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

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