Intro to Music History: Class 6- French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century 1

The 14th century was a time of disruption and turmoil, marked by famine, war and plague.
It was also a century of great creativity, where composers explored new approaches to structure,
melody, harmony, rhythm, and meter. Cooler weather and floods brought on the famine of 1315-
1322, which was followed by the Black Death (1347-50) which wiped out 1/3 of the population,
and the Hundred Years War, (1337-1453) between France and England. Responding to the
disorder and discontent in society, composers emphasized structure and pleasure in their
music. The two best known composers of the time, Machaut and Landini, concentrated on secular
music, although the composition of sacred music remained strong. Typical of the period is the
Roman de Fauvel, an allegorical narrative poem satirizing corruption in politics and the church.
It has 169 pieces of music interpolated within the poem, including 34 motets, many with texts
referring to contemporary events. Among these are examples of a new style, referred to as the Ars
Nova.
The Ars Nova (1310s–1370s), was a new French style introduced by Philippe de
Vitry (1291–1361) and named after the treatise Ars nova (New Art). It expanded rhythm and
meter through the use of duple as well as triple divisions of note values, and introduced small
note values (minims). The resulting system offered new meters and much greater rhythmic
flexibility, including, for the first time, syncopation. Around 1340, mensuration signs were
added, symbols that are the ancestor of modern time signatures. This was the first specific
and unambiguous notation, and it encouraged composers to add their names to copied works.
Four different meters were now possible, each indicated with a different mensuration sign. About
1425, noteheads began to be left open instead of being filled in. The resulting note shapes
evolved into modern notation.
Philippe de Vitry used isorhythm in his motets. The tenor of an isorhythmic motet is
composed of a recurring rhythmic pattern, called the talea, and a recurring melodic
pattern, called the color. The talea and color are not always the same length and can be
combined in various ways. Upper voices may also be isorhythmic in whole or in part, to
emphasize repeating rhythmic patterns in the tenor. Isorhythm gave unity and form to long
compositions, helped in the overall planning of a composition, and made it easier for singers to
understand the shape of the music and to memorize it. (NAWM 25). The technique hocket
(meaning “hiccup”), in which voices rapidly alternate, each resting while the other sings, was
often used in fourteenth-century isorhythmic works. Imperfect consonances were used more often
in Ars Nova style than in the thirteenth-century music, but they still resolved to perfect
consonances, and parallel fifths and octaves were still permitted.
Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300–1377) was the leading composer and poet of
the French Ars Nova. Machaut composed isorhythmic motets that are more structurally complex
than Vitry’s. In the 14th century, polyphonic settings of the ordinary of the mass could be in one
of three styles; isorhythmic, with a chant tenor; songlike with decorated chant in upper voice; or
homophonic, with all parts moving together. Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our
Lady) is probably the first polyphonic setting of the Mass Ordinary written by a single
composer and conceived as a unit. Fourteenth-century composers set Ordinary texts as
individual movements. Machaut, however, linked the six movements by similarities in
compositional style and approach. His mass is set for four voices: triplum, duplum, tenor, and
contratenor. The Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Ite, missa est are isorhythmic. In these
movements, the tenor carries a cantus firmus and, with the contratenor, forms the harmonic
foundation. Both the tenor and the contratenor are isorhythmic. The Gloria and Credo are in the
style of discant: mostly syllabic, with the four voices declaiming the long text together (NAWM
26).
The three formes fixes (fixed forms) of the 14th century song are the ballade, rondeau,
and virelai. All the formes fixes have distinct patterns of repeated music and text, but all add a
refrain to a stanza in AAB form. Machaut’s monophonic French songs (chansons) continued the
trouvère tradition. Machaut composed eight polyphonic virelai and twenty-five monophonic
Intro to Music History: Class 6- French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century 2

virelai (NAWM 27). A major innovation of the Ars Nova period was the development of
polyphonic chansons in treble-dominated style. In this style the cantus or treble (the top part)
is the principal line and was written first, supported by a slower-moving tenor without text.
Although the formes fixes were traditionally associated with dancing, Machaut’s polyphonic
chansons were not. Machaut wrote polyphonic chansons with varied rhythms, supple
syncopations, mostly stepwise melodies, and long melismas near the beginning and sometimes
the middle of poetic lines. His Rose, liz, printemps, verdure is exceptional in having four
voices. (NAWM 28).
In the Trecento (Italian for the 1300s), music accompanied almost every aspect of Italian
social life, but most music was not written down. The largest surviving repertory of Italian music
from the Trecento is secular polyphonic songs for elite audiences. The fourteenth-century
madrigal (not to be confused with the sixteenth-century madrigal) is for two or three voices
without instruments. It has two or more three-line stanzas, all set to the same music, with a
closing pair of lines called the ritornello, set to new music in a different meter (NAWM 30,
Jacopo da Bologna’s non al suo amante). The caccia (in fashion about 1345–70) features two
voices in canon at the unison. The texts are often about hunting or other animated scenes(
NAWM 31, Francesco Landini “Cosi penso”). The ballata (from ballare, “to dance”) evolved
from monophonic dance songs with choral refrains. (NAWM 32, Landini’s “non avra ma
pieta”). Francesco Landini (ca. 1325–1397) was the leading Italian composer of the fourteenth
century. He is best known for his 140 ballate for two or three voices. One of the charms of
Landini’s music is the sweetness of the harmonies. Sonorities containing thirds or sixths are
plentiful, although they never begin or end a section or a piece. Most lines of the poem are set
with melismas on the first and next-to-last syllables. Many cadences are the type known as the
“Landini cadence” where the tenor descends by step, and the soprano descends to its lower
neighbour and then skips up a third (p. 135).
Polyphonic music in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries could be performed by a
small group of voices or instruments or a combination of the two. Instruments were classified as
loud (haut or “high”) or soft (bas or “low”). Low instruments include the harp, vielle, lute,
portative organ, transverse flute, and recorder. High instruments include shawms, cornets, and
trumpets. Percussion was used with instruments of both kinds. Portative organs, positive organs,
and larger organs (with pedal keyboards and stops) were used more widely beginning in the
fourteenth century. Little purely instrumental music survives from the fourteenth century. What
does survive includes keyboard arrangements of vocal works and some dances. Performers often
altered notes chromatically, a practice known as musica ficta (“feigned music,” notes lying
outside the standard gamut). The alterations were made to avoid tritones or to create smoother
lines. Composers and scribes tended not to write in accidentals, leaving it up to the performers to
judge where they were needed. Modern editions suggest where changes should be made by
indicating accidentals above notes.
Fourteenth-century approaches to music had a profound impact on later generations. It
was the first precise, unambiguous notation, allowing music could be distributed in written form.
Composers could fix music exactly, allowing them pride in individual authorship. Because of
this, future composers were able to claim credit for their own work. This increased interest in the
individual grew stronger in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Finally, the 14th century style
contributed to the international styles of the fifteenth century.

1. Why did composers of the 14th c. emphasize structure and pleasure in their music?
2. What was the Roman de Fauvel?
3. What was Ars Nova?
4. What was the chief innovation of the Ars Nova?
5. What was the advantage of Ars Nova notation?
6. What is isoryhthm? Talea? Color?
Intro to Music History: Class 6- French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century 3

7. What is a hocket ?
8. Who is the leading composer of the French Ars Nova ?
9. What is the earliest polyhonic setting of the Mass Ordinary ?
10. What are the three formes fixes ?
11. What is the treble-dominated style ?
12. Why is Machaut’s Rose, liz, printemps, verdure exceptional?
13. Describe the 14th c. madrigal. What was the ritornello ?
14. What is the meaning of the terms caccia and ballata ?
15. What is a Landini cadence?
16. What were bas and haut instruments ?
17. What is musica ficta ?

MUSICAL EXCERPTS

Listening: NAWM 25–32

Philippe de Vitry: Cum statua/Hugo, Hugo/Magister invidie, motet
Guillaume de Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame, mass: Kyrie and Gloria
Guillaume de Machaut: Douce dame jolie, virelai
Guillaume de Machaut: Rose, liz, printemps, verdure, rondeau
Philippus de Caserta: En remirant vo douce pourtraiture, ballade
Jacopo da Bologna: Non al suo amante, madrigal
Francesco Landini: Così pensoso, caccia
Francesco Landini: Non avrà ma’ pietà, ballata