''Ars nova'' (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for new art)Fallows, David. (2001). "Ars nova". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...

and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. refers to a musical style which flourished in the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. ...

and its surroundings during the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...

. More particularly, it refers to the period between the preparation of the ''

Roman de Fauvel The ''Roman de Fauvel'' is a 14th-century French allegorical verse romance of satirical bent, generally attributed to , a clerk at the French royal chancery. The original narrative of 3,280 octosyllabics is divided into two books, dated to 131 ...

'' (1310s) and the death of composer

Guillaume de Machaut Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...

in 1377. The term is sometimes used more generally to refer to all European

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

music of the fourteenth century. For instance, the term "Italian " is sometimes used to denote the music of Francesco Landini and his compatriots, although

Trecento music The Trecento was a period of vigorous activity in Italy in the arts, including painting, architecture, literature, and music. The music of the Trecento paralleled the achievements in the other arts in many ways, for example, in pioneering new fo ...

is the more common term for the contemporary 14th-century music in Italy. The "ars" in "ars nova" can be read as "technique", or "style". The term was first used in two musical treatises, titled ''Ars novae musicae'' (New Technique of Music) (c. 1320) by

Johannes de Muris Johannes de Muris ( – 1344), or John of Murs, was a French mathematician, astronomer, and music theorist best known for treatises on the '' ars nova'' musical style, titled '' Ars nove musice''. Life and career For a medieval person primarily kn ...

, and a collection of writings (c. 1322) attributed to

Philippe de Vitry Philippe de Vitry (31 October 1291 – 9 June 1361) was a French composer-poet, bishop and music theorist in the style of late medieval music. An accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, he was widely acknowledged as a leading musi ...

often simply called "''Ars nova''" today.Fuller, Sarah. "A Phantom Treatise of the Fourteenth Century? The ''Ars Nova''", ''Journal of Musicology'' 4 (1985–6), pp. 23–50. Musicologist Johannes Wolf first applied to the term as description of an entire era (as opposed to merely specific persons) in 1904. The term is often used in juxtaposition to two other periodic terms, of which the first, , refers to the music of the immediately preceding age, usually extending back to take in the period of Notre Dame

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

(from about 1170 to 1320). Roughly, then, refers to music of the thirteenth century, and the that of the fourteenth; many music histories use the terms in this more general sense. The period from the death of Machaut (1377) until the early fifteenth century, including the rhythmic innovations of the , is sometimes considered the end of, or late, but at other times an independent era in music. Other musical periods and styles have at various times been called "new art." Johannes Tinctoris used the term to describe

Dunstaple John Dunstaple (or Dunstable, – 24 December 1453) was an English composer whose music helped inaugurate the transition from the medieval to the Renaissance periods. The central proponent of the '' Contenance angloise'' style (), Dunstaple wa ...

; however, in modern historiographical usage, it is restricted entirely to the period described above.

Versus

Stylistically, the music of the differed from the preceding era in several ways. Developments in notation allowed notes to be written with greater rhythmic independence, shunning the limitations of the rhythmic modes which prevailed in the thirteenth century; secular music acquired much of the polyphonic sophistication previously found only in sacred music; and new techniques and forms, such as

isorhythm Isorhythm (from the Greek for "the same rhythm") is a musical technique using a repeating rhythmic pattern, called a ''talea'', in at least one voice part throughout a composition. ''Taleae'' are typically applied to one or more melodic patterns o ...

and the isorhythmic

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

, became prevalent. The overall aesthetic effect of these changes was to create music of greater expressiveness and variety than had been the case in the thirteenth century. Indeed, the sudden historical change which occurred, with its startling new degree of musical expressiveness, can be likened to the introduction of perspective in painting, and it is useful to consider that the changes to music in the period of the were contemporary with the great early

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

revolutions in painting and literature. The most famous practitioner of the new musical style was

, who also had a distinguished career as a canon at Reims Cathedral and as a poet. The ars-nova style is evident in his considerable body of motets,

lai Lai or LAI may refer to: Abbreviations * Austrian Latin America Institute (Österreichisches Lateinamerika-Institut) * ''Latin American Idol'', TV series * La Trobe Institute, Melbourne, Australia * Leaf area index, leaf area of a crop or ve ...

virelai A ''virelai'' is a form of medieval French verse used often in poetry and music. It is one of the three ''formes fixes'' (the others were the ballade and the rondeau) and was one of the most common verse forms set to music in Europe from the lat ...

s, rondeaux and ballades. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, a new stylistic school of composers and poets centered in

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...

in southern France developed; the highly mannered style of this period is often called the , although some scholars have chosen to consider it a late development of the rather than separating it into a separate school. This strange but interesting repertory of music, limited in geographical distribution (southern France,

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

and later

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

), and clearly intended for performance by specialists for an audience of connoisseurs, is like an "end note" to the entire Middle Ages.

List of composers

Discography

* ''Chants du XIV^ème siècle''. Mora Vocis Ensemble. France: Mandala, 1999. CD recording MAN 4946. * ''Denkmäler alter Musik aus dem Codex Reina (14./15. Jh.)''. Syntagma Musicum (Kees Otten, dir.). Das Alte Werk. .p. Telefunken, 1979. LP recording 6.42357. * ''Domna''. Esther Lamandier, voice, harp, and portative organ. Paris: Alienor, 1987. CD recording AL 1019. * ''La fontaine amoureuse: Poetry and Music of Guillaume de Machaut''. Music for a While, with Tom Klunis, narrator. Berkeley: 1750 Arch Records, 1977. LP recording 1773. * Guillaume de Machaut. ''Je, Guillaumes Dessus Nommez''. Ensemble Gilles Binchois (Dominique Vellard, dir.). .p. Cantus, 2003. CD recording 9804. * Guillaume de Machaut. ''La Messe de Nostre Dame und Motetten''. James Bowman, Tom Sutcliffe, countertenors; Capella Antiqua München (Konrad Ruhland, dir.). Das Alte Werk. Hamburg: Telefunken, 1970. LP recording 6.41125 AS. * Guillaume de Machaut. ''La messe de Nostre Dame; Le voir dit''. Oxford Camerata (Jeremy Summerly, dir.). Hong Kong: Naxos, 2004. CD recording 8553833. * Guillaume de Machaut. ''Messe de Notre Dame''.

Ensemble Organum Ensemble Organum is a group performing early music, co-founded in 1982 by Marcel Pérès and based in France. Its members have changed, but have included at one time or another, Josep Cabré, Josep Benet, Gérard Lesne, Antoine Sicot, Malcolm Bo ...

(

Marcel Pérès Marcel Pérès (born 15 July 1956, Oran, Algeria) is a French musicologist, composer, choral director and singer, and the founder of the early music group Ensemble Organum. He is an authority on Gregorian and pre-Gregorian chant. Pérès was ...

, dir.). Arles: Harmonia Mundi, 1997. CD recording 901590. * Guillaume de Machaut. ''Messe de Notre Dame; Le lai de la fonteinne; Ma fin est mon commencement''.

Hilliard Ensemble The Hilliard Ensemble was a British male vocal quartet originally devoted to the performance of early music. The group was named after the Elizabethan miniaturist painter Nicholas Hilliard. Founded in 1974, the group disbanded in 2014. Although ...

(

Paul Hillier Paul Douglas Hillier OBE (born 9 February 1949) is an English conductor, music director and baritone. He specializes in both early and contemporary classical music, especially that by composers Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt. He was a co-foun ...

, dir.). London: Hyperion, 1989. * Guillaume de Machaut. ''Motets''.

. Munich: ECM Records, 2004. * ''Philippe De Vitry and the Ars Nova—Motets''. Orlando Consort. Wotton-Under-Edge, Glos., England: Amon Ra, 1990. CD recording CD-SAR 49. * Philippe de Vitry. ''Motets & Chansons''.

Sequentia A sequence (Latin: ''sequentia'', plural: ''sequentiae'') is a chant or hymn sung or recited during the liturgy, liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, before the proclamation of the Gospel. By the time of the Co ...

(

Benjamin Bagby Benjamin Bagby (born February 20, 1950) is an American singer, composer, harpist, and performer of medieval music. Biography Born in Evanston, Illinois, Bagby was educated at Oberlin College, Ohio, and the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Bagby foun ...

and Barbara Thornton, dir.) Freiburg: Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, 1991. CD recording 77095-2-RC. * ''Roman de Fauvel''. Jean Bollery (speaker), Studio der Frühen Musik (Thomas Binkley, dir.). Reflexe: Stationen europäischer Musik. Cologne: EMI, 1972. LP recording 1C 063-30 103. * ''Le roman de Fauvel''. Anne Azéma (soprano, narration), Dominique Visse (countertenor, narration), Boston Camerata and Ensemble Project Ars Nova ( Joel Cohen, dir.). France: Erato, 1995. CD recording 4509-96392-2. * ''The Service of Venus and Mars: Music for the Knights of the Garter, 1340–1440''. Gothic Voices (

Christopher Page Christopher Page (born 1952) is a British expert on medieval music, instruments and performance practice, together with the social and musical history of the guitar in England from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth. He has written numer ...

, dir.). London: Hyperion, 1987. CD recording CDA 66238. * ''The Spirit of England and France I: Music of the Late Middle Ages for Court and Church''. Gothic Voices (Christopher Page, dir.). London: Hyperion Records, 1994. CD recording CDA66739. * ''The Study of Love: French Songs and Motets of the 14th Century''. Gothic Voices (Christopher Page, dir.). London: Hyperion Records, 1992. CD recording CDA66619.

Notes

References

* Earp, Lawrence (1995).
Ars nova
. In ''Medieval France: An Encyclopedia'', edited by William W. Kibler, Grover A. Zinn, Lawrence Earp, and John Bell Henneman, Jr., 72–73. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 932; Garland Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages 2. New York: Garland Publishers. . * Schrade, Leo (1956). "Philippe de Vitry: Some New Discoveries". ''The Musical Quarterly'' 42, no. 3 (July): 330–54.

Versus

List of composers

Discography

Notes

References

Further reading