the promotion of music. Nanini soon induced his former fellow-pupil, Palestrina, to assist him in teaching, and he appears to have given finishing lessons. Among their best pupils were Felice Anerio and Gregorio Allegri. After Palestrina's death Nanini associated his younger brother Bernardino with him in the work of instruction, and it was probably for their scholars that they wrote jointly their treatise on counterpoint. Giovanni Maria dying in 1607 was succeeded by Bernardino, who was in his turn succeeded by his pupil and son-in-law Paolo Agostini. It must have been this school that produced the singers in the earliest operas and oratorios of Peri, Caccini, Monteverde, Cavaliere, Gagliano, etc. In the second quarter of the 17th century a rival school was set up by a pupil of B. Nanini, Domenico Mazzocchi, who, with his younger brother Virgilio, opened a music school, which was soon in a very flourishing condition; this was due in a great measure to the fact that the masters were themselves both singers and composers. Their curriculum differed but slightly from that of the Palestrina-Nanini school. In the morning one hour was given daily to practising difficult passages, a second to the shake, a third to the study of literature, and another hour to singing with the master before a mirror; in the afternoon an hour was occupied in the study of the theory of music, another in writing exercises in counterpoint, and another in literature; the remainder of the day (indoors) was employed in practising the harpsichord and in composition. Outside the school the pupils used sometimes to give their vocal services at neighbouring churches, or else they went to hear some well-known singer; at other times they were taken to a spot beyond the Porta Angelica to practise singing against the echo for which that neighbourhood was famous. In 1662 Pompeo Natale kept a music school, at which Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, the reputed master of Durante and Leo, learnt singing and counterpoint. G. A. Angelini-Buontempi, a pupil of the Mazzocchis, writing in 1695, says that Fedi, a celebrated singer, had opened the first school exclusively for singing at Rome. His example was soon followed by Giuseppe Amadori, with equal success; the latter was a pupil of P. Agostini and no doubt had not entirely forgotten the teachings of the old school; but by the end of the 17th century its traditions were gradually dying out, to be replaced by the virtuosity of the 18th century.
We must now retrace our steps and give some account of the most important musical institution at Rome of past or present time—the 'Congregazione dei Musici di Roma sotto l'invocazione di Sta. Cecilia.' It was founded by Pius V. in 1566, but its existence is usually dated from 1584, when its charter was confirmed by Gregory XIII.; almost all the masters and pupils of the Palestrina-Nanini school enrolled their names on its books, and their example has been since followed by over 4000 others, including every Italian of note, I and in the present century many illustrious, foreigners, such as John Field, Wagner, Liszt, Gounod, etc., etc.
The officers originally appointed were a Cardinal Protector, a 'Primicerio' or president, usually a person of high position, a 'Consiglio dirigente' of four members (representing the four sections composition, the organ, singing and instrumental music), a Secretary, a Chancellor, twelve Councillors, two Prefects, etc.; there were also professors for almost every branch of music; Corelli was head of the instrumental section in 1700. Those qualified for admission into the institution were chapel-masters, organists, public singers, and well-known instrumentalists. By a papal decree of 1689 all musicians were bound to observe the statutes of the Academy; and by a later decree (1709) it was ordained that its licence was necessary for exercising the profession. Soon after this the Congregation began to suffer from an opposition which, though covert, was none the less keenly felt; and in 1716 a papal decree unfavourable to the institution was passed. In 1762 it was flourishing again, for in that year we find that a faculty was granted to the cardinal protector to have the general direction of all ecclesiastical music at Rome. By another decree, of 1764, it was enacted that none but those skilled in music should be in future admitted as members. The entrance-fee was, as it has continued to be, a very small one. The demands made upon members were also very slight. At first they were only expected to assist, by their compositions or performances, in the grand annual festival in honour of the patron saint. Towards the close of the 17th century were added one or two annual services in memory of benefactors; in 1700 a festival in honour of St. Anna, and in 1771 a 'piccola festa di Sta. Cecilia.'
The Academy originally took up its quarters at the College of Barnabites (afterwards Palazzo Chigi) in the Piazza Colonna, where they remained for nearly a century; thence they moved to the Convent of Sta. Maria Maddalena, and again to another college of Barnabites dedicated to San Carlo a Catinari. Here they resided for the greater part of two centuries, and, after the temporary occupation of premises in the Via Ripetta, finally, in 1876, settled at their present quarters, formerly a convent of Ursuline nuns, in the Via dei Greci. Besides the hostility which the Congregation had to undergo, as we have seen, from outsiders, at the beginning of the last century—which was repeated in another form as late as 1836—it has had its financial vicissitudes. Indeed at the end of the last, and beginning of the present century, the funds were at a very low ebb, from which they have been gradually recovering. The institution was dignified with the title of Academy by Gregory XVI. in 1839, and shortly after Queen Victoria consented to become an associate. Two years later Rossini's 'Stabat Mater' was performed for the first time in Italy in its entirety by the members of the Academy. Pius IX., who became Pope in 1846, though he founded several other schools for singing, such as that of 'S. Salvatore in Lauro,' did little more
