The Chantilly Codex (''Chantilly, Musée Condé MS 564'') is a manuscript of

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 Renaissanc ...

containing pieces from the style known as 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, 472 ...

''. It is held in the museum at the

Château de Chantilly The Château de Chantilly () is a historic French château located in the town of Chantilly, Oise, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Paris. The site comprises two attached buildings: the Petit Château built around 1560 for Anne de Montmor ...

Chantilly, Oise Chantilly ( , ) is a commune in the Oise department in the Valley of the Nonette in the Hauts-de-France region of Northern France. Surrounded by Chantilly Forest, the town of 10,863 inhabitants (2017) falls within the metropolitan area of Pa ...

. Most of the compositions in the Chantilly Codex date from c. 1350–1400. There are 112 pieces total, mostly by French composers, and all of them

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, ...

. The codex contains examples of many of the most popular courtly dance styles of its time, such as

ballade Ballad is a form of narrative poetry, often put to music, or a type of sentimental love song in modern popular music. Ballad or Ballade may also refer to: Music Genres and forms * Ballade (classical music), a musical setting of a literary ballad ...

s, rondeaus,

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 th ...

s, and

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 ...

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 Ma ...

s. Some of the motets are

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 re ...

ically extremely complex, and are written in intricately exact

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 f ...

. Two pieces by

Baude Cordier Baude Cordier () was a French composer in the style of late medieval music. Virtually nothing is known of Cordier's life, aside from an inscription on one of his works which indicates he was born in Rheims and had a Master of Arts. Some scholar ...

were added at a slightly later date at the front of the manuscript, and use unusual shapes to reflect their musical contents. The piece "Belle, Bonne, Sage, Plaisant" (image right) was written to a special lady for the New Year, and reflects the shape of the notation with the text (Lovely, good, wise, and pleasant). The graphic layout of the notation is a play on words on the "Cor" ("heart") in "Cordier". The Chantilly Codex is known to contain music from the composers Johannes Symonis, Jehan Suzay, P. des Molins, Goscalch,

Solage Solage (; or Soulage), possibly Jean , was a French composer, and probably also a poet. He composed the most pieces in the Chantilly Codex, the principal source of music of the ''ars subtilior'', the manneristic compositional school centered on ...

, Grimace,

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 t ...

, Jehan Vaillant, F. Andrieu, Magister Franciscus,

Johannes Cuvelier Johannes Cuvelier (''fl'' c. 1372–d. after 1387) was a composer of the ''Ars subtilior'', whose surviving works are preserved in the Chantilly Codex. He was possibly born in Tournai and worked at the court of Charles V. His most important work i ...

, Rodericus, Trebor, and

Jacob Senleches Jacob Senleches (fl. 1382/1383 – 1395) (also Jacob de Senlechos .e. Senleches'' and Jacopinus Senlesses) was a Franco-Flemish composer and harpist of the late Middle Ages. He composed in a style commonly known as the ''ars subtilior''. Life and ...

Editions

The majority of the 112 pieces are found in Willi Apel, ed., ''French Secular Compositions of the Fourteenth Century'' (

American Institute of Musicology The American Institute of Musicology (AIM) is a musicological organization that researches, promotes and produces publications on early music. Founded in 1944 by Armen Carapetyan, the AIM's chief objective is the publication of modern edition ...

, 1970)

Selected recordings

The following recordings include selections from the 112 pieces: * Ensemble Organum (Marcel Pérès, dir.). ''Codex Chantilly: Airs de cour du XIVe siècle''. Arles: Harmonia Mundi, 1987. CD recording HMC 901252. * Ensemble P. A. N. ''Ars Magis Subtiliter: Secular Music of the Chantilly Codex'. San Francisco: New Albion, 1989. CD recording NA 021. * Medieval Ensemble of London (Peter Davies and Timothy Davies, dir. ''Ce diabolic chant: Ballades, Rondeaus & Virelais of the Late Fourteenth Century''). Florilegium Series. London: Éditions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1983. LP recording DSDL 704; Reissued 2007 on L'Oiseau-Lyre CD 475 9119. * New London Consort (Philip Pickett, dir.). ''Ars subtilior''. Glasgow, Scotland: Linn Records, 1998. CD recording CKD 039. * De Caelis ''Codex Chantilly'' dir. Laurence Brisset. Aeon 2010. *Figures of Harmony, ''Songs of Codex Chantilly, c. 1390'', 2015. 4-CD box set.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Medieval music manuscript sources Music illuminated manuscripts 15th-century illuminated manuscripts Ars subtilior

Editions

Selected recordings

References

Further reading

External links