Music 1711F/G Lecture Notes - Roman De Fauvel, Philippe De Vitry, Johannes De Muris
1 Mar 2013
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Feb 1 – Music in the 14th Century: France: the ars nova
French Music in the 14th Century
–Up to now, pan-European style (Spain, England etc.)
–*Ars Nova “new art” style – always associated with 14th century French
music
–de Vitry's treatise on the style is called ars nova. New rhythmically
enhanced style of writing.
– Johannes de Muris (ca. 1300-1350) also wrote a music theory treatise: Ars
novae musicae (the new art of music).
Ars Nova
–Increased use of minims and semi-minims – the long is no longer relevant.
–Duple metre is as legitimate as triple due to notation shift – focus on smaller
notation divisions.
–Imperfections created by notes not 'next' to each other in value eg. A minim
imperfects a breve, etc. Relating two notes or more apart creates rhythmic
complexity.
–Using red ink (colouration) to imperfect a note value.
Mensural Signs
–Circle/half-circle: indicates how many semibreves in a breve
–Circle: 3 ('perfection')
–Half-circle: 2 ('imperfection')
Dot/No dot: indicates how many minims in a semibreve.
–Dot: 3 ('Major')
–No Dot: 2 ('Minor')
The 'Tempus' corresponds to semibreve-breve ratio (eg. Circle/half-circle sign)
The 'Prolatio' corresponds to the minim-semibreve ratio (eg. Dot/no dot sign). pg
76 eg. 3-1
Perfect Tempus, Perfect Prolation: circle, dot – worth 3 semibreves, 3 minims. 9/8
b/c 9 beats divided into 3 pulses.
Perfect Tempus, Imperfect Prolation: circle, no dot – 3 semibreves, 2 per minims,
3/4
Imperfect Tempus, Perfect Prolation – half-circle, dot – 2 semibreves, 3 minims, 6/8
Imperfect Tempus, Imperfect Prolation – half-circle, no dot – 2 semibreves, 2
minims 2/4 – cut time
C does not stand for cut – it stands for imperfect tempus, imperfect prolation
Le Roman de Fauvel (1316)
–Satirical allegory about a donkey who rises from the stable to be ruler of a
noble household.
–One of the 12 manuscript sources for this includes music
–Some of this music was probably written by Philippe de Vitry himself.
Document Summary
Feb 1 music in the 14th century: france: the ars nova. Up to now, pan-european style (spain, england etc. ) *ars nova new art style always associated with 14th century french music. De vitry"s treatise on the style is called ars nova. 1300-1350) also wrote a music theory treatise: ars novae musicae (the new art of music). Increased use of minims and semi-minims the long is no longer relevant. Duple metre is as legitimate as triple due to notation shift focus on smaller notation divisions. Imperfections created by notes not "next" to each other in value eg. a minim imperfects a breve, etc. Relating two notes or more apart creates rhythmic complexity. Using red ink (colouration) to imperfect a note value. Circle/half-circle: indicates how many semibreves in a breve. Dot/no dot: indicates how many minims in a semibreve. The "tempus" corresponds to semibreve-breve ratio (eg. circle/half-circle sign) The "prolatio" corresponds to the minim-semibreve ratio (eg. dot/no dot sign). pg.
