chapter 04 norton ars nova

© 2010, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

By Barbara Russano Hanning

Based on J. Peter Burkholder, Donald J. Grout, and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, Eighth Edition

Concise History of Western MusicFourth Edition

Chapter 4French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century

PRELUDE

Prelude

• Conditions were more difficult than in the thirteenth century.

• The Hundred Years’War (1337–1453) strained the economy.

• Bad weather, famine, and floods

Prelude

• The Great Plague (known as the Black Death) killed a third of Europe’s population during 1348–50.– Victims died in agony within days of contracting

the plague.– Survivors often fled Europe’s cities.

• Peasant and urban rebellions occurred in many European regions.

A divided Church

• King Philip IV (the Fair) of France engineered the election of a French pope, who resided in Avignon rather than Rome.

• During the Great Schism of 1378–1417 there were two and sometimes three claimants to the papacy.

• When the papacy returned fully to Rome, it brought French music.

• The Church and corrupt clergy were targets of much criticism.

Science and secularism

• Philosophers distinguished between divine revelation and human reason.

• Church and state were seen to have dominion over different realms.

• These views spurred advances in science and technology.

• Interest in the world, the individual, and human nature made way for a growing secular culture.

The arts enjoyed remarkable creativity

• Increased literacy led to more literature in the vernacular.– Dante’s Divine Comedy (1307) in Italian– Boccaccio’s Decameron (1353) in Italian– Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1387–1400) in English

• Giotto (ca. 1266–1337), a Florentine painter, created a more naturalistic style in art.

• Secular songs received more attention.

Ars nova

• Ars nova (“The new art,” early 1320s) by Philippe de Vitry (1291–1361)

• The title of this treatise denotes the French musical style during the first half of the fourteenth century.

• The stylistic innovation of this era centers on rhythm and its notation

Ars nova• Changes to the motet– The subjects of motets became more political and less

amorous.– The structure became more complex, as seen in

isorhythm.• Changes to secular songs– The polyphonic art song was the most important new

genre of the era.– Machaut in France and Landini in Italy mastered this

genre while writing love lyrics in the tradition of the trouvères.

THE ARS NOVA IN FRANCE

Roman de Fauvel

• The Roman de Fauvel (Story of Fauvel) captures the spirit of the turn of the century.– This allegorical poem satirizes corrupt politicians

and church officials.

Roman de Fauvel

• Fauvel is the main character.– Fauvel is an anagram for Flattery, Avarice, Villainy

(u and v were interchangeable), Variété (fickleness), Envy, and Lâcheté (cowardice).

– Fauvel, a jackass who rises to a powerful position, symbolizes a world turned upside down.

– He marries and produces offspring that destroy the world.

Roman de Fauvel

• The manuscript contains 169 pieces of music– Some were written for this collection; others were

chosen for their relevance to the poem’s message.– Most are monophonic.– Thirty-four polyphonic motets, many denouncing

the clergy, are among the first examples of the Ars Nova and of isorhythm.

– Philippe de Vitry composed at least five motets.

Isorhythm

• The tenor is laid out in segments of identical rhythm.– Thirteenth-century motets often have short,

repeating patterns in the tenor.– In the fourteenth century, the tenor pattern grew

longer and more complex.– The slow pace of the tenor makes it less a melody and

more of a foundational structure.– The rhythmic pattern is called talea.– The melody, called color, may also repeat but may not

coincide with the rhythm.

Isorhythm

• In arboris/Tuba sacre fidei/Virgo sum, attributed to Vitry– The tenor has two statements of the color.– The color statements have three repetitions of the

talea.– The upper voices are isorhythmic during the duple

sections of the tenor.

GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT

Guillaume de Machaut

• Machaut (ca. 1300–1377) is the leading composer of the Ars Nova.– Born in northeastern France, probably to a

middle-class family– He composed in most of the major genres of his

time.

Motets

• Twenty-three motets, most from early in his career

• Traditional texture: borrowed tenor and two upper voices with different texts

• Longer and more complex than thirteenth-century motets

Motets

• Nineteen use isorhythm, sometimes in all three voices.

• Frequent use of hockets, passages featuring a quick alternation of voices with one resting while the other sings

Messe de Nostre Dame

• Probably the earliest polyphonic setting of the Mass Ordinary composed by a single composer and conceived as a unit


• Composed for the cathedral in Reims– Performed at a Mass for the Virgin Mary

celebrated every Saturday– After Machaut’s death, an oration for his soul was

added to the service.– It continued to be performed there until the

fifteenth century.


• The six movements are linked by style and approach.– All six movements are for four voices.– Recurring motives and cadence tones unify the

movements.– The Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Ite, missa est are

isorhythmic, each with a different cantus firmus.– The Gloria and Credo, with longer texts, are in discant

style and end with elaborate isorhythmic “Amens.”


• Kyrie– The tenor is from a chant on the same Ordinary

text.– The contratenor, a second supporting voice in the

same range as the tenor, is also isorhythmic but with its own talea.

– The upper voices are partially isorhythmic.

Monophonic works in the trouvère tradition

• Performed in the courts of the elite• Machaut composed numerous lais, a

twelfthcentury form similar to the sequence.


• The virelai is one of the formes fixes.– A popular poetic form in the thirteenth and

fourteenth centuries often intended for dancing (see Figure 4.7)

– The form is AbbaA: A is the refrain, a has the music of A but new words, and b is a contrasting musical phrase.


• Machaut, Foy porter– Monophonic virelai– The text pays homage to the poet’s beloved.– Machaut uses innovative rhythms and supple

syncopations.

Polyphonic chanson (“songs”)

• Treble-dominated songs were a major innovation of the Ars Nova.– The treble or cantus carries the text.– A slower-moving, untexted tenor supports the

cantus.– A contratenor may be added.


• Most are settings of the formes fixes– The formes fixes are fixed poetic forms.– Musical settings generally reflect the poetic rhyme

scheme.– Principal types: virelai, rondeau, and Ballade– In polyphonic settings, Machaut preferred the

rondeau and ballade.


• Rose, liz, printemps, verdure– This work is a rondeau: ABaAabAB.– Long melismas fall on structural points and

enhance the appeal.– Varied rhythms, including supple syncopations,

are typical.– Machaut uses both duple and triple meters.– The unusual fourth voice was probably added

later.


• Ballades– Apparently Machaut’s favorite, these works were

more serious than the other chansons.– Form: aabC– Machaut composed more than forty ballades for

two, three, and four parts.– Typical setting: high tenor solo and two lower

parts

ITALIAN TRECENTO MUSIC

Italian Trecento Music• Music was important to Italian social life.• Boccaccio’s Decameron describes music in social

life (see Vignette, p. 78).• Most music was not written down, as even

polyphony was largely improvised.• In Italian courts, travatori followed the tradition

of the troubadours.• The only examples surviving in manuscripts are

monophonic laude, processional songs that are devotional in nature.

Italian Polyphony

• Largest body is from the repertory of secular songs.

• The principal centers are in central and northern Italy, including Florence.

• Few examples of polyphony come from before 1330.

• After that date, there are several manuscripts, including the Squarcialupi Codex.

Squarcialupi Codex

• One of the main sources for Italian secular polyphony

• Named for a former owner• There are 354 pieces, grouped by composer.• A portrait of each of the twelve composers

appears at the beginning of the section containing his works.

Squarcialupi Codex

• Most are for two or three voices.• Types of works– Madrigal– Caccia– Ballata

Madrigal

• Madrigal (not related to the sixteenth-century madrigal)

• Subjects: love, satire, pastoral life• Usually for two voices

Madrigal

• Form– Each stanza set to the same music– Ritornello (Italian for “refrain”), a closing pair of

lines set to different music in a different meter

Madrigal

Madrigal

• Non al suo amante by Jacopo da Bologna (fl. 1340–?1370)– Unlike in the French chanson, the voices are

relatively equal.– The last accented syllable of each poetic line is set

to a long, florid, melisma.– The melody lacks the syncopations common in

French music.

Caccia (Italian, “hunt”)

• Similar to the French chace (“hunt”), a popular-style melody set in strict canon with lively, descriptive words

• Two voices are in canon at the unison with an untexted tenor.

• Sometimes the text plays on the concept of a hunt, as in Tosto che l’alba by Ghirardello da Firenze.– Imitations of hunting horns– High-spirited and comic

Ballata

• Popular later than the madrigal and caccia• Influenced by the treble-dominated French

chanson• Ballata is from ballare (“to dance”), and it was

originally a song to accompany dancing.

Ballata

• The form is AbbaA, like a single stanza of a French virelai.– The ripresa (refrain) is sung before and after the

stanza.– The stanza consists of two piedi (feet) and the

volta, the closing line sung to the music of the ripresa.

Ballata

Francesco Landini

• Landini (ca. 1325–1397)was the leading composer of the trecento.– He was blind since

boyhood.– He played many

instruments but was a virtuoso on the small organ (organetto).

Francesco Landini

• He composed 140 ballate.– Most are for two voices.– Others, presumably later works, have three parts

in a treble-dominated style similar to Machaut’s.

Francesco Landini

• Non avrà ma’ pieta– Many sonorities containing thirds and sixths,

though never at the beginning or end of a section– Despite syncopation, arching melodies are

smoother than Machaut’s– Melismas on the first and penultimate syllables of

a poetic line are characteristic of the Italian style.– Under-third cadences, known as “Landini

cadences,” are typical of trecento music.

Francesco Landini

Foreign influences

• French influence overtook the Italian style at the end of the century, particularly after the papal court moved back from Avignon.

• English polyphony was also influential; this would become more pronounced in the next century.

THE ARS SUBTILIOR

The Ars Subtilior

• In the late fourteenth century, French and Italian music became more refined and complex.

• Music catered to the extravagant tastes of performers and the courtly elite.

• The papal court at Avignon was one of the main patrons of secular music.

Polyponic chansons predominated

• The formes fixes continued to be set.• Most were love songs.• Composers were fascinated with technique

and extreme complexities.• This repertory is known as the Ars Subtilior

(“the subtler art”).

Polyphonic chansons predominated

• The written music often included fanciful decorations and ingenious notation.– Love song in the shape of a heart– Canon in the shape of a circle

• Rhythmic complexity– The level of complexity is not matched until the

twentieth century.– Works feature voices in contrasting meters and

conflicting groupings.– Harmonies are purposely blurred through rhythmic

disjunction.

En remirant vo douce pourtraiture

• En remirant vo douce pourtraiture by Philippus de Caserta (fl. 1370s)

• Ballade• The three voices move in different meters.• Each phrase has a distinctive rhythmic profile.• Modern performance of the tenor and

contratenor can be either vocal or instrumental

En remirant vo douce pourtraiture

Additional Art from Chapter 4

Figure 4.4

Figure 4.5

This concludes the presentation slides for

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Chapter 4: French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century

chapter 04 norton ars nova

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