The Relation of Rhythm and Tonality in the Sixteenth Century

Extract

One of the most significant features of the musical thought of to-day is the increasing interest shown in the sixteenth century. This is, no doubt, partly the result of a natural and in some ways exaggerated reaction against the romantic movement, but it is also due to the fact that this period has much in common with the musical tendencies of to-day. In both we find the same passionate striving for expansion of idiom resulting in a longish period of transition: and in the earlier case, this led eventually to the establishment of the classical major and minor tonalities, instead of the old modal system; now it is the turn of the classical tonality to be expanded, and to what substitute the present stage of transition is leading is still uncertain.