very early times this Council took the greatest pride in the music of the grand-ducal chapel, later known as St. Mark’s Cathedral (San Marco). As early as 1318 they commissioned Zucchetti to build a new organ for the chapel and, when it was completed, appointed him organist and choir-master. A second organ was built about 1370 and the position of second organist created in 1389. These two positions were co-equal in duties, salary, and official importance and the organists, like the consuls of old Rome, were supposed to be men of equal calibre. They were chosen with the greatest care from many candidates after the stiffest kind of examination conducted before the magistrates and St. Mark’s grew to be one of the most coveted musical appointments in Europe. A _maestro di cappella_ was added to the two organists in 1491. His position was the most important of the three and his salary[98] was larger than that of the organists. He composed the special music, trained and conducted the choirs and orchestra, and had general supervision over all the church music. This position became so important that later a second _maestro_ was appointed with rank and duties coordinate with the first. In these positions a long line of illustrious musicians served St. Mark’s for several centuries.