Ars Nova

Ars Nova

(Latin; “New Art”)

Musical style of 14th-century Europe, particularly France. As composers began to use ever shorter notes in their music, the old system of rhythmic modes (see Ars Antiqua) ceased to be adequate to describe it. In his treatise Ars nova (1323), Philippe de Vitry (1291–1361) proposed a way of relating longer and shorter notes by a metrical scheme—the ancestor of time signatures—whereby each note value could be subdivided into either two or three of the next-shorter note. Though seemingly abstract, this innovation had a marked effect on the sound of music because composers were better able to control the relative motion of several voices, and 14th-century music consequently sounds much less “medieval” to modern ears. De Vitry and Guillaume de Machaut are the principal composers of the Ars Nova. The term is sometimes extended to describe all 14th-century music, including that of Italy. See also formes fixes.

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Ars Nova 

humanistic current in French and Italian music of the 14th century. In ars nova, secular vocal and instrumental music was elevated for the first time to a high professional level; there was movement toward the music of everyday life; and the major mode, which was prevalent in folklore, became established. Melodies and musical themes acquired refinement and clarity. It was first established theoretically in 1309 by the Italian investigator Marchettus of Padua, and in the 1320’s by the French humanist Philippe de Vitry, who contrasted the new art to medieval religious polyphony in the treatise Ars nova. The humanist theoretician#nd Parisian master Johannes de Muris (Jean de Murs) also sided with ars nova. In Italy, ars nova arose in the north (Florence, Bologna, Perugia, and other cities). The leading composers were Francesco Landini, Gherardello, and Giovanni da Firenze. They wrote madrigals, ballads, and caccias. The most notable composer of French ars nova, and at the same time the last great trouvère of the late Middle Ages, was Guillaume de Machaut.

REFERENCES

Gruber, R. Vseobshchaia istoriia muzyki, 2nd ed., part 1. Moscow, 1960. Section 4.
Ivanov-Boretskii, M. Muzykal’no-istoricheskaia khrestomatiia, issue 1, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1933.
Priun’er, A. Novaia istoriia muzyki, vol. 1. Moscow, 1937. Chapter 3.
Fischer, K. V. Studien zur italienischen, Musik des Trecento und friiheren Quattrocento. Bern, 1956.

K. K. ROZENSHIL’D