Chapter 3: the Ars Nova: Musical Developments in the Fourteenth Century I. Early Fourteenth Century A. Introduction 1. Changes I
Chapter 3: The Ars Nova: Musical Developments in the Fourteenth Century I. Early Fourteenth Century A. Introduction 1. Changes in notation in the thirteenth century allowed for musical experimentation in the early fourteenth century. 2. The evidence that tells us that fourteenth-century composers understood that they were doing something different can be found in two treatises: The Ars novae musicae by Jehan de Murs and the Ars nova by Philippe de Vitry. B. Music from Mathematics 1. During the fourteenth century, mathematics expanded beyond the boundaries previously seen in European thought. Music, the discipline so closely coupled with mathematics, followed suit. a. A fourfold system existed for musical time. Each of those listed is a subdivision of the previous: Maximodus, Modus, Tempus, and Prolatio. b. Each of these could be divided into two or three parts. 1) The first two are essentially theoretical concepts, and practical use resided in the latter two. 2) These possibilities yield, in modern terms: 9/8, 3/4; 6/8, 2/4. 2. Not everyone liked the innovations of the Ars nova. a. One example of disapproval is Jacobus de Liege’s Speculum musicae. 1) He dismissed the complexity and innovation as superfluous. C. Music about Music 1. Another new idea in the Ars nova concerns a growing realization of self- awareness as composers of art. 2. Music composition is seen as an art, not a craft. D. Establishing the Prototype: The Roman de Fauvel 1. The earliest surviving pieces in the Ars nova style are found in the Roman de Fauvel. a. Compiled around 1317, poem by Gervais du Bus, this manuscript includes 126 musical compositions (different genres).
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