The Solos of the "Orfeo" The failure of the vocal solo in the field of artistic music of Europe might be traced to the establishment of the unisonal chant in the service of the Roman Catholic Church.

Yet in defining such ground we should easily be led to exaggerate the importance of the solo.

In the infancy of modern music the solo existed only in the folk song, in the rhapsodies of religious ecstatics and in the uncertain lyrics of the minnesingers and troubadours.

Of these the folk song, and the troubadour lyrics had some musical figure, out of which a clear form might have been developed.

But, as all students of musical history know, the study of the art originated among the fathers of the church and in their pursuit of principles of structure they chose a path which led them directly away from the rhythmic and strophic basis of the song and into the realm of polyphonic imitation.