[See also: ARS ANTIQUA; ARS SUBTILIOR; FAUVEL, ROMAN DE; FORMES
FIXES; ISORHYTHMIC MOTET; MACHAUT, GUILLAUME DE; MUSIC THEORY;
PHILIPPE DE VITRY]
Fuller, Sarah. “A Phantom Treatise of the Fourteenth Century? The Ars nova.” Journal of
Musicology 4(1985–86):23–50.
Huglo, Michel. “De Francon de Cologne à Jacques de Liège.” Revue belge de musicologie 34–35
(1980–81):44–60.
Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel. “Ars Antiqua—Ars Nova—Ars Subtilior.” In Antiquity and the Middle
Ages: From Ancient Greece to the 15th Century, ed. James McKinnon. Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice-Hall, 1990, pp. 218–40.
Le Roman de Fauvel in the Edition of Mesire Chaillou de Pesstain: A Reproduction in Facsimile of
the Complete Manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Fonds Français 146. Introduction by
Edward H.Roesner, François Avril, and Nancy Freeman Regalado. New York: Broude, 1990.
ARS SUBTILIOR
. A term coined by Ursula Günther to distinguish the style of French music cultivated
approximately during the time of the papal Schism (1378–1417) from the earlier Ars
Nova. As with Ars Nova, the name derives from treatises on musical notation. Most Ars
Subtilior works were written in the south of France, at the court of Aragon, or in northern
Italy. The musical style, seen in fixed-form chansons as well as in motets, is
characterized primarily by extreme rhythmic complexity, including frequent changes of
meters, conflicting meters in different voices, complex proportional relationships, and
“displacement syncopation,” in which a prevailing meter (e.g., 6/8 in modern
transcription) is displaced by one or two eighth notes for a lengthy passage. The music
requires a vast assortment of notational symbols, including red notation, note heads with
odd hooks and tails, and complex time signatures. Composers who cultivated this style
include Matheus de Sancto Johanne, Solage, Cuvelier, Jacob de Senleches, Johannes
Ciconia, and the Italians Mateo da Perugia and Philippus de Caserta.
Lawrence Earp
[See also: ARS NOVA; CICONIA, JOHANNES; COMPOSERS, MINOR (14TH
CENTURY); FORMES FIXES; ISORHYTHMIC MOTET; JACOB DE SENLECHES;
MATHEUS DE SANCTO JOHANNE]
Günther, Ursula. “Das Ende der ars nova.” Die Musikforschung 16(1963):105–21.
Strohm, Reinhard. The Rise of European Music 1380–1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 136