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Ars Nova (1300 - 1400)
The Ars Nova is the name given to the last roughly one hundred years of the Medieval Era. Indicative of its name, the composers of the Ars Nova (“new art”) period were focused on developing the burgeoning ideas of increased polyphony and early rhythm that first took shape during the Ars Antiqua to create a new style of music that bore little resemblance to the plainchant and organum of the early Medieval period. In this sense, these last hundred years can be viewed as the final transitionary period out of the Medieval age and into the Renaissance.
I Got (Iso)Rhythm! I Got Music!: The Music of the Ars Nova
Perhaps the biggest difference, and most telling factor, between Ars Antiqua and Ars Nova music is the treatment of rhythm. Whereas Ars Antiqua music heavily featured the use of rhythmic modes - cohesive long and short patterns in the upper voices - composers of the Ars Nova began writing the upper voices more independently and with greater rhythmic sophistication. Rather than the relatively strict rhythmic modes, Ars Nova composers began writing music that was isorhythmic - that is, music that featured the use of a single rhythmic phrase pattern that was repeated throughout the composition, usually in the tenor or bottom voice.
The beginning of the Ars Nova period is often thought to correspond with the publication of the Roman de Fauvel (see picture), a major compilation of poetry and music from the beginning of the fourteenth century. The manuscript, containing many compositions by the Ars Nova composer Philippe de Vitry, is one of the first to exemplify the use of isorhythm in music. In addition, the idea of musical notation began to develop, allowing for music to be composed with a heightened independence of rhythm between all the individual lines. This resulted in a new style of sacred vocal polyphonic music that was more expressive and creative.
Note the difference in sound and look of an Ars Antiqua piece, with rhythmic modes, versus an Ars Nova piece, with isorhythm:
Ars Antiqua: Perotin, Sederunt Principes
Ars Nova: Machaut, Quant en moy
Despite Ars Nova music being more complex, the extreme level of independence between all the voices also often lent somewhat of a muddled or unclear rhythmic quality to the music. The element of musical meter was not yet in place and that, in addition to the fact that the individual lines moved in rhythms with seemingly no relation to the rest of the music made for music that often sounds a bit disjunct or, at the least, temporally unstable. Listen and view here for another example.
As one can imagine, this movement towards expression and musical complexity troubled the church. With the addition of the improvised voices to the original chant melody - now called the cantus firmus (“fixed voice”) - during the Ars Antiqua, and now the increase in creativity and expression in the Ars Nova, the focus was shifting further and further away from chant music’s original purpose: conveying the message of God.
Example: O Maria, maris stella
There would be one more major development made in sacred music during this time period that would be of further concern for the church. During these last hundred years of the Medieval Era, secular (non-sacred) musical elements began to be integrated into sacred music. Whereas, during the Ars Antiqua, the upper improvised voices were largely sung on extended vowel syllables (for example, the “A-” in “Alleluia” sung through a dozen or more notes), composers during the Ars Nova began transplanting the lyrics of secular love poems above the cantus firmus, essentially incorporating the use of vernacular language to what was previously a purely sacred music tradition that only used Latin. Also, a sacred text might be set to a melody that was originally used as a familiar secular tune. The ever increasing development of polyphony in sacred music was revolutionary enough to the church. Now, this notion of secular and sacred being merged and integrated into the liturgy was downright offensive to many in the Medieval church.
Example: Puis qu'en oubli
There were some church leaders who did not object to the notion of expressive sacred music entirely. Though the music was rejected by Pope John XXII (who held the papacy 1316 - 1334), it was in turn embraced by Pope Clement VI (who held the papacy 1342 - 1352).
As secular music grew to attain the same level of polyphonic sophistication that sacred music did, new polyphonic secular genres came to be, such as the polyphonic chanson, ballade, rondeau and virelai.
Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300 - 1377)
Of the Ars Nova composers, the most renowned and well-known is Guillaume de Machaut (pronounced “ma-SHO”), who was, according to the scholar Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, the “last great poet who was also a composer.” Machaut was quite prolific and his musical output encompasses both secular and sacred music; he was regarded for ballades and lais as much as his Masses and sacred motets. Interestingly, Machaut was also a canon in the church, holding posts in the French cities of Verdun, Arras and Rheims at various points in his life. This may help to explain somewhat the acceptance of increased polyphony and complex rhythms in the sacred music of the Ars Nova.
M&Ms: Masses and Motets
The primary sacred music genres of the late Medieval period were the Mass and motet. The motet, a direct outgrowth of the advanced organum tradition exemplified by the Notre Dame school, was a polyphonic vocal work that used the original chant melody, the cantus firmus, as its foundation. Though motets started out as a purely sacred tradition, by the late Medieval period, composers began writing secular motets as well.
Of course, Masses continued to be sung in church settings in the late Medieval Era. Unlike the plainchants found during the earlier part of the Medieval period, Mass settings of the Ars Nova were polyphonic. A Mass was comprised of individual motets that set the different parts of the Mass liturgy.
There are two main sections of the Medieval Mass: the Proper and the Ordinary. The Proper comprises the parts of the Mass with text and music that change, depending on the season or particular saint that is being celebrated. These are the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Tract, Sequence, Offertory and Communion. The Ordinary of the Mass comprises those parts that have a fixed text, although the music can change. These are the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei.
During the early Middle Ages, only the Proper of the Mass was set to music. By the end of the Medieval period, both the Ordinary and the Proper were set to music. The first known setting of the Ordinary was written in the early 1360s by Machaut in his La Messe de Nostre Dame (Notre Dame Mass). The setting is polyphonic, with each of the individual parts of the Mass being essentially a motet in itself.
Example: La Messe de Nostre Dame, Kyrie
Coming Out of the Dark: Heading Out of the Medieval Era
When one examines the evolution of music from the simplest of plainchant to the complexities of Ars Nova polyphony, it is extraordinary to see just how far music came, both as a tool of the church and as an artform, throughout the span of the Medieval Era. As we saw during the Ars Nova period, the style of music as well as the ideologies surrounding it continuously grew more advanced and complex. The boundaries of harmony and rhythm were being gradually stretched and the role of music, especially in relation to the text, was increasingly expanding. It would seem inevitable then that the music of the Ars Nova and the mastery of composers like Guillaume de Machaut paved the way for a completely new era of music to begin: the Renaissance.
Stay "Tuned"...
In the next article of this series, we head out of the Medieval and into the Renaissance Era. We will see what revolutionary transformations and developments take place when the Catholic church loses its stronghold on European society and secularism and humanism emerge. Music takes a major leap forward as intervals that were previously thought to be of the devil are no longer deemed evil.
Ysabel Sarte - Ysabel Sarte is a classically trained musician and music educator who spends a vast majority of time pursuing interests unrelated to ...
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