Philippe de Vitry sets forth the basic principles of rhythmic notation and practice that
persisted in western music until the 20th century.
The political instability of the 14th century in France makes it difficult to trace clear
developments in musical thought following the first flowering of the Ars Nova. Johannes
Ciconia’s theoretical works, while written in Padua around the turn of the 15th century,
nevertheless reflect French musical thought. Ciconia’s broad background in the
mathematical disciplines is discerned from his De arithmetica institutione, a purely
mathematical work cited in his Nova musica but since lost. Probably influenced by the
ancient theoretical tradition of Liège as well as traditional French musical theory,
Ciconia’s Nova musica is an extended treatise treating traditional theoretical topics,
including musica speculativa, according to ancient authorities as well as both French and
Italian theory of his own day. Ciconia’s rhythmic theory draws on the theories of both
Jehan des Murs and Marchetto of Padua. His De proportionibus, while treating the
practical problem of rhythmic proportions, extends his treatment of proportions beyond
those normally discussed in rhythmic treatises and closes the work with discussions that
are clearly speculative.
Two contemporaries of Ciconia, Egidius de Murino and Philippus de Caserta, are
significantly less speculative and thus anticipate the empirical and practical trends of the
15th century. Egidius’s De motettis componendis offers a practical guide to constructing
motets, and Philippus’s Tractatus de diversis figuris concerns itself wholly with note
forms developed in Avignon ca. 1370.
The 15th Century. The medieval theoretical tradition has been defined in large part by
its relation to the Quadrivium and its association with speculative as well as practical
thinking. A clear departure from that tradition is seen in the theoretical texts of Johannes
Tinctoris, the most prolific and accomplished theorist of the 15th century. Tinctoris’s
twelve treatises return repeatedly to practical problems and specifically to practical
problems of musical works written after ca. 1450. Tinctoris looks disparagingly at both
music and music theory of the centuries immediately preceding his own and thus
represents a fundamental shift in the nature of musical thought. His descriptive analyses
of music contemporary to himself are brilliant, but these analyses strike out on new paths.
The medieval tradition has essentially ended before Tinctoris, and his works represent the
first great flowering of Renaissance theory.
Calvin M.Bower
[See also: ANONYMOUS 4; ARS ANTIQUA; ARS NOVA; AURELIAN OF
RÉÔME; CICONIA, JOHANNES; EGIDIUS DE MURINO; FRANCO OF COLOGNE;
GROCHEIO, JOHANNES DE; HUCBALD OF SAINT-AMAND; JACQUES DE
LIÈGE; JEHAN DES MURS; JOHANNES DE GARLANDIA; MUSICA
ENCHIRIADIS; MUSICAL NOTATION (NEUMATIC); MUSICAL NOTATION
(12TH-15TH CENTURIES); ORGANUM; PHILIPPE DE VITRY; PHILIPPUS DE
CASERTA; RHYTHMIC MODE; TINCTORIS, JOHANNES]
Barbera, André, ed. Music Theory and Its Sources: Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1990.
Bernhard, Michael. “Das musikalische Fachschrifttum im lateinischen Mittelalter.” In Geschichte
der Musiktheorie. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1990, Vol. 3: Rezeption des
antiken Fachs im Mittelalter, ed. Frieder Zaminer, pp. 37–103.
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