had been introduced into high art (it seems to have
made a beginning earlier in folk-song, although we have no precise
indications upon the subject) the mere delivery of a text, somewhat
after the manner of a liturgical intoning, no longer satisfied the
demands of opera.

Music grew by what it fed upon. The violin, which Monteverde had
placed in the position of honor at the head of the orchestra in 1608,
had grown upon the ears of the people; and there was a need felt for
something more impassioned, but at the same time more distinctively
musical, than the mere declamation of the first opera, no matter how
sing-song that delivery might be made. Hence arose the aria, which
practically is a prolongation of a single moment of the dramatic
situation. The Arias, at first and for quite a long time later, had
very few words, and these were repeated over and over, as we find still
in the well-known arias from Haendel's "Messiah." Thus opera came into
possession of a simple and sustained melody, patterned after the
cantilena of the violin; and it was employed for marking the successive
points of the dramatic action. That is to say, as the drama unfolded,
one new situation after another developed itself. Each new entrance of
a dramatic person made a new complication and a new situation, brought
to the attention of the hearer by means of the lines and then enforced
by the aria, which the singer of greatest momentary importance had to
sing. That these arias very soon degenerated into show pieces for
virtuoso singers was an accident due to the popularity of the operatic
stage, the development of the new art of singing, and a delight in the
human voice as a musical instrument. It has no concern with our
present subject.

Moreover, it inevitably happened that as composers multiplied and
competed for the favor of the public, they tried more and more to bring
out in their music the very innermost passions and passing feelings of
the leading individuals in the play; hence the art of expressive music
was greatly developed, and the ears of the public learned gradually to
feel after and enjoy the human heart-beat in the music. Thus music
passed beyond the stage of working for itself as a development of
musical forms or science of construction, and became more and more, in
opera, the expression of individualities and moods. At the same time
that this tendency was working for making the music more expressive,
the necessity of plea