The Ars Nova

Musical Developments in the Fourteenth Century

• Ars novae musicae The Art of New Music)– Jehan des Murs (ca. 1290 – ca. 1350)

• Ars nova (The New Art)– Philippe de Vitry (1291–1361)

Music from Mathematics

• Perfection/ Imperfection• Modus, Tempus, Prolation

– Tempus perfectum, prolatio major

– Tempus perfectum, prolatio minor

– Tempus imperfectum, prolatio major

– Tempus imperfectum, prolatio minor

The Roman de Fauvel

• Gervais du Bus• Tribum/Quoniam/MERITO

[Anthology 1-24]– Philippe de Vitry – Isorhythmic motet

Isorhythm

• Talea (repeating rhythmic values)• Color (recurring melodic pattern)

Guillaume de Machaut(ca. 1300–1377)

• “Last of the trouvères”• “Greatest French poet of his age”

Guillaume de Machaut

• Felix virgo/Inviolata/ADTE SUSPIRAMUS [Anthology 1-25]– Isorhythmic motet– Musica ficta• causa necessitatis (harmonically necessary

adjustments)• causa pulchritudinis (chromatic adjustments made “for

the sake of their beauty”)

Guillaume de Machaut

• Chanson– “top-down style”

• Douce dame jolie [Anthology 1-26a]– Monophonic virelai

Guillaume de Machaut

• En mon cuer [Anthology 1-26b]– Polyphonic virelai– Texted cantus– Cantilena style

Guillaume de Machaut

• Tres bonne et belle [Anthology 1-26c]– virelai

• Rose, liz [Anthology 1-27]– rondeau

Guillaume de Machaut

• La Messe de Nostre Dame [Anthology 1-28]• Polyphonic setting of the mass ordinary– Cyclic mass ordinary• Kyrie• Gloria• Credo• Sanctus• Agnus Dei

Canons

• Literati • “connoisseur's art”• Machuat, Ma fin est mon conmencement (My

end is my beginning, and my beginning my end)

• Latin rota (“round”)• French chace; Italian caccia (“chase”)

Subtilitas

• Ars subtilior• Treatise by Philippus Caserta– “Subtiliorem modum” – composing with greater

subtlety– En remirant [Anthology 1-29]

• Ballade• Lengthy passages of syncopation• Interplay of perfect and imperfect values• Superimposed and juxtaposed time signatures• Unusual note shapes

Subtilitas

• Chantilly Codex– Solage, Fumeux fume (Smoky Smoke)

[Anthology 1-30]• Rondeau

Trecento Vernacular Music

• Italian “1300s”• Madrigale– Vernacular poem– Two or more three-line stanzas and a ritornello

• Pomerium, Marchetto of Padua (1319)– Treatise on theory and notation

• Squarcialupi Codex (ca. 1415)– Compendium of Trecento compositions

Trecento Vernacular Music

• Jacopo da Bologna (1340 – ca. 1386)– Osellecto salvagio • Madrigal [Anthology 1-31a]• Caccia [Anthology 1-31b]

Ballata

• AbbaA (similar to French virelai)• Francesco Landini (ca. 1325–1397)– Non avrà ma’ pietà [Anthology 1-32]• “Landini cadence”• Intabluation of Faenza Codex

The Motet as Political Show

• Convergence of French and Italian styles• Northern European musicians employed in

Italian courts

The Motet as Political Show

• Johannes Ciconia (ca. 1370–1412)– Born in Liège, employed in Padua– Doctorum principem super ethera/Melodia su

avissima cantemus [Anthology 1-33]

The Motet as Political Show• Guillaume Du Fay (ca. 1397–1474)– Born near Brussels, employed in various Italian

courts and Pope Eugene IV– Nuper rosarum flores [Anthology 1-34]• Florence cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary• Symbolic durational proportions 6:4:2:3