37
See also: Magnus liber organi 28–31 ■ Missa l’homme armée 42 ■ Missa Pange
lingua 43 ■ Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■ Monteverdi’s Vespers 64–69EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400
Vitry took a series of notes in the
tenor voice (called the color) and
applied a rhythmic pattern (called
a talea) to it. The talea (rhythm)
was usually shorter than the color
(melody) so it might require several
cycles of the talea to equal one
repetition of the color.
The Church was not enamored
of Ars nova, and Pope John XXII
condemned it in a decree of 1323.
The clergy were alarmed by the
style’s role in the secularization
of the once purely sacred motet,
which was now appropriated as a
way to comment on events of the
day. The satirical poem Le roman
de Fauvel (c. 1316), for example,
contains 130 musical works,
including five motets by de Vitry.
Despite the religious opposition,
the precision of the new notation
opened the door to experiments
in rhythm and meter. These can
be heard in the intricate and
shifting rhythms of the songs of
the Italians Matteo da Perugia
and Philippus de Caserta and the
French composer Baude Cordier
(all working around 1400), in a style
that is now known as Ars subtilior(“even more subtle art”). Ars nova
had become established and
went on to form the basis for the
development of rhythmic notation
in Western music.Changing the Mass
De Vitry’s ideas found perhaps
their greatest flowering in the
music of Guillaume de Machaut,
a 14th-century composer and
poet. Machaut used the same
isorhythmic techniques in his own
motets and in the Ky rie, Sanctus,
Agnus Dei, and Ite, missa est
movements of his Messe de Notre
Dame, the first known setting of
polyphonic music for a complete
Mass cycle by a single composer.
As well as using isorhythm to
unify elements of the Mass,
Machaut also employed a plainsong
cantus firmus (“fixed song”) as a
linking melody for each movement,
from which other melodies develop,
and added a contratenor to raise
the number of voices from three
(the traditional number) to a richer
and more expansive four.
Machaut secured his artistic
heritage by carefully managing his
own output, collecting his works
in manuscripts that he compiled
during his lifetime. Besides
his importance as a composer,
Machaut was one of the greatest
French poets of the medieval
period, producing extensive poetic
narratives in the form of lais (lines
of verse with eight syllables) and
dits (verse without music). He
also developed shorter poetic
genres with repeated phrases,
or refrains, such as the ballade,
rondeau, and virelai, which became
popular vehicles of expression
for poets and composers of
subsequent generations. ■Guillaume de Machaut
Born in the Champagne
region of France around 1300,
Machaut spent much of his
life in and around the nearby
city of Reims. After taking
holy orders, in 1323 he joined
the household of John of
Luxembourg, King of Bohemia,
traveling with him around
Eastern Europe and Italy as
his chaplain and secretary.
Through King John, Machaut
acquired lucrative benefices
as canon of the cathedrals at
Verdun in 1330, Arras in 1332,
and in Reims in 1337.
After King John’s death
at the Battle of Crécy in 1346,
Machaut found further
patronage from Bonne of
Luxembourg, the second
daughter of King John the
Blind, and Charles II, King
of Navarre in Spain. The
composer’s final years were
spent in Reims, overseeing
the compilation of his works.
He died in 1377 and was
buried in Reims cathedral.Other key worksc. 1330s Douce dame jolie
(virelai)
c. 1340s Rose, liz, printemps,
verdure (rondeau)
c.1340s Voir ditCertain disciples of the
new art are preoccupied
with their measured
dividing up of beats ... We
forbid these methods.
Pope John XXIIUS_036-037_Guillaume_de_Machaut.indd 37 26/03/18 1:00 PM