AS with a sound of trumpets, announcing the arrival of high personages or the preparation for solemn ceremonies, even so should this chapter begin; for now I have to relate how Englishmen led musicians out of the arid desert where for centuries they had wandered since escaping from the bondage of Greek theories, still wistfully remembered. England may well be proud that the one evergreen refreshing spot in the long wilderness is the Rota of Reading Abbey; and England may well be proud that the Pisgah-sight into the Promised Land, and the first footing on its pastures, were granted to a school of English musicians, of whom the chief was John Dunstable.

This school invented the art of musical composition; and English, French, Spanish, Flemish, and German writers alike mention Dunstable as the first and greatest of the band. So immediately did their superiority appear that all previous attempts at once fell into disuse; and one result is that the works, such as they were, of the 13th and 14th centuries are scarcely to be discovered, and only one here and there has been accidentally preserved. Of the 14th century the remains are singularly few all over Europe; and it is accordingly not easy to point out exactly in what the improvements of Dunstable consisted. The most important was certainly the independence and individuality of each voice-part; and he also used suspensions, passing notes, and short imitations. The lack of older music makes it unclear whether these were known previously, or were entirely Dunstable's own inventions; certainly he was the first to systematically use them.