While examining the progress of orchestration, the parallel growth of organ and clavier music should not be forgotten. A comprehensive glance at the series of important writers in these branches will suffice to refresh the memory. A distinctive style, initiated by the earlier Italian composers, Merulo, Andreas and Giovanni Gabrieli, was first exploited by Frescobaldi (1583). He promulgated a novel style of organ playing and contributed to the development of the fugue. After him, organ composition became the prerogative of the Germans, and the seventeenth century is represented by Scheidt, Froberger, Kerl, Reincken, Buxtehude, finally Pachelbel (1653). In Germany, Italy, and France, the subsequent chief exponents of clavier music were respectively Kuhnau, Domenico Scarlatti, and Couperin. Coincidentally, all three were born in the same decade as Bach. By thus comparing the prodigious activity displayed in every branch of music, we find, as the ultimata of this epoch, that homogeneity in general had given place to a system of related tonalities, vitalized rhythm, diversified figuration, and a rational mode of expression. Moreover there were two distinct elements to build upon,--polyphony, as embodied in the contrapuntal _sonata da chiesa_, and the popular dance, the pivot of the _sonata da camera_. These two styles were capable either of further unassociated development or of reconciliation. By still further adding to such an amalgamation the principle of reiteration and thematic development of a single thought as the motive for a composition, we have as a resultant the cyclic form--first the Suite, earliest of complex forms, then the Sonata. Musical art was now ready for a master hand who should weld its component parts firmly together. And that master was Bach. (Summary on page 27.) SUMMARY OF PART I CHAPTER I. THE CRADLE OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. I. Two impelling forces: emotional expression of human feeling and pagan religious rites, account for musical development among primitive men. Authentic history traces higher development through Egypt and the Orient to the Hellenic races, when poetry and music became conjoined. II. Under the protectorate of the Roman Church, melody acquired plastic form, and systems of harmony, notation, and measure were established. III. The lyrics of the troubadours revived a cult for individual emotionalism--the inherent characteristic of the Folk-song, which now influenced, and finally dominated the Gregorian Chant. IV. Polyphonic choral art of the Netherland School developed consecutively contrapuntal technique, euphony, objective emotionalism, and culminated in the works of Lasso, when it was rivalled if not eclipsed by the creations of Palestrina. But the style of this era lacked rhythm and form. These essentials, together with tonality and a distinctive secular style, were subsequently to be developed in connection with solo singing and independent instrumental music.