MUS 5960 Dr. Wallace Department of Music Southeastern Oklahoma State University

1. Polyphony through the
Thirteenth Century
3
Chapter

2. Prelude
1050–1300 economic growth
• increasing trade and commerce throughout western
Europe
• growing population, modern cities develop
• cultural revival, music and the arts
• ancient Greek writings translated into Latin
• encouraged development of music theory
• universities founded: Paris, Oxford, and Bologna
• large Romanesque churches erected
• donors funded new monasteries, convents
• Scholasticsism
• reconcile classical Greek philosophy with Christian
doctrine
• Roger Bacon and St. Thomas Aquinas make
contributions
• mid-twelfth century, Gothic style
A leaf from a manuscript copy of the Gospel of Saint
Mark. The central text is heavily glossed with
commentary (akin to footnotes) between its lines and
along both sides of the page in a process that
illustrates the Scholastic method and also has parallels
in troping and in the musical layering of early
polyphony.

3. Polyphonic music, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
• polyphony: added voices sing together in independent parts
• heightened grandeur of chant
• written polyphony, inaugurated four concepts in Western music
• counterpoint: combination of multiple independent lines
• harmony: regulation of simultaneous sounds
• centrality of notation
• composition as distinct from performance
• monophony remained principal medium
• polyphonic music grew out of improvisational practice
• development of organum
• polyphonic elaboration of plainchant
• new genre, motet
• breakthrough in rhythmic notation
Prelude

4. An example of two-voice Aquitanian organum, also known as free or florid organum, which may have been
written as early as 1100. The solid lines separate the upper and lower voices.
Early Organum

5. Organum, 9th – 11th centuries
• described in anonymous treatise, Musica enchiriadis
• parallel organum
• chant melody is principal voice
• organal voice moves in exact parallel motion 4th or 5th below (NAWM 14a)
• may be further duplicated at octave (NAWM 14b)
Parallel organum at the fifth below, from Musica enchiriadis
Early Organum

6. Organum, 9th – 11th centuries
• oblique organum
• adjustments made to avoid tritones
• wider variety of intervals, dissonance
• contrary and oblique motion
• predominated in eleventh century
• voices grew more independent
• parts often cross
• organal voice above chant
• consonant intervals: unison, octave, 4th, and 5th
Early Organum

7. • Organum, ninth through eleventh centuries (cont’d)
• eleventh-century polyphony
• troped plainchant sections of Mass Ordinary (Kyrie and Gloria)
• parts of Mass Proper (Tracts and Sequences)
• responsories of the Office and Mass
(Graduals and Alleluias)
• trained singers improvised solo portions, alternated with monophonic chant by full choir
• Alleluia Justus ut palma
• instructions preserved in Ad organum faciendum (On making organum, ca. 1100)
• new style of organum, more rhythmic and melodic independence
Early Organum

8. 12th-century organum
• Aquitainian organum: free and florid
• developed in Aquitaine, southwestern France
• organum, organum duplum (“double organum”), or organum purum (“pure
organum”)
• lower voice (existing chant or original melody) sustains long notes
• chant became elongated into series of single-note “drones”
• lower voice called tenor, Latin tenere (“to hold”)
• upper voice sings decorative phrases of varying lengths
• upper voice moved independently
• discantus (discant) style
• movement is primarily note against note
• Leoninus praised as best singer/composer of organum, optimus organista
• Perotinus praised as best maker of discants, discantor
• Jubilemus, exultemus (NAWM 16), 2-voice Aquitainian organum
• florid organum, melismas of three to fifteen notes
• both styles: lower voice holds principal melody, tenor
Early Organum

9. • Notation
• score notation, one part above the other
• phrases marked off by short vertical strokes
• polyphonic complexities create need for rhythmic notation
• rhythmic modes devised in northern France
Early Organum

10. Notre Dame Polyphony:
Late 12th and Early 13th Century
• Parisian polyphony even more ornate
style
• creators associated with Cathedral of Notre
Dame
• Leoninus (fl. 1150s–ca. 1201), priest and poet-
musician
• Perotinus (fl. 1200–1230), probably trained as singer
under Leoninus
• both may have studied at University of Paris
• repertory sung for more than a century
• primarily composed in writing and read from
notation
Part of the nave and transept of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in
Paris, built ca. 1163–1250. Its great height and elaborate interior
have parallels in the unprecedented length, intricacy, and carefully
worked-out structure of the vocal music that singers collectively
created to resound in its vast space.

11. Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

12. • Magnus Liber Organi (“great book of polyphony”)
• compilation attributed to Leoninus
• collection of 2-voice settings of solo portions of responsorial chants
• Graduals and Alleluias of the Mass, and Office responsories
• different settings for same passages of chant
• includes organa for two, three, and four voices
• musicians freely altered and added to the collection
Notre Dame Polyphony:
Late 12th and Early 13th Century

13. Viderunt omnes by Leoninus, Gradual for Christmas Day
• responsorial chant: polyphonic music performed by soloists, choir sings in
unison
• plainchant, organum, and discant heard side by side
• opening section on “Viderunt”
• discant passage on “Dominus”
First section of “Viderunt omnes”, in organum duplum
Notre Dame Polyphony:
Late 12th and Early 13th Century

14. • Clausula: self-contained section of an organum
• discant style, more consonant than organa, short phrases, more lively pacing
• substitute clausulae: new clausulae replace original setting of chant
• manuscript includes ten clausulae for “Dominus” from Viderunt omnes
Notre Dame Polyphony:
Late 12th and Early 13th Century
Discant clausula on “do-” of “Viderunt omnes”

15. Notre Dame Polyphony:
Late 12th and Early 13th Century
We have no images of Leoninus or Perotinus. This illumination from an early fourteenth-century
French manuscript shows a class at the University of Paris from their era.

16. • Perotinus “the Great”
• Perotinus and his
contemporaries created 3-
and 4-voice organa
• organum duplum, triplum (3-
voice organum), quadruplum
• voices above named duplum
(second voice), triplum,
quadruplum
• Viderunt omnes (1198), 4-
voice organum
• upper voices use modal rhythm
• long, unmeasured notes in tenor
• discant passage on “Dominus,”
longest section
Opening of the setting of Viderunt omnes
in organum quadruplum. The upper three
voices are in modal rhythm over a
sustained tenor note.
Notre Dame Polyphony:
Late 12th and Early 13th Century

17. Perotinus, Viderunt omnes, opening, with repeating elements indicated by letter
Notre Dame Polyphony:
Late 12th and Early 13th Century

18. The Motet
The motet was a new genre in the early 13th century
• originated from troped repertory of clausuale
• clausula became separate piece
 independent composition in melismatic polyphony
• Latin or French words added to upper voice
• borrowed chant material in tenor
 tenor known as cantus firmus
• some motets intended for nonliturgical use
 upper voices have vernacular texts
 tenor may have been played on instruments
 compound titles indicate first words of each voice

19. Early motets
• Factum est salutare/Dominus
 based on substitue clausula from Magnus liber organi
 text is trope on original chant text
 elaborated meaning: words drawn from a psalm referring back to original
chant
 ingenious composite artwork, multiple layers of borrowing and meaning
Factum est salutare/Dominus
The Motet

20. Versatility of motets
• became genre independent of church performance
• tenor lost its connection to the liturgy
• composers reworked existing motets
• different text for duplum in Latin or French
• not necessarily linked to chant text, often on a secular topic
• added a third voice to those already present
• gave additional parts texts of their own: double or triple motet
• deleted original duplum, wrote one or more new voices
• motets from scratch using Notre Dame clausula
• new rhythmic pattern, new voices added above it
The Motet

21. Versatility of motets
• Fole acostumance/Dominus
• tenor same as Factum est salutare/Dominus, stated twice
• substitutes new, more quickly moving duplum
• doubled length, faster motion accommodate longer secular French poem
• intended for entertainment
The Motet
Fole acostumance/Dominus

22. • Versatility of motets (cont’d)
• Super te/Sed fulsit virginitas/Dominus (NAWM 21c)
• unchanged tenor from a clausula
• first half of chant melisma on “Dominus” with different modal rhythmic pattern
• two upper voices: first and second halves of Latin poem on birth of Christ
• upper parts rarely rest together, or with tenor
• music moves forward in unbroken stream
The Motet
Super te Ierusalem/Sed fulsit virginitas/Dominus
Super te Ierusalem/Sed fulsit virginitas/Dominus

23. • Versatility of motets (cont’d)
• Franconian motet
• each upper voice has distinctive rhythm
• no longer conform to rhythmic modes
• more rhythmic freedom and variety among and within voices
• triplum bears a longer text, faster-moving melody, many short notes
• layered texture
• De ma dame vient/Dieus, comment porroie/Omnes, by Adam de la
Halle (ca. 1240–1288?), Franconian motet
• upper voices differ in rhythm, reinforce contrast of texts
• triplum lover’s complaints
• duplum: woman’s thoughts of him
• slow-moving tenor: repeats melody of “omnes” from Gradual Viderunt omnes twelve
times
The Motet

24. The Polyphonic Conductus
Notre Dame composers and others in France and England
• 2- to 4-voice settings of rhymed, metrical, strophic Latin poems
 sacred or serious topic
• differs from Notre Dame polyphony
 tenor: newly composed
 all voices sing text together in same rhythm
 conductus style: nearly homorhythmic quality
 mostly syllabic text setting
 caudae (“tails”): melismatic passages at beginning, end, before important cadences

25. Medieval
Pilgrimage
&
The Camino
de Santiago

26. Medieval Pilgrimage
• Pilgrimage – “…a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place,
where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about
their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It
can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns
to their daily life.”
• Philip Bohlman states this definition of pilgrimage in Grove’s
Dictionary:
• "Pilgrimage provides a metaphor for life's sacred journey for religions
throughout the world."

27. Medieval Pilgrimage
• Reasons for Pilgrimage in the Medieval Era
• Often pilgrims were sent as an act of penance, to absolve them of their sins
• Pilgrimage Business
• Some scholars discuss medieval pilgrimage as a “franchise business”, in which the
shrines, especially in Santiago de Compostela, “marketed their patron saint and took in
large-scale offerings...”
• Pilgrims made a large financial commitment when going on pilgrimage, and often used
almost an entire year salary to make donations to shrines, including both jewelry, coins
and sometimes wax (a valuable asset in Medieval church life).
• Visiting Shrines of Holy Relics (bones of saints, popes, other Holy people) in
hopes of miracles, cures for disease, etc.

28. Medieval Pilgrimage
• Medieval Pilgrimage Sites
• The Holy Land (Palestine, Jerusalem)
• Rome
• Canterbury, England
• Santiago de Compostela, Spain
• Cologne, Germany

29. Medieval Pilgrimage

30. El Camino de Santiago
The Way of Saint James

31. Santiago de Compostela
• Spanish City located in Galicia, the northwest region of
Spain
• The language is a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish,
known as Galicia
• The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (El Camino de
Santiago) h been in existence since the 10th century
• "In the heyday of medieval Christian pilgrimage after the
11th century, there could be little doubt that…there was a
handful of shrines of the highest rank which the serious
pilgrim would aspire to visit in his or her lifetime: Rome,
Santiago, the Holy Land." Webb
• In the mid-twelfth century, the pilgrimage to Santiago
became a famous journey
The Camino de Santiago

32. The Camino de Santiago

33. The legend of St. James
• Sant' Iago, or Santiago, is Spanish for St. James, who
is now the patron saint of Spain in most part due to
the wars against the Muslims and Christians during
the middle ages.
• Spanish legends as far back as the late 7th century
state that St. James preached in Spain before
returning to Jerusalem for his martyrdom and death
• St. James, after visiting and preaching in Spain,
traveled back to Judea, where he was later
beheaded, becoming the perfect martyr for Spain.
• King Alfonso III (866-910) was the first to consecrate
a church at the supposed site of St. James' bones in
899 A.D./C.E.
• his body was transported back to Galicia for its final
resting place
The Camino de Santiago

34. Codex Calixtinus Origins (c.1100-1140)
• A book including
• The Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago de Compostela
• describes the four routes to Compostela, one of which begins at the Burgundian Abbey
of Vézelay, among other points of interest in France, including Tours, Auvergne, St. Gilles
and Notre Dame of Le Puy.
• Some of the first musical examples of polyphony and organum from the
Medieval Era
• Diego del Gelmírez, bishop and later archbishop of Compostela (1100-1140)
asked Pope Calixtus II for help creating the Codex Calixtinus (C. 1140), as well
as the shrine and cathedral in Compostela
• It is on display in the Cathedral Museum in Santiago de Compostela
The Camino de Santiago

35. Codex Calixtinus Origins (c.1100-1140)
The Camino de Santiago

36. The Camino de Santiago
• The Pilgrim's Guide from the Codex Calixtinus includes these chapter
headings:
• i. The routes to Santiago
• ii. The various stages on the route
• iii. The names of the cities and towns on the way
• iv. The three main hospices
• v. The names of those who repaired the route
• vi. The good and bad rivers along the route
• vii. The names of the territories and the character of the inhabitants
• viii. The shrines along the route which the pilgrim should visit
• ix. The city and basilica of St. James of Galicia
• x. The number of canons of St. James
• xi. The welcome that pilgrims may expect

37. The Camino de Santiago

38. The Camino de Santiago
Codex Calixtinus Musical Examples
• Musical examples from the Mass of St. James

39. The Camino de Santiago
The Camino Today
• The Way of Saint James continues today
• The full “walk”
• starts in St. Jean Pied de Port in France
• Cross the Pyrenees Mountains that border France
and Spain
• Go through Pamplona (where the bulls run free)
• Total walk is roughly 500 miles
• Takes about a month to walk straight through
• Can do it in sections, but to get an official
certificate, must complete 72 miles/110 km
• Pilgrim Passport and stamps from local
hostels and other local businesses along the
way.
• Show your passport when you’re done to get your
official certificate
• It’s addictive!

40. The Camino de Santiago

41. The Camino de Santiago

42. The Camino de Santiago

43. The Camino de Santiago

44. The Camino de Santiago

45. The Camino de Santiago

46. The Camino de Santiago

47. The Camino de Santiago

48. The Camino de Santiago

49. French and Italian Music in the
Fourteenth Century
4
Chapter

50. Prelude
• Church in crisis; supremacy of pope questioned
• election of French pope
• 1309–1377 popes resided at Avignon
• under control of French king
• 1378–1417 Papal Schism: rival claimants to papal throne
• corrupt life of clergy
• sharp criticism, rise of heretical movements
• Science and secularism
• science separated from religion
• philosophers distinguish between divine revelation and human reason
• spurred advances in science and technology
• increasing interest in the individual; growing secular movement

51. Prelude
• The arts
• growth of literacy; works in
vernacular
• Dante’s Divine Comedy (1307)
• Boccacio’s Decameron (1353)
• Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1387–1400)
• sacred compositions continued to
flourish
• cultivation of secular song

52. • Ars Nova (New Art or New Method; early 1320s),
treatise
• attributed to Philippe de Vitry (1291–1361)
• French musician, poet, and bishop of Meaux
• Ars Nova denotes French musical style, first half of
fourteenth century
• innovations in rhythm and its notation; carried to extremes
• Jacques de Liège
• objected to “imperfect” duple division and use of syncopation
• defended “perfect” triple division
• important new genre: polyphonic art song
• motet topics became more political
• structurally more complex
• use of isorhythm
• Guillaume de Machaut and Francesco Landini
• important composers of polyphonic songs
Prelude

53. The Ars Nova in France
• Roman de Fauvel, narrative poem
• satirizes political corruption, secular and
ecclesiastical
• Fauvel symbolizes world turned upside down
• his name is acrostic for sins he personifies
• Flattery, Avarice, Villainy, Variètè (“Fickleness), Envy, and
Låcheté (“Baseness”)
• 1317 illuminated manuscript
• 169 pieces of music interpolated within the poem
• most are monophonic; Latin chants to secular songs
• thirty-four motets, included first examples of Ars Nova
style
A charivari, or noisy serenade, awakens Fauvel
and Vaine Gloire after their wedding in the
Roman de Fauvel (1310–1314), a poem by
Gervais du Bus with many musical interpolations.
Fauvel, an allegorical ass, embodies the sins
represented by the letters of his name.

54. • Isorhythmic motets
• Philippe de Vitry’s motets, earliest examples of isorhythm (“equal rhythm”)
• tenors laid out in segments of identical rhythm
• recurring elements in most tenors
• from Roman de Fauvel (NAWM 25)
• tenor, three statements of the color
• color divided into three equal parts, fits three statements
of talea
• isorhythm occasionally applied to other genres
• movement from Machaut’s Mass (NAWM 26a)
• isorhythmic designs: singers grasp shape, commit to memory
The Ars Nova in France

55. The relationship of time and prolation.

56. The four combinations of time and prolation
with modern equivalents.

57. Guillaume de Machaut
(ca. 1300–1377)
• Leading composer and poet of French Ars Nova
• born to middle-class family, northeastern France
• educated as cleric in Reims, took Holy orders
• 1323: service of John of Luxembourg, king
of Bohemia
• described travels and military campaigns in his poetry
• 1340–1377 resided in Reims, canon of the cathedral
• strong support from royal patrons
• compiled his complete works
• illuminated manuscripts
• self-awareness as creator
• major works include: Messe de Nostre,
Hoquetus David, twenty-three motets, forty-two
ballades, twenty-two rondeaux, three-three virelais

58. In this miniature
from the last
manuscript of
Guillaume de
Machaut’s works
prepared during
his lifetime (ca.
1372), the elderly
Machaut is visited
in his study by
Love, who
introduces his
three children —
Sweet Thoughts,
Pleasure, and
Hope.
Guillaume de Machaut
(ca. 1300–1377)

59. • Motets
• twenty-three motets (ninteenth isorhythmic)
from
early in his career
• longer and more rhythmically complex
• clever use of hocket in upper voices
• hocket (French hoquet, “hiccup”)
• two voices alternate in rapid succession
Guillaume de Machaut
(ca. 1300–1377)
Reims Cathedral, site of the coronation of French kings and of
Machaut’s activities as cleric, poet, and composer. The alternating
grounded columns and elaborately carved arches recall the solid
pillars of sound and lively rhythms that animate the texture of an
isorhythmic motet or mass. (SEF/Art Resource, NY.)

60. • Mass: Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady), early 1360s
• polyphonic setting of Mass Ordinary
• conceived as one composition
• performed in Reim into fifteenth century
• movements linked together by style and approach
• recurring motives and cadence tones
• isorhythmic movements: Kyrie, Sanctus, Angus Dei
and Ite, missa est
• each use different cantus firmus
• discant movements: Gloria and Credo
• syllabic, largely homorhythmic
• both movements end with elaborate isorhythmic “Amens”
• Kyrie (NAWM 26a), 4-part isorhythmic movement
• tenor: cantus firms melody of Kyrie chant
• opening Christe: contrast of rhythmic rest and activity
Guillaume de Machaut
(ca. 1300–1377)

61. A miniature from the
earliest manuscript of
Machaut’s collected works
(ca. 1350), showing five
couples dancing in a circle.
The dancer farthest to the
right is singing to
accompany the dance. The
singer resembles Machaut
as pictured in the later
manuscript in Figure 4.6, at
a younger age. The music
under the picture is a
monophonic virelai by
Machaut.
Guillaume de Machaut
(ca. 1300–1377)

62. • Love songs
• continued trouvère tradition
• songs performed as entertainment in courts
• wrote monophonic pieces in standard poetic forms (formes fixes
“fixed forms”)
• formes fixes derived from genres associated with dancing
• Douce dame jolie (Sweet lovely lady, NAWM 27), monophonic
virelai
• innovative rhythm, supple syncopations
Guillaume de Machaut
(ca. 1300–1377)

63. • Polyphonic songs, chansons
• treble-dominated style
• cantus or treble carried the text
• cantus supported by slower-moving untexted tenor
• one or two untexted voices may be added
• Rose, liz, printemps, verdure (Rose, lily, springtime, foliage, NAWM 28), 4-
voice rondeau
• rondeau, “fixed form”
• long melismas, up to four measures
• varied rhythms; not isorhythmic
• ballades
• Machaut wrote more than forty ballades
• most serious of the formes fixes
• philosophical or historical themes; celebrate event or person
Guillaume de Machaut
(ca. 1300–1377)

64. Italian Trecento Music (from “mille
trecento,” Italian for 1300)
Fourteenth-century Italy, collection of city-states
• each cultivated its own cultural traditions
• music accompanied every aspect of social life
 most music never written down
 church polyphony mostly improvised, few notated works survive
 Italian trovatore followed troubadour tradition
• secular polyphonic songs
 composed and sung as refined entertainment for wealthy patrons
• Florence important cultural center fouteenth to sixteenth centuries
• home to Dante and Boccacio, and most famous Trecento musician, Landini
• Squarcialupi Codex: source for Italian Trecento polyphony
• named for Antonio Squarcialupi (1416–1480), Florentine organist, owned but did not
compile
• 354 pieces, mostly two or three voices, twelve composers
• secular forms: madrigal, caccia, and ballata

65. Italian Trecento Music (from “mille
trecento,” Italian for 1300)
A page from the richly illustrated
Squarcialupi Codex, an early
fifteenth-century manuscript
named for its fifteenth-century
owner, Antonio Squarcialupi,
showing Francesco Landini
wearing a laurel crown and playing
a portative organ. The portrait is
set inside the initial letter M of
Landini’s madrigal Musica son (I
am music). The decorative border
depicts (counterclockwise from the
upper left) a lute, vielle, cittern or
citole, harp, psaltery, three
recorders, a portative organ, and
three shawms.

66. • Fourteenth-century madrigal
• idyllic, pastoral, satirical, or love poems
• usually set for two or three voices
• Non al suo amante by Jacopo da Bologna
(NAWM 30)
• poem by Italian lyric poet Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374)
• characteristic rhythmic variety and fluidity
• differs from French chanson
• two voices relatively equal, occasionally echo one another
• long melismas on last accented syllable of each line
• more florid in upper voice, without syncopations
• Ballata
• became popular later than madrigal
• influence of treble-dominated French chanson
• “ballata” (from ballare, “to dance”), originally meant “a song to accompany
dancing”
• two to three polyphonic voices, date from after 1365
• form resembles single stanza of French virelai
Italian Trecento Music (from “mille
trecento,” Italian for 1300)

67. • Francesco Landini (ca. 1325–1397)
• foremost Italian musician of the Trecento, leading
composer of ballate
• blinded by smallpox during childhood, turned to music
• master of many instruments
• organist at the monastery of Santa Trinità in 1361–65
• chaplain at church of San Lorenzo
• wrote no sacred music
• major works: 140 ballate, 12 madrigals, 1 caccia, 1 virelai
Italian Trecento Music (from “mille
trecento,” Italian for 1300)
The tombstone of Francesco Landini. The
composer, depicted with hollowed eye
sockets, plays a portative organ,
accompanied by two angel-musicians
above his head.

68. Tapestry from the Low Countries (ca. 1420) showing a man in courtly dress singing from a manuscript. He
is accompanied by a woman playing a positive organ, which is portable but must be placed on a table to be
played, rather than resting on a lap like the portative organ played by Landini in Figure 4.8. A boy stands
behind the organ, pumping the bellows to force air through the pipes and produce the sounds.
Italian Trecento Music (from “mille
trecento,” Italian for 1300)

69. • Francesco Landini (ca. 1325–1397) (cont’d)
• Non avrà ma’pietà (She will never have mercy, NAWM 32)
• later style, 3-voice ballata
• treble-dominated
• solo voice with two untexted accompanying parts
• concern for text declamation: melismatic passages never interrupt middle of a verse
• Landini’s style:
• sweetness of harmonies, contain 3rds and 6ths
• graceful vocal melodies, mostly stepwise
• Landini cadence
• progression of M6th to the octave
• ornamented by lower neighbor leaping up a 3rd in top voice
Italian Trecento Music (from “mille
trecento,” Italian for 1300)

70. • Caccia
• parallels French chace
• popular-style melody set in strict canon, lively descriptive words
• caccia and cacce mean “hunt”
• pursuit of one voice after another
• sometimes applies to subject matter of text (NAWM 31)
• caccia has free untexted tenor in slower motion below
• unlike French and Spanish counterparts
French influence
• late 1300s, increased contact between Italian and northern composers
• Italian national characteristics lost
• contemporary French style absorbed
• especially noticeable after papal court moved from Avignon
• Italians wrote songs to French texts in French genres, often in French
notation
Italian Trecento Music (from “mille
trecento,” Italian for 1300)

71. The Ars Subtilior
• Later fourteenth-century polyphonic songs
• Ars Subtilior (“the subtle art”)
• phrase derived from Philippus de Caserta (fl. 1370s) treatise
• papal court at Avignon main patron of secular music
• chivalric and ecclesiastical society allowed composers to flourish
• polyphonic songs: formes fixes, ballades, rondeaux, and virelais
• mostly love songs
• fascination with technical possibilities, new extrêmes
• music more refined and complex
• elevated style matched in manuscripts
• fanciful decorations, intermingled red and black notes
• ingenious notation
• occasional caprices; love song written in shape of heart, canon in shape of circle
• intended for professional performers, cultivated listeners

72. The Ars Subtilior (cont’d)
Rhythmic complexity
• new notational signs and practices
 voices in contrasting meters and
conflicting groupings
 beats subdivided in many different ways
 phrases broken by rests, suspended
through chains of syncopations
 harmonies blurred through rhythmic
disjunctions
• En remirant vo douce pourtraiture
(While I gazed at your sweet portrait,
NAWM 29), ballade by Caserata
Philippus de Caserta’s En remirant vo douce
pourtraiture in a manuscript from ca. 1410. The red
notation indicates changes from triple to duple
subdivision, such as from a dotted quarter to a quarter.
Changes of meter and proportion are indicated by
mensuration signs — small circles or partial circles with
or without dots between the staff lines.

73. English Polyphony
English polyphony, abundant in fourteenth century
• particularly sacred genres
• distinctive sound and other qualities
• impact on Continental developments in the fifteenth century of
the Renaissance