Philippe de Vitry (31 October 1291 – 9 June 1361) was a French

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

-poet, bishop and

music theorist Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

in the style of late

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and followed by the Renaissance ...

. An accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, he was widely acknowledged as a leading musician of his day, with

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

writing a glowing tribute, calling him: "... the keenest and most ardent seeker of truth, so great a philosopher of our age." The important music treatise ''Ars nova notandi'' (1322) is usually attributed to Vitry. It is thought that very little of Vitry's compositions survive; though he wrote

secular music Non-religious secular music and sacred music were the two main genres of Western music during the Middle Ages and Renaissance era. The oldest written examples of secular music are songs with Latin lyrics.Grout, 1996, p. 60 However, many secular s ...

, only his sacred works are extant.

Life and career

Details of his early life are vague. While some medieval sources claim that he was born in the Champagne region, more recent research indicates that he may have originated in

Vitry-en-Artois Vitry-en-Artois (, literally ''Vitry in Artois''; pcd, Vitry-in-Artoé or ''Vitry-la-Gueule'') is a commune and in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography Vitry-en-Artois is situated some northeast of Arr ...

near

Arras Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department, which forms part of the regions of France, region of Hauts-de-France; before the regions of France#Reform and mergers of ...

.Anne Walters Robertson, "Which Vitry? The Witness of the Trinity Motet from the ''Roman de Fauvel''" in ''Hearing the Motet: Essays on the Motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance'', ed. Dolores Pesce (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997): 52–81. Given that he is often referred to in documents as "Magister," he is thought likely to have studied at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. Later he was prominent in the courts of Charles IV,

Philippe VI Philip VI (french: Philippe; 1293 – 22 August 1350), called the Fortunate (french: le Fortuné, link=no) or the Catholic (french: le Catholique, link=no) and of Valois, was the first king of France from the House of Valois, reigning from 132 ...

and Jean II, serving as a secretary and advisor; perhaps aided by these

Bourbon Bourbon may refer to: Food and drink * Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash * Bourbon barrel aged beer, a type of beer aged in bourbon barrels * Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit * A beer produced by Bras ...

connections, he also held several canonries, including Clermont,

Beauvais Beauvais ( , ; pcd, Bieuvais) is a city and commune in northern France, and prefecture of the Oise département, in the Hauts-de-France region, north of Paris. The commune of Beauvais had a population of 56,020 , making it the most populous ...

and Paris, also serving for a time in the papal retinue at

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 ...

starting with

Clement VI Pope Clement VI ( la, Clemens VI; 1291 – 6 December 1352), born Pierre Roger, was head of the Catholic Church from 7 May 1342 to his death in December 1352. He was the fourth Avignon pope. Clement reigned during the first visitation of the Bla ...

. In addition to all this, he was a diplomat and a soldier, known to have served at the siege of Aiguillon in 1346. In 1351 he became

Bishop of Meaux The Roman Catholic Diocese of Meaux (Latin: ''Dioecesis Meldensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Meaux'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the entire department of Seine-et-Marne. It was suff ...

, east of Paris. Moving in all the most important political, artistic and ecclesiastical circles, he was acquainted with many lights of the age, including

and the famous mathematician, philosopher and music theorist

Nicole Oresme Nicole Oresme (; c. 1320–1325 – 11 July 1382), also known as Nicolas Oresme, Nicholas Oresme, or Nicolas d'Oresme, was a French philosopher of the later Middle Ages. He wrote influential works on economics, mathematics, physics, astrology an ...

. He died in Paris on 9 June 1361.

Music

Philippe de Vitry is most famous in music history for the ''Ars nova notandi'' (1322), a treatise on music attributed to him that lent its name to the music of the entire era. While his authorship and the very existence of this treatise have recently come into question, a handful of his musical works do survive and show the innovations in

musical notation Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation fo ...

, particularly

mensural Mensural notation is the musical notation system used for European vocal polyphonic music from the later part of the 13th century until about 1600. The term "mensural" refers to the ability of this system to describe precisely measured rhythmi ...

and

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...

ic, with which he was credited within a century of their inception. Such innovations as are exemplified in his stylistically attributed motets for 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 ...

'' were particularly important, and made possible the free and quite complex music of the next hundred years, culminating in the

Ars subtilior ''Ars subtilior'' (Latin for 'subtler art') is a musical style characterized by rhythmic and notational complexity, centered on Paris, Avignon in southern France, and also in northern Spain at the end of the fourteenth century.Hoppin 1978, 47 ...

. In some ways the "modern" system of rhythmic notation began with the Ars Nova, during which music might be said to have "broken free" from the older idea of the

rhythmic mode In medieval music, the rhythmic modes were set patterns of long and short durations (or rhythms). The value of each note is not determined by the form of the written note (as is the case with more recent European musical notation), but rather by i ...

s, patterns which were repeated without being individually notated. The notational predecessors of modern time meters also originate in the Ars Nova. He is reputed to have written

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...

s and

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 ...

s, but only some of the motets have survived. Each is strikingly individual, exploiting a unique structural idea. He is also often credited with developing the concept of

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 ...

(an isorhythmic line consists of repeating patterns of rhythms and pitches, but the patterns overlap rather than correspond; e.g., a line of thirty consecutive notes might contain five repetitions of a six-note melody or six repetitions of a five-note rhythm). Five of his three-part motets have survived in the ''

''; an additional nine can be found in the

Ivrea Codex The ''Ivrea Codex'' (''Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, 115'') is a parchment manuscript containing a significant body of 14th century French polyphonic music. The codex contains motets, Mass movements, and a handful of virelais, chaces, and ballade ...

Works

While there is still debate about what Vitry did and did not compose, the first sixteen works here, all motets, are widely considered to be his. ;Attributed on strong historical evidence # Aman novi / Heu Fortuna / Heu me, tristis est anima mea # Cum statua / Hugo / Magister invidie # Douce playsence / Garison / Neuma quinti toni # Floret / Florens / Neuma # Garrit gallus / In nova fert / Neuma # Impudenter circuivi / Virtutibus / Contratenor / Tenor # O canenda / Rex quem / Contratenor / Rex regum # Petre clemens / Lugentium / Tenor # Tribum / Quoniam secta / Merito hec patimur # Tuba sacre fidei / In arboris / Virgo sum # Vos quid admiramini / Gratissima / Contratenor / Gaude gloriosa ''Note:'' The motet ''Phi millies / O creator / Iacet granum / Quam sufflabit'' and the ballade ''De terre en grec Gaulle appellee'' are securely attributed to Vitry, but no music for the latter survives, whilst the former survives only fragmentarily (see Zayaruznaya, 2018). ;Attributed on a combination of weaker historical evidence and stylistic grounds # Colla iugo / Bona condit / Libera me Domine # Firmissime / Adesto / Alleluya, Benedictus # Flos ortus / Celsa cedrus / Tenor # Orbis orbatus / Vos pastores / Fur non venit (less widely accepted) # Quid scire proderit / Dantur officia (less widely accepted) ;Attributed on stylistic grounds alone (not widely accepted) # Almifonis / Rosa / Tenor # Amer / Durement / Dolor meus # Apta caro / Flos / Alma redemptorisa mater # In virtute / Decens carmen / Clamor meus / Contratenor # O Philippe / O bone # Per grama protho paret # Scariotis / Jure # Se cuers / Rex # Se paour / Diex / Concupisco # Servant regem / O Philippe / Rex regum

Recordings

2009 – ''En un gardin. Les quatre saisons de l'Ars Nova. Manuscrits de Stavelot, Mons, Utrecht, Leiden.''

Capilla Flamenca Capilla Flamenca is a vocal and instrumental early music consort based in Leuven, Belgium. The group specialises in 14th to 16th century music from Flanders and takes its name from the historical Flemish chapel (capilla flamenca), the choir of the c ...

. MEW 0852. Contains recordings of "Vos quid admiramini virginem / Gratissima virginis / Gaude gloriosa" and "Adesto sancta trinitas / Firmissime fidem / Alleluia Benedicta" by Philippe de Vitry.

References

Citations

Sources

;Books * * ;Journal and encyclopedia articles * * Fuller, Sarah. "A Phantom Treatise of the Fourteenth Century? The ''Ars Nova''". ''The Journal of Musicology'' 4, no. 1 (Winter 1985–86): 23–50. * Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel. "The Emergence of Ars Nova," ''The Journal of Musicology'' 13 (1995): 285–317. * Sanders, Ernest H. "Philippe de Vitry". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. * Schrade, Leo. "Philippe de Vitry: Some New Discoveries". ''The Musical Quarterly'' 42, no. 3 (July 1956): 330–54. * Wathey, Andrew. "The Motets of Philippe de Vitry and the Fourteenth-Century Renaissance". ''Early Music History'' 12 (1993): 119–50. * Zayaruznaya, Anna. "New voices for Vitry". ''Early Music'' 46 issue 3 (August 2018): 375–392. * Wathey, Andrew. "Philippe de Vitry, Bishop of Meaux". ''Early Music History'' 38 (2019): 215–68. *

External links

* * *
Works by Philippe de Vitry
in the Medieval Music Database from

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria an ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitry, Philippe de 14th-century French composers French music theorists French classical composers French male classical composers Writers from Paris Bishops of Meaux 1291 births 1361 deaths French male non-fiction writers Medieval male composers 14th-century Latin writers Ars nova composers Medieval music theorists