A third was
named "Cinque tempi:" a fourth "Moresca," which was played to a
Moorish dance; a fifth, "Catena;" and a sixth, with a very
appropriate designation, "Spallata," as if it were only fit to be
played to dancers who were lame in the shoulder. This was the
slowest and least in vogue of all. For those who loved water they
took care to select love songs, which were sung to corresponding
music, and such persons delighted in hearing of gushing springs
and rushing cascades and streams. It is to be regretted that on
this subject we are unable to give any further information, for
only small fragments of songs, and a very few tarantellas, have
been preserved which belong to a period so remote as the beginning
of the seventeenth, or at furthest the end of the sixteenth
century.
The music was almost wholly in the Turkish style (aria Turchesca),
and the ancient songs of the peasantry of Apulia, which increased
in number annually, were well suited to the abrupt and lively
notes of the Turkish drum and the shepherd's pipe. These two
instruments were the favourites in the country, but others of all
kinds were played in towns and villages, as an accompaniment to
the dances of the patients and the songs of the spectators.
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