Strolling histriones, jongleurs and minstrels passed from court to
court, appeared in castle yards, market places or village greens,
recited, acted, sang, danced and played on musical instruments. They
afforded a welcome means of communication with the outside world; they
broke up the monotony of life when events were few. As modern music
rests on the two pillars of the Gregorian chant and the folk-song, so
the opera rests on the two pillars of the religious drama and the
people's play.
During the high tide of the revival of Greek learning in Italy, late in
the sixteenth century, a group of the aspiring young nobility of
Florence, gentlemen and gentlewomen, adopting the dignified name of the
"Academy," resolved to recover the much discussed music of the Greek
drama. The place of rendezvous was the palace of Count Bardi, a member
of one of the oldest patrician families in Tuscany. Edifying discourse
and laudable exercises were indulged in by the guests, among whom were
several persons of genius and learning.
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