Ars nova
New compositional and notational style in 14th-century France (Philippe de Vitry, Machaut).
What it means
Ars nova, "new art," is the compositional and notational style that arose around 1320 in northern France and shaped 14th-century music. The name comes from a treatise attributed to the composer and theorist Philippe de Vitry (1291–1361), which was the first to describe a notation allowing duple as well as the previously standard triple subdivision of note values, on equal footing.
The most important composer of the Ars nova was Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377), a poet as well as a musician. His Messe de Notre Dame is one of the earliest complete polyphonic settings of the Mass Ordinary attributable to a single, named composer.
In the notation
The Ars nova significantly advanced mensural notation: each note shape was given a fixed time value that could be subdivided into two or three parts depending on context. This made it possible to distinguish different meters precisely, and even to combine them simultaneously across voices, as in isorhythm, where a fixed rhythmic pattern recurs under changing melodic material.
Musical use
Central genres of the Ars nova include the isorhythmic motet, in which the tenor and upper voices are organized around independent, repeating rhythmic patterns, and strictly structured secular song forms such as the ballade, rondeau, and virelai, cultivated chiefly at the French court. Musically, thirds and sixths gained prominence without displacing the fifths and octaves favored by earlier music.
The Ars nova is distinguished from the preceding Ars antiqua, whose rhythm was tied to fixed modal patterns, and from the somewhat later Ars subtilior, a particularly complex, often cryptically notated style from the close of the 14th century. It also differs from the contemporary Italian Trecento in its own forms and notational tradition, even though the two currents influenced one another.
Performance practice
In Ars nova music, listen for the rhythmic independence of the voices: unlike homophonic music, they often follow their own, interlocking patterns. In isorhythmic motets, it helps to grasp the tenor's recurring rhythmic pattern on its own before layering the upper voices over it.