CHAPTER SIX:

NEW DEVELOPMENTS
IN THE FOURTEENTH
CENTURY

The 1300s were unstable due to war, famine,

and plague. The Church’s supremacy was
questioned after a papal crisis resulted in two
popes (one in Rome, one in Avignon).
Interest increased in the secular world;
different roles began to emerge for church
and state. Science separates from religion.
Literacy rates rose. Growing secular climate.

Realism in the Arts, 1300s
VISUAL ARTS
• Giotto’s Wedding Procession
(1305) shows realistic facial
expressions, posture,
garments
• Symmetry of composition,
sense of depth

LITERATURE
• Works in vernacular: Dante’s
Divine Comedy (1307),
Boccaccio’s Decameron
(1348-53), Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales (ca. 1387-
1400)

MUSIC
• Sacred compositions flourish
• Cultivation of secular song
What is Ars nova (1300s)?
• Treatise by French musician, poet, and bishop,
Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361), names new
French music style (1310-1370s)

Main Characteristics
• ***innovations in rhythmic notation
• Motet: subjects more political, structures more
complex (ex: isorhythm)
• Secular songs: polyphonic, use “formes fixes”
structure

Let’s revisit modal rhythm and Fraconian notation from

the last chapter first!
 FROM END OF CHAPTER FIVE

Notating Rhythm:
Rhythmic Modes and Franconian Notation

Left: Rhythmic modes

Above and left: Franconian notation

Examples of Franconian motets:

NAWM 21: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w0LXHlqpek
NAWM 22: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNhmGUpDTn4
 Innovations in Mensuration
Measuring time:
a. Ars antiqua (old art): rhythmic modes
b. Ars nova (new art): created meters that correspond to our 9/8, 6/8, 3/4, and 2/4
FROM YOUR
TEXTBOOK,
P. 111
 Tenors are composed of segments of identical rhythm that
Isorhythmic recur throughout the piece. Why did composers do this?

Motet Can have two recurring elements in isorhythmic motets:

A. color: repeating melodic pattern
B. talea: repeating rhythmic pattern, usually shorter than color

Can you find the talea in the tenor below?

EXAMPLE
Find color and
talea in
NAWM 24
Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377)
• Leading French ars nova composer
• Cleric, canon of Reims cathedral
• Composed sacred and secular works:
isorhythmic motets, Masses, chansons
• Note hocket: 2 voices alternating in
rapid succession

• EXAMPLE: Machaut, La Messe de

Nostre Dame, Kyrie (NAWM 25):
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=56
9467049&tbm=vid&q=machaut+la+messe+de+nostre+dame&s
a=X&ved=2ahUKEwiU0-eW_c-BAxWeMVkFHYgjApAQ8ccDeg
QIEhAH&biw=810&bih=932&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:0abd3
9de,vid:lOVsY1rxJB8,st:0
SONG FORMS
Machaut composed monophonic
secular songs, continuing the
trouvère tradition. He also
composed polyphonic secular
songs. They tended to use one of
three formes fixes (fixed forms):

VIRELAI AbbaA NAWM 26

RONDEAU ABaAabAB NAWM 27
BALLADE aabC NAWM 28

UPPERCASE: repetition of text and music (refrain)

lowercase: repetition of music with new words
NAWM 26: Machaut’s Douce dame jolie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJS-HZWB3wE

Virelai form: AbbaA…

Refrain: A - Verse: bba
• Monophonic
• Theme of love
• Poetic rhymes emphasized with musical
motives, frequent repetitions
• Chanson baladée (danced song)
Rondeau form NAWM 27: Machaut’s Rose, liz,
ABaaAbAB printemps, verdure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyuxFgLLlIU
Refrain: AB
Verse: aab
• Polyphonic (4-voice)
• Treble-dominated
(carries text instead of
tenor--THIS IS NEW!)
• Theme of love
• Not meant to be a
danced song
Italian Trecento Music
• How was Italian musical culture
different from French musical culture
in the 1300s?
• What is the Squarcialupi Codex?

• Three types of secular polyphonic

Italian songs: madrigal, caccia, ballata
Ars subtilior
(Subtler art)
• Primarily love songs
• Polyphonic chansons for an
upperclass audience
• Developed every possibility of
melody, rhythm, counterpoint,
and notation
• Fanciful decorations,
intermingled red and black
notes; ingenious notations
NOTES FOR CHAPTER SIX