Note 3 — Chapter III

Among the early forms of composition, the most important was the mass, consisting of Kyrie, Sanctus, and other prescribed numbers, much as at the present day. More free in form was the motet, in which religious subjects were treated in contrapuntal fashion. The madrigal differed from this only in dealing with secular subjects. That these old madrigals, with their flowing parts and melodic imitations, are not unpleasing to modern ears, has been often proven. Their progressions are at times strange to us, but on repeated hearing often become imbued with remarkable delicacy and appropriateness.