Music in the Fourteenth Century

Conflict in the church “Babylonian Captivity” of the Pope — 1309–1378 The Great Schism — 1378–1417 RESULT – rise of secularism as the church lost credibility

Daily life and the economy Famines — result of poor farming and periods of cold weather in north Black Plague — several outbreaks, worst in 1347–1348 RESULT — loss of faith in divine benevolence

Political conflict The Hundred Years’ War — England vs. France Fought on French soil mercenary soldiers lived off land when not actually fighting Joan of Arc RESULT — decline of knights and chivalry

Late Gothic art Great cathedrals Outstanding manuscript illumination Tapestry Music — ars nova

Philippe de Vitry (1291–1361) Life University of Paris student and, later, teacher courtier, diplomat from French king (including to Avignon) bishop, poet, composer Attributed treatise(s) Ars nova — mensural rhythm Music — motets are all that survive — some in Roman de Fauvel scoring — three or four voices clearer separation of ranges of tenor and upper voices sometimes with contratenor in the same range as the tenor isorhythm — developed out of ordo patterns of ars antiqua motets; gives coherence to musical structure color — pitch series talea — rhythm series use of proportional diminution numbers can be employed for symbolic values

Mensuration, new rhythmic notation — signatures indicate relationship of values L-B relation called modus (1-3 perfect or 1-2 imperfect) B-SB relation called tempus (perfect or imperfect) — indicated by O or C Addition of minim (M) and semi-minim (SM) SB-M relation called prolation (major or minor) — indicated by · or nothing Coloration to alter mensuration

Roman de Fauvel — ca. 1316 Satire on society, clergy, politics title character’s name from vices — Flattery, Avarice, Villainy, Variability, Envy, Lasciviousness fauve — dull, orangey color, not bright color of virtue fau vel — falsehood veiled étriller Fauvel — curry Fauvel — curry favor French text, some Latin music Musical contents monophonic liturgical chant, Sequences, conductus trouvère-style songs motets (thirty-four) — Latin, French, or mixed texts variety of styles — earliest through contemporary 1 four-voice, 23 three-voice, 10 two-voice pieces

Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300–1377) — poet and musician Court official — served Jean, Duke of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia Churchman — Canon at cathedral of Rheims Lover — correspondence (1362–1365) with 19-year-old poet Péronne Poet short texts — chanson lyrics, lais Remède de Fortune (ca. 1342) — long narrative poem with music Voir dit for Péronne Composer Prepared first “works” editions of his own poetry and music

Machaut’s music Lais Chansons in formes fixes Motets Messe de Notre Dame Hoquetus David Secular polyphonic pieces — formes fixes virelais rondeaux ballades

Guillaume de Machaut, Messe de Notre Dame (1350s) First surviving complete polyphonic Ordinary (including Ite, missa est) by a single composer Plainsong Mass (except for Gloria, Credo) with movements in motetlike style Four-part scoring Architecture — elaborate isorhythm, sometimes in all parts

Machaut Mass Kyrie — isorhythmic structure Talea (mm.) Color (pitches) I T (4 x 7) – 1 = CT (12 x 2) + 3 7 x 4 II T, CT (7 x 3) + 1 (3 x 8) + 1 IIIa T, CT (8 x 2) + 1 (2 x 10) + 1 IIIb T, CT [(7 + 7) x 2] + 1 2 x 17

Formes fixes — standard forms of secular songs Capitals for text refrains, lowercase for changing words of stanzas Ballade aab C aab C aab C Virelai A bba A bba A bba A Rondeau (uses two-part refrain and only one stanza) AB a A ab AB

Ars subtilior — late 1300s Extreme complexity of rhythm — elaborate notation (examples here by Baude Cordier) Chromatic expansion to (or beyond) limits of modal scales

Italy — the trecento Literature — the tre corone (three crowns) Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Divine Comedy (ca. 1314) Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374) love sonnets Giovanni Boccaccio (1312–1353) Decameron — recounts entertainments with dance each evening Painting — increasingly realistic Giotto di Bondone (ca. 1266–1337) Padua frescoes ca. 1305 — abandoned Byzantine mosaic style of figures Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Siena, ca. 1290–1348) — nearing one-point perspective

Trecento music Music — high art, no longer functional like church music nor popular like troubadour music Polyphonic composition begins ca. 1330 — possibly under French influence in northern Italy, especially Padua Sources — all later than their music (historical anthologies) two major Florentine sources Panciatichi manuscript (ca. 1380–1400) Squarcialupi Codex (ca. 1420?)

Italian polyphonic genres Madrigal — pastoral or amorous topics scoring — à 2, rhythmically layered form — comparable to ballade or Bar two or three tercets with lines of seven or eleven syllables ritornello — one or two lines of summary or moral, with new rhyme and mensuration Ballata — associated with dance two or three parts — cantilena texture form — A b b a A (comparable to virelai) choral ripresa (2 lines) solo piedi (2 + 2 lines) and volta (2 lines)

Italian polyphonic genres (cont.) Caccia — pastoral or hunt topics (later in Florence, lower classes) two canonic voices and one lower part text treatment texture of “chase” (caccia) or “fleeing” (fuga) onomatopoeic hockets, etc. for animal sounds Some instrumental pieces — dances and stylized dances

Trecento composers Jacopo da Bologna (fl. 1340–1386) Gherardello da Firenze (ca. 1320 to ca. 1362) Lorenzo da Firenze (fl. ca. 1350–1370) Francesco Landini (ca. 1325–1397)

Questions for discussion What advantages did mensural rhythmic notation offer over the system that preceded it? What advantages might it have over our standard system? How did music and musical thinking of the fourteenth century challenge traditional assumptions about music? In general, what ideas did it threaten?