ity between the interweavings of polyphonic or, as it is often
called,contrapuntal[14] music and the stone traceries in me-
dieval cathedrals. During the 13th and 14th centuries northern
France, with Paris as its centre, was the most cultivated part
of Europe, and the Flemish cities of Cambrai, Tournai, Louvain
and Antwerp will always be renowned in the history of art, as
the birthplace of Gothic architecture, of modern painting and of
polyphonic music.[15] A great deal of the impetus towards the
systematic repetition of the voice parts must have been caused
by practical necessity (thus justifying the old adage); for, be-
fore the days of printed music, or even of a well-established
tradition—when everything had to be laboriously written out
or transmitted orally—whole compositions could be rendered
by the singers through the simple device of remembering the
introductory theme and joining in from memory whenever their
turn came. Compositions in fact were often so recorded.[16] The
following old English round (circa 1609) shows clearly how the
voices entered in rotation.
[Music:
1 Three blind mice, three blind mice
2 ran around thrice, ran around thrice; The
3 miller and his merry old wife ne’er laugh’d so much in all their
life.]
For a Round in strict canonic imitation by the famous English
composer William Byrd (1542-1623) see the Supplement, Exam-
ple No. 2. In due time singers of that period became likewise
very proficient in improvising free parts about a given melody
orcantus firmus, a practice indicated by the term “musica ficta”
which was beneficial in stimulating the imagination to a genuine
musical activity.
[Footnote 10: In comparatively recent times the term has been
widened to include music in which there is onechief melody
to which other portions of the musical texture are subordinate;
e.g., the homophonic style of Chopin in whose works the chief
melody, often in the upper voice, seems to float on underlying
waves of sound.]
[Footnote 11: For a complete account of these early attempts
which finally led to part-writing see Chapter IV in the first vol-
ume of theOxford History of Music.]