Books › The violin and its music, 1881 › scan 52
Scan 52
The violin and its music, 1881
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 30. See the scan on archive.org.
1their midst, born Netherlanders dedicating their powers to the cause of Art, throwing light where all was darkness—the idols of other nations—sufficiently demonstrates that the account of the condition of the Arts in the Netherlands which heads this Chapter is in no way overdrawn.
3The growth of the Arts cannot but be slow during infancy, no matter where they take root. It may therefore be inferred that it must have taken the best part of two centuries to have attained to that degree of excellence which the historian credits the Netherlanders with towards the close of the fifteenth century. It is perhaps not possible to go further back than to the twelfth century for the rudiments of what we term the Science of Music. That the Musicians of the Low Countries made use of these rudiments with greater success than their brethren of other nations, is now generally admitted. It was not, however, until the beginning of the fourteenth century that Counterpoint was introduced. To Jean de Muris, who is said to have flourished about 1330, seemingly belongs the credit of introducing the system of notation by points or pricks. The adding of one set of points to another signified the performance at the same time of various melodies agreeing in harmony—hence the term Counterpoint. The nationality of Jean de Muris appears to have been a vexed question. He has been claimed as an Englishman, but there is little doubt the claim had no foundation in truth. Apart
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