Power point 5: Ars Nova

1. Ars Nova
MUSIC OF THE LATE MIDDLE AGES (14th Century)
IN France and Italy
image from Le
Roman de Fauvel

2. Chapel:
a group of salaried
musicians and clerics
employed by a ruler,
nobleman, church
official, or other
patron, who officiate
at and furnish music
for religious services
(i.e. a “privately
owned” church)

3. Philippe de Vitry (1291-
1361)
•Poet, theorist, composer
•secretary and adviser to
French kings
•wrote treatise Ars Nova,
which outlined rules for
mensural notation
•3-voice motets
•In arboris/Tuba sacre
fidei/Virgo sum
•hocket: melody shared by
two voices; the voices
alternate notes in the
melody, so that one voice
sings while the other voice
rests
•imperfect consonances,
but must resolve to perfect

4. Tempus
perfectum
Prolatio major 9/8
Tempus
perfectum
Prolatio minor 3/4
Tempus
imperfectum
Prolatio major 6/8
Tempus
imperfectum
Prolatio minor 2/4
Mensural notation
Time Prolation

5. Le Roman de Fauvel
•14th century French
poem
•contains images
•contains music : 50
monophonic pieces and
34 motets: chant and
conductus in Latin, lais,
ballades, rondeaux, and
virelais.
•several of the motets are
by de Vitry

6. Isorhythm: a compositional technique used in Ars Nova motets
talea: repeating rhythmic pattern
color: repeating melodic pattern

7. Chanson Forms
• Forerunners of late 13th century formes fixes
Troubadour
balada
French
ballade
French virelai
Italian ballata
Trouvère
rondo/rondel
rondeau
formes fixes

8. •Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377)
•renowned poet
•leading 14th c. composer
•worked at courts—mostly secular music
•improved upon DeVitry’s innovations
•aware of his own legacy, made sure to have
many copies of his music made
•MOTETS: 4 voices
•triplum
•motetus
•tenor
•contratenor
•MASS: La Messe de Nostre Dame
•the first polyphonic mass
conceived as a single composition
•Mass Ordinary only
•Kyrie
•MONOPHONIC SONGS
•in the trouvère tradition
•formes fixes
•Foy porter; virelai
•POLYPHONIC SONGS
•chansons—polyphonic songs in
treble-dominant style
•formes fixes
•cantus, contratenor, and tenor
•Rose, liz, printemps, verdure;
Rondeau

9. Ars Subtilior
•late 14th century
•music from the French court
at Avignon
•formes fixes chansons
•embellished upper voices
•rhythmically complex;
syncopated
•dissonant
•Philippus de Caserta,
En remirant vo douce
pourtraiture; ballade

10. Trecento music—Secular Italian polyphonic vocal music from the 1300s
•Madrigal 2 or 3 a capella voices all sing same text
•aab a sections 3 lines each
•ritornello is 2 lines, in different meter
•Jacopo da Bologna, Non al suo amante
•Caccia canon; slow tenor
•Gherardello da Firenze, Tosto che l’alba
•Ballata similar to virelai; treble –dominated
•AbbabA instruments may play lower voices
•Francesco Landini,
Non avrà ma’ pietà
•Francesco Landini
•Landini Cadence
Squarcialupi Codex

11. musica ficta—medieval and renaissance practice of using notes outside the
gamut. This was often not notated in the score.
double leading-tone cadence

12. • instruments were used in
polyphonic music; often
replaced voice parts or
were added, but this was
not notated in the score
• Manuscripts did not specify
instruments
• little purely instrumental
music—some organ pieces
– La quarte estampie royal;
from Le manuscrit du roi
Medieval Instrumental
Music

13. “low” (quiet) instruments
recorder transverse flute portative organ
harp lute psaltery vielle
Listen to these instruments: https://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/instruments
(Copy the link into your web browser.)

14. “high” (loud)
instruments
shawmcornet trumpet
Listen to these
instruments:
https://www.musi
c.iastate.edu/anti
qua/instruments
(Copy the link into
your web
browser.)

15. percussion
instruments
keyboard
instruments
Listen to these instruments:
https://www.music.iastate.e
du/antiqua/instruments
(Copy the link into your web
browser.)