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France, Italy, and Late Medieval Music

france, italy, and late medieval music

prelude

  • hundred years war prolonged an economic decline initially caused by bad weather, famine and floods

  • black death

  • peasant revolts and urban rebellions - authority of the church was being questioned

    • popes resided in avignon, france and lived like royalty, so most of the music from this time was secular

    • italian factions elected their own pope so there were two rival popes (papal schism), and when the papacy moved back to rome it brought french music with it

  • the arts

    • more naturalistic representation, symmetry of composition, sense of depth

    • still sacred and secular music

    • fourteenth century saw people begin to separate science from religion and church from state and become creative (literacy, painting, secular music)

  • ars nova

    • phillipe de vitry

    • centered on rhythm and notation, argued for duple/imperfect division

    • rhythmic complexity

    • denotes french musical style

    • innovation in rhythm and its notation, carried to extremes

    • used more duple division rather than triple

    • jacques de liege - objected to imperfect duple division and use of syncopation

    • new genre: polyphonic art song

  • motets became more political and structurally complex

  • formes fixes

    • fixed forms (formes fixes) apply to secular music of the fourteenth century

    • there are three formes fixes of the fourteenth century that establish patterns for both the music and poetry: the virelai, rondeau, and ballade

the ars nova in france

roman de fauvel:

  • narrative poem satirizing political corruption both secular and ecclesiastical

    • fauvel symbolizes world turned upside down

  • 1317 illuminated manuscript

    • 169 pieces of music set to music and interpolated within the poem

    • latin chants to secular songs

    • most are monophonic but 34 are motets including first examples of ars nova style

  • written as a warning to the king of france

isorhythm:

  • philippe de vitry wrote at least five motets in the roman de fauvel, using isorhythm

  • isorhythm: equal rhythm; tenors laid out in segments of identical rhythm

  • tenor is longer, rhythms more complex, whole line moves so slowly in comparison to upper voices that it is more of a foundation than a melody

  • talea and color:

    • recurring rhythmic and melodic elements in motet tenors

    • talea: repeating rhythmic unit (ex. whole note half note quarter note quarter note) - once you set your talea the tenor sings it for the whole time and it doesn't change

    • color: same concept but a recurring melody segment

    • could be the same length but most often the color extended over two, three, or more taleae - ex. 5 note talea and 10 note color means for every color you have two taleas

    • talea and color are independent

    • talea can be marked with roman numerals at the start of each one

ars nova notation:

  • breaking down a long note (breve) into either three (perfect) or two (imperfect), and then further into groups of eighth notes

guillaume de machaut

  • leading composer and poet of the ars nova in france

machaut's motets:

  • date from early in his career

  • employ traditional texture in which a borrowed tenor supports two upper voices with different texts

  • longer and more rhythmically complex than earlier examples

  • hocket: two voices alternate in rapid succession, one resting while the other sings

machaut's mass:

  • in the fourteenth century, new texts of the mass ordinary were written in different languages

  • machaut's messe de notre dame builds on this polyphonic tradition but treats the six texts of the ordinary as one composition rather than separate pieces

  • likely intended to be performed with one person per part

  • six movements linked by similarities of style and approach, as well as by some recurring motives and cadence tones

  • kyrie, sanctus, agnus dei, ite missa est are in motet style but with different cantus firmus

  • gloria and credo are written in discant style

kyrie:

  • tenor cantus firmus is the melody, divided into taleae of different lengths for each section

  • contratenor shares the same range as tenor and is also isorhythmic but has its own talea

  • upper voices move rapidly with syncopation and are partly isorhythmic

machaut's virelais:

  • all of the formes fixes were derived from genres associated with dancing

  • machaut's monophonic virelais, such as douce dame jolie, could be danced

treble-dominated style:

  • machaut's polyphonic chansons reveal a style in which the upper voice carries the text, supported by a slower-moving tenor without text

  • can add a contratenor or a fast moving treble triplum

  • rose liz printemps verdure uses four voices, has long melismas

machaut's ballades:

  • most serious, appropriate for philosophical or historical themes or for celebrating politics

  • most challenging compositionally because it contained the least amount of repetition relative to the text

italian trecento music

  • 1300s in italy were called the trecento

  • tension in mediterranean cultures explained continued preference for improvised solo singing with a string instrument long after polyphony became a thing

  • italy was a collection of isolated city-states, each with a totally different culture and tradition

  • music accompanied nearly every part of life

secular songs:

  • short, lyrical, monophonic forms

  • may have started in naples, then spread northward to elite circles such as florence

  • squarcialupi codex:

    • most copious source of italian trecento polyphony

    • contains 354 pieces, mostly for two and three voices

    • uses madrigal, caccia, ballata

  • madrigal:

    • idyllic, pastoral, satirical, or love poems usually set for two voices

    • texture differs from chanson in that the two voices are relatively equal in melodic and rhythmic style and occasionally echo each other

    • melismas are florid in the upper voices but devoid of syncopation

  • ballata:

    • song to accompany dancing

    • thirteenth century ballate were monophonic dance songs with choral refrains

    • fourteenth century ballate were mostly for two or three voices

    • francesco landini

      • leading composer of the trecento

      • wrote no sacred music

      • wrote 140 ballate, mostly for two voices singing the same text

      • others have three parts in a treble-dominated style

      • melismatic passages decorate the ends and sometimes beginnings of lines, end of every line is marked by a cadence (landini cadence)

  • caccia:

    • strict canon is set to lively, graphically descriptive words

    • pursuit of one voice by another, can also imitate the lyrics (ex. fishing scene)

    • usually has a free, untexted tenor in slower motion below

  • french influence

    • composers of the trecento wrote music in several genres, including mass ordinary chants for two to four voices or for keyboard

    • in late 1300s, music of italian composers began to lose its specific national characteristics and absorb the contemporary french style

the ars subtilior

later fourteenth century:

  • french and italian music of the late fourteenth century became more refined and complex to cater to the tastes of increasingly polished performers and educated elite

  • papal court at avignon was surprisingly one of the main patrons of secular music - the society allowed composers to flourish

  • music consisted mainly of polyphonic ballades, rondeaux, and virelais

  • composers' fascination with technical possibilities and taking procedures to extremes earned the repertory the name ars subtilior (the subtler art)

  • flamboyant music has flamboyant manuscript with lots of decorations

rhythmic complexity:

  • voices move in contrasting meters and conflicting groupings with different subdivisions and harmonies

english polyphony

  • aka descant

  • abundant in the fourteenth centurym particularly in sacred genres

  • distincive sound signaled its independence of musical trends

france, italy, and late medieval music

prelude

  • hundred years war prolonged an economic decline initially caused by bad weather, famine and floods

  • black death

  • peasant revolts and urban rebellions - authority of the church was being questioned

    • popes resided in avignon, france and lived like royalty, so most of the music from this time was secular

    • italian factions elected their own pope so there were two rival popes (papal schism), and when the papacy moved back to rome it brought french music with it

  • the arts

    • more naturalistic representation, symmetry of composition, sense of depth

    • still sacred and secular music

    • fourteenth century saw people begin to separate science from religion and church from state and become creative (literacy, painting, secular music)

  • ars nova

    • phillipe de vitry

    • centered on rhythm and notation, argued for duple/imperfect division

    • rhythmic complexity

    • denotes french musical style

    • innovation in rhythm and its notation, carried to extremes

    • used more duple division rather than triple

    • jacques de liege - objected to imperfect duple division and use of syncopation

    • new genre: polyphonic art song

  • motets became more political and structurally complex

  • formes fixes

    • fixed forms (formes fixes) apply to secular music of the fourteenth century

    • there are three formes fixes of the fourteenth century that establish patterns for both the music and poetry: the virelai, rondeau, and ballade

the ars nova in france

roman de fauvel:

  • narrative poem satirizing political corruption both secular and ecclesiastical

    • fauvel symbolizes world turned upside down

  • 1317 illuminated manuscript

    • 169 pieces of music set to music and interpolated within the poem

    • latin chants to secular songs

    • most are monophonic but 34 are motets including first examples of ars nova style

  • written as a warning to the king of france

isorhythm:

  • philippe de vitry wrote at least five motets in the roman de fauvel, using isorhythm

  • isorhythm: equal rhythm; tenors laid out in segments of identical rhythm

  • tenor is longer, rhythms more complex, whole line moves so slowly in comparison to upper voices that it is more of a foundation than a melody

  • talea and color:

    • recurring rhythmic and melodic elements in motet tenors

    • talea: repeating rhythmic unit (ex. whole note half note quarter note quarter note) - once you set your talea the tenor sings it for the whole time and it doesn't change

    • color: same concept but a recurring melody segment

    • could be the same length but most often the color extended over two, three, or more taleae - ex. 5 note talea and 10 note color means for every color you have two taleas

    • talea and color are independent

    • talea can be marked with roman numerals at the start of each one

ars nova notation:

  • breaking down a long note (breve) into either three (perfect) or two (imperfect), and then further into groups of eighth notes

guillaume de machaut

  • leading composer and poet of the ars nova in france

machaut's motets:

  • date from early in his career

  • employ traditional texture in which a borrowed tenor supports two upper voices with different texts

  • longer and more rhythmically complex than earlier examples

  • hocket: two voices alternate in rapid succession, one resting while the other sings

machaut's mass:

  • in the fourteenth century, new texts of the mass ordinary were written in different languages

  • machaut's messe de notre dame builds on this polyphonic tradition but treats the six texts of the ordinary as one composition rather than separate pieces

  • likely intended to be performed with one person per part

  • six movements linked by similarities of style and approach, as well as by some recurring motives and cadence tones

  • kyrie, sanctus, agnus dei, ite missa est are in motet style but with different cantus firmus

  • gloria and credo are written in discant style

kyrie:

  • tenor cantus firmus is the melody, divided into taleae of different lengths for each section

  • contratenor shares the same range as tenor and is also isorhythmic but has its own talea

  • upper voices move rapidly with syncopation and are partly isorhythmic

machaut's virelais:

  • all of the formes fixes were derived from genres associated with dancing

  • machaut's monophonic virelais, such as douce dame jolie, could be danced

treble-dominated style:

  • machaut's polyphonic chansons reveal a style in which the upper voice carries the text, supported by a slower-moving tenor without text

  • can add a contratenor or a fast moving treble triplum

  • rose liz printemps verdure uses four voices, has long melismas

machaut's ballades:

  • most serious, appropriate for philosophical or historical themes or for celebrating politics

  • most challenging compositionally because it contained the least amount of repetition relative to the text

italian trecento music

  • 1300s in italy were called the trecento

  • tension in mediterranean cultures explained continued preference for improvised solo singing with a string instrument long after polyphony became a thing

  • italy was a collection of isolated city-states, each with a totally different culture and tradition

  • music accompanied nearly every part of life

secular songs:

  • short, lyrical, monophonic forms

  • may have started in naples, then spread northward to elite circles such as florence

  • squarcialupi codex:

    • most copious source of italian trecento polyphony

    • contains 354 pieces, mostly for two and three voices

    • uses madrigal, caccia, ballata

  • madrigal:

    • idyllic, pastoral, satirical, or love poems usually set for two voices

    • texture differs from chanson in that the two voices are relatively equal in melodic and rhythmic style and occasionally echo each other

    • melismas are florid in the upper voices but devoid of syncopation

  • ballata:

    • song to accompany dancing

    • thirteenth century ballate were monophonic dance songs with choral refrains

    • fourteenth century ballate were mostly for two or three voices

    • francesco landini

      • leading composer of the trecento

      • wrote no sacred music

      • wrote 140 ballate, mostly for two voices singing the same text

      • others have three parts in a treble-dominated style

      • melismatic passages decorate the ends and sometimes beginnings of lines, end of every line is marked by a cadence (landini cadence)

  • caccia:

    • strict canon is set to lively, graphically descriptive words

    • pursuit of one voice by another, can also imitate the lyrics (ex. fishing scene)

    • usually has a free, untexted tenor in slower motion below

  • french influence

    • composers of the trecento wrote music in several genres, including mass ordinary chants for two to four voices or for keyboard

    • in late 1300s, music of italian composers began to lose its specific national characteristics and absorb the contemporary french style

the ars subtilior

later fourteenth century:

  • french and italian music of the late fourteenth century became more refined and complex to cater to the tastes of increasingly polished performers and educated elite

  • papal court at avignon was surprisingly one of the main patrons of secular music - the society allowed composers to flourish

  • music consisted mainly of polyphonic ballades, rondeaux, and virelais

  • composers' fascination with technical possibilities and taking procedures to extremes earned the repertory the name ars subtilior (the subtler art)

  • flamboyant music has flamboyant manuscript with lots of decorations

rhythmic complexity:

  • voices move in contrasting meters and conflicting groupings with different subdivisions and harmonies

english polyphony

  • aka descant

  • abundant in the fourteenth centurym particularly in sacred genres

  • distincive sound signaled its independence of musical trends