In this case the gem is the rich mind-picture which comes to us if we faithfully seek the under-thought.  And the seeking is polishing the gem.

Music written entirely by the rules of counterpoint is called contrapuntal music; that written otherwise is known as free harmonic music.  In the one case the composer desired to have a beautiful weaving of the parts—­clear as the lines in a line-engraving.  In the other, the intention is to get effects from tones united into chords, such as is obtained from masses of color in a painting.  Neither form may be said to be the superior of the other.  Each is valuable in its place, and each has possibilities peculiarly its own, which the other could not give.  Pure counterpoint could not give us such a charming effect as Chopin obtains in the first study of Opus 10; nor could the plainer and more free harmonic style give us such delicate bits of tracery as Bach has in his fugues.

If now you will take the trouble to learn two long words, later in your study of music they will be of use to you.  The first is Polyphonic; the other is Monophonic.  Both, like many other words in our language, are made up of two shorter words, and come from another language—­Greek.  In both we have “phonic,” evidently meaning the same in each case, limited or modified by the preceding part—­poly and mono.  Phonic is the Anglicized Greek for sound.  We use it in the English word telephonic.  Now if we define mono and poly we shall understand these two long words.

Mono means one, poly means many.  We say monotone, meaning one tone; also polygon, meaning many sides.

In the musical reference monophonic music means music of one voice, rather than of one tone, and polyphonic music is that for many voices.  Simple melodies with or without accompanying chords are monophonic; many melodies woven together, as in the Bach piece which we have looked over, are polyphonic.

In the history of music two men surpassed all others in what they accomplished in counterpoint—­that is, in polyphonic writing.  The one was Palestrina, an Italian; the other was Bach, a German.  Palestrina lived at a time when the music of the church was very poor, so poor, indeed, that the clergy could no longer endure it.  Palestrina, however, devoted himself earnestly to composing music strictly adapted to the church use.  The parts were all melodic, and woven together with such great skill that they yet remain masterpieces of contrapuntal writing.  Later Bach developed counterpoint very much more in the modern way.  He did with polyphony for the piano and organ much the same as Palestrina did for the voice.  There have never lived greater masters than these in the art of polyphonic music.