# 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

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Art History

# 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 live

France, Italy, and Late Medieval Music

Bella D

View the note France, Italy, and Late Medieval Music: france, italy, and late medieval musicpreludehundred years war prolonged an economic decline initially caused by bad weather, famine and floodsblack deathpeasant revolts and urban rebellions - authority of the church was being questionedpopes res...