Italian classical music is difficult to do if everyone is singing a melody at the same time; thus, polyphony gave way to homophony, and early opera consisted of relatively simple melodies with texts about Greek mythology, sung in Italian and supported by simple harmonies. The important city in Italy in this development of music in the 16th century was Florence. (See also: Florentine Camerata, Vincenzo Galilei, Jacopo Peri, Palestrina, Arcangelo Corelli.) Besides Florence, two other Italian cities are particularly worthy of mention in the period around 1600. There is somewhat of a friendly rivalry between advocates of the two cities as to which
Jacopo d'Angelo School of Chrysoloras. At this school Chrysoloras would become one of the first people to teach the Greek language to Italians. Many scholars would flock to this school including Leonardo Bruni, an Italian scholar who would later become a famous humanist and Jacopo's rival. After a meeting between Jacopo and Chrysoloras, they decided to return to Constantinople in 1395. At the time of his arrival, the city was under siege by the Muslim Turks. There, Jacopo learned the Greek language and studied Ancient Greek texts. While in Constantinople, Jacopo met a scholar by the name of Manuel Calecas who was