every reason to believe that the wandering
poets and minstrels of the Middle Ages used the small vielle, rebek or
lyre for their accompaniments much oftener than the harp, which was more
cumbersome and a greater impediment in traveling.

[Footnote 27: Michael Praetorius, "Syntagma Musicum," vol. ii,
Organographia. Wolfenbuettel, 1619-20.]

The instruments used to support song, that of the troubadour or that of
a Casella, or later still that of a Galilei, being of the same lineage,
the only novelty was the adaptation to them of the lutenist's method of
arranging polyphonic music for one voice with accompaniment. That this
offered no large difficulties is proved by the account of Praetorius. If
at the close of the sixteenth century chromatic compositions, which were
then making much progress, could be performed on a bowed lyre, there is
no reason to think that in Poliziano's time there would have been much
labor in arranging frottola melodies for voice and lyra di braccio. It
is safe to assume that the instrument to which Baccio Ugolino was wont
to improvise and which was therefore utilized in "Orfeo" was the lyra di
braccio and that del Lungo's imaginative picture must be corrected by
the substitution of the bow for the plectrum. We have not even recourse
to the supposition that Ugolino may have employed the pizzicato since
that was not invented till after his day by Monteverde.

We are, however, compelled to conclude that Baccio Ugolino preceded
Corteccia in this manner of solo, afterwards called "recitar alla lira."
We may now reconstruct for ourselves the classic scene with Orpheus
"singing on the hill to his lyre" the verses "O meos longum modulata
lusus." The music was the half melancholy, half passionate melody of
some wandering Italian frottola which readily fitted itself to the
sonorous Sapphics. The accompaniment on the mellow lyra di braccio, one
of the tender sisters of the viola, was a simplified version of the
subordinate voice parts of the frottola. And perchance there were even
other instruments, an embryonic orchestra. Here, indeed, we must pause
lest reconstructive ardor carry us too far. We must content ourselves
with the conclusion that the vocal music of the entire drama was simple
in melodic structure, for such was the character of the part music out
of which it was made. It was certainly well fitted to be one of the
parents of the recitative of Peri and Caccini with the church chant as
th