Ars NovaMUSIC OF THE LATE MIDDLE AGES (14th Century) IN France and Italy

image from Le Roman de Fauvel

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)

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

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

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

Isorhythm: a compositional technique used in Ars Nova motets

talea: repeating rhythmic pattern

color: repeating melodic pattern

Chanson Forms• Forerunners of late 13th century formes fixes

formes fixes

•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

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

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

musica ficta—medieval and renaissance practice of using notes outside the gamut. This was often not notated in the score.

double leading-tone cadence

• 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

“low” (quiet) instruments

recorder transverse flute portative organ

harp lute psaltery vielle

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“high” (loud) instruments

shawmcornet trumpet

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percussion instrumentskeyboard instruments

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