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 Renaissance ...

containing pieces from the style known as the '' Ars subtilior''. It is held in the museum at the Château de Chantilly in

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 P ...

. 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, h ...

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

s. Some of the motets are

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed ...

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 fo ...

. Two pieces by Baude Cordier 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 P. des Molins (), probably Pierre des Molins, was a French composer-poet in the '' ars nova'' style of late medieval music. His two surviving compositions – the ballade ''De ce que fol pensé'' and rondeau ''Amis, tout dous vis'' – were tre ...

, Goscalch, Solage, Baude Cordier,

Grimace Grimace may refer to: *A type of facial expression usually of disgust, disapproval, or pain *Grimace (composer), a French composer active in the mid-to-late 14th century *Grimace (character) McDonaldland is a McDonald's media franchise and the ...

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 ...

, Jehan Vaillant, F. Andrieu, Magister Franciscus, Johannes Cuvelier, Rodericus, Trebor, and Jacob Senleches.

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 editi ...

, 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