5 | Music In The Middle Ages

The Ars Nova in 14th Century France

Peter Kun Frary

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The prodigious rise of secular music in fourteenth century France and the Low Countries is known as the Ars nova, meaning new art in Latin. Trecento is the preferred term when referring to this period in Italy.

Young Man | Stained glass, c. 1320-30, France | J. Paul Getty Museum

Secular emphasis during the Ars nova was due to the declining power and influence of the Church and State. Three rival popes fought among themselves from 1378 to 1417, diluting the power and influence of the Church. As the Holy Roman Empire retracted, thousands of innocents died in battles between feudal landlords during the One Hundred Years War, 1337-1453, undermining authority of the noble class. During the mid-fourteenth century twenty million souls perished—one third of Europe's population—from the bubonic plague. The suffering brought from such pestilence and calamity resulted in wide spread questioning of the authority and protection of the Church and State.

Musical Style

Music of fourteenth century France shows enhanced intellectual refinement, new concepts of rhythm and meter and emphasis on both secular and sacred forms. Secular vocal music was written in the vernacular tongue and stressed emotional expression and sensuality. This sophistication is reflected in music theory treatises of the day such as Philippe de Vitry's Ars nova notandi (c.1322).

The frequent syncopations and cross rhythms (conflicting meter patterns) of the Ars nova may sound confusing to us. These changes are a stark contrast to the simple chant and troubadour styles and a harbinger of the Renaissance.

The independent polyphonic lines of this style tends to befuddle modern ears. Melodic lines were composed linearly and without regard for harmonic design, save for cadences and phrase beginnings. Thus, strong dissonances are common.

Traditional sacred music such as the motet and mass continued but new secular forms such as the ballade, rondeau and virelai appeared in France and the Low Countries. These secular forms were largely derived from the verse structure of poetry: the pattern of refrain (ritornello) and verse (stanza). For example, the rondeau, one of the most important musical and poetic forms of the Ars nova has eight lines of text in a verse structure of ab ab ab ab.

Guillaume de Machaut (Paris, c. 1350) | Nature offers Machaut (far right) three of her children: Sense, Rhetoric, and Music | Wikimedia Commons

Guillaume de Machaut

The composer, poet and cleric, Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377), is regarded as the leading composer of the Ars nova. His poetry was studied and imitated long after the Ars nova musical style faded from popularity. Indeed, nearly seven hundred years later his poetry is still studied and revered, proving his words prophetic (Machaut, "Ma fin est mon commencement," line 1):

"My end is my beginning, and my beginning my end."

"Et mon commencement ma fin"

Machaut spend much of his life working for royal families, initially serving John of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia, as chaplain and secretary. He was rewarded for this service with an appointment in 1337 as canon of Reims Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims). After John’s death, he served the French royal family and worked as an official at Reims Cathedral until his death in 1377.

Guillaume de Machaut, Poésies | Machaut was celebrated as both a poet and musician | Paris, France, c. 1372-1377 | BnF Gallica: MS A f.221r

Machaut’s music is preserved in thirty-two manuscripts, representing a large percentage of surviving music from the late Middle Ages. He was the first composer known to write a polyphonic setting of the mass ordinary.

Poésies de Guillaume de Machault et autres (c. 1301-1400) | Books were created painstakingly by hand | Bibliothèque nationale de France

Although an ordained priest, the mainstay of Machaut’s music was secular, mostly love songs for one or two voices and instrumental accompaniment. He was highly influential in the development of the motet and secular song forms such as the rondeau, virelai and ballade. The wide distribution of Machaut’s music manuscripts reveals that he was esteemed throughout Europe.

Virelai: Sweet, Lovely Lady

Machaut's Douce Dame Jolie is a virelai. The virelai typically has three stanzas with a refrain placed before and after the stanza. Machaut's virelai scores were monophonic and performers were expected to improvise accompaniment.

Douce Dame Jolie (Sweet, lovely lady) | Guillaume de Machaut | Vocal melody with three voices played on fiddle, pipe and lute (2:51)

Messe de Nostre Dame

While Machaut was principally a composer of love songs, he also wrote sacred music. He hit a milestone in sacred music by composing Messe de Nostre Dame (Notre Dame Mass), the first polyphonic mass by a known composer. Messe de Nostre Dame was likely written for performance at Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims, a massive Gothic cathedral, where he worked as a Church official.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims | Domenico Quaglio, c.1827 | Museum der bildenden Künste

Cantus Firmus

Within each movement of the Messe de Nostre Dame lies a pre-existing melody taken from Gregorian chant. This pre-existing melody is called the cantus firmus. Machaut created each movement of the Mass by composing counterpoint around the cantus firmus. The cantus firmus was a link to the traditions of the Church.

Messe de Nostre Dame is scored for four male voices. Mass was sung by men and/or boys because women were not allowed to sing in public services during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Thus, soprano and alto parts were performed by prepubescent boys or countertenors (men specializing in falsetto singing).

Kyrie eleison (Lord have mercy on us)
Christe eleison (Christ have mercy on us)
Kyrie eleison (Lord have mercy on us)

Notre Dame Mass, Kyrie | Guillaume de Machaut (7:48)

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Vocabulary

Ars nova, rondeau, virelai, cantus firmus, countertenor

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