SCHOOLS OF MUSIC — 8th ed. (1853

SCHOOLS OF MUSIC. The establishments themselves, with their buildings and apparatus, their masters and pupils, are called conservatories or academies. In another sense, the term school of music is applied to the district or the country in which a particular style and manner of composition has been practised and taught by eminent musicians. Thus, we speak of the Flemish, the German, the French, the Italian schools of music. In Flanders arose the oldest school of music in Europe. The greatest contrapuntists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were Flemings, many of whom visited or established themselves in various countries, more especially the Italian states, practising and teaching their art. Thus, the famous Flemish composer, Josquin Depres, was established in the chapel of Pope Sixtus IV. from 1471 to 1481; and Adrian Willaert founded the Venetian school of music in 1527. After the close of the seventeenth century, Flanders ceased to possess a distinctive school of music. According to Padre Martini (Saggio di Contrappunto Fugato, parte 2^da, pagine 207-8), the Neapolitan school of music was founded by King Ferdinand of Aragon in the latter part of the fifteenth century. In the same work, page 194, Padre Martini reckons five great schools of music in Italy, subdivided into a great number of particular schools named after distinguished masters. 1. The Roman School of Palestrina, the two brothers Nanini, O. Benevoli, and F. Foggia. 2. The Venetian School of Adrian Willaert, Zarline, and Lotti. 3. The Neapolitan School of Rodio, Scarlatti, Leo, and Durante. 4. The Lombard School of Porta, Monteverde, Ponzio, and Vecchi. 5. The Bolognese School of Rota, Giacobbi, Colonna, and Perti. To these last the name of

Martini himself should be added. Some writers divide the schools of Italy geographically into three, viz.—1. The School of Lower Italy (the Neapolitan), which is distinguished by variety of expression; 2. That of Middle Italy (the Roman and Bolognese), the character of which is purity and grandeur of style; 3. That of Upper Italy (the Venetian and Lombard), which was marked by its forcible colouring. In the last century there were at Naples four conservatories of music, which, in 1806, were all united into a royal academy of music. In 1818 the writer of this article found it in a very low and useless condition. At Venice, in 1819, he found that the only conservatory remaining (out of four existing in the last century) was that of La Pietà, under Signor Agostino Perotti, who said that it was starved by the Austrian government. At Bologna, in 1819, the musical academy was the Liceo, and Padre Mattei, the successor of P. Martini, was then old and feeble. At Milan, in 1819, the conservatory (founded in 1807) was thriving and well conducted. It is now the only important conservatory remaining in Italy. (See CONSERVATORY, MARTINI, and MATTEI.) (G. F. O.)