"What is meant by the expression Ars nova in the 14th century?"

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Zoë McKellar

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History of Music Period One Assignment Four

“What is meant by the expression Ars nova in the 14th century?”

May 2001


What is meant by the expression Ars nova in the 14th century?

During the early fourteenth century there occurred an imperative stylistic change in music, now commonly known as the “Ars nova” period. The term “Ars nova” means quite literally “new art” when translated from the Latin and refers to the new way of thinking of composers at his time. The term itself was initially used by one of the leading French composers of the time, Philippe de Vitry. The resulting music reflected the ingenuity of the composers working at the time giving them increased ability to express mood and emotion in their works. De Vitry not only coined the new phrase but was the forbearer in a new system of notation which included time signatures, giving rhythmic autonomy where there had previously been little.

The composers of the Ars nova distinguished themselves from the composers of the fin de sieclé, whose techniques they universally named Ars Antigua, innovated techniques which are present even now in modern day notation. The main developments in technique were within the fields of rhythm and metre, although maturity in harmonic structure is also evident.

In the case of metre, the most commonly used note values had been diminishing in duration during the preceding centuries, for example, longs had given way to breves, which had in turn been divided up in to semibreves, to minims and so forth. The dissection of the semibreve was of imperative importance to the composers of the Ars nova, and this division could occur in a number of ways, for example; 1. Taking the imperfect time of two semibreves and dividing them into four or six minims, or 2. In triple or trochai time where the relationship between minims and semibreves was thus that the prolation could result in six or nine minims.

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This example of trochai time subjugated the motet during the Ars nova, while duple prolation using trochaic time (where the division results in six minims) was used for ballades, rondeaux and Virelais, the other popular musical forms of the time. These musical forms, which used a mixture of music and poetry, are set apart by the use of repetition of both text and melody, whereas before, music had been more or less completely through composed. The ballades, rondeaux and Virelais most frequently followed the forms below:

  1. Ballade – aaB: two lines of text are used, with one repeated ...

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