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Leonin & Perotin

Paris, ca. 1200 A. D.

Organum/Discant Style

Tripla/Quadrupla

Organum (pl. orgamum)

14th-century

Centers of musical activity shift from cathedral to court

I. Ars nova (lit., The New Art)

B. Ars nova named after treatise by

A. Ars nova = Music in Late Middle Ages in France (1300s)

opposed to Ars antiqua (Notre Dame School, Leonin, Perotin, 1200s)

Philippe de Vitry

II. Guillaume de MachautA. Biography

B. Poetry1. Ca. 1300-1377

1. courtly, complex, chivalric

Musical analogy = “My End Is My Beginning”

If I love you with true faithful courageAs I have loved and will love you still,And you have taken another in marriage,Must I be sent from you far? And will I be not even a memory?No, no, indeed: since there is in meA heart so true it eschews false art,You mustn’t divorce me from your heart.

Rather, keep me here to serve on suffrage,As a slave you’ve bought, and paid the bill,Whose wish it is to commit no outrage.And you must love, and this thought fulfil, Your husband as husband see,And your friend as friend, dear as could be.And since in this you take honour’s partYou mustn’t divorce me from your heart.

And if your heart should learn to stray,No love would be ever betrayed so ill,As I should be: but you are so sageAnd your heart so gently nurtured, it will

never dare to deceive me.In order to love elsewhere. So hear me:Since your sweet form, above all, I chart,You mustn’t divorce me from your heart.

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II. Guillaume de MachautA. Biography

C. I Should Lead a Happy Life (Je vivroire lement)

1. Basic features: monophonic texture

secular lyrics2. Virelai (one of several formes fixes)

=a Refrain Form (Refrain = words and music return, typically 2 or more times)

B. Poetry

clear rhythm and meter

1. Ca. 1300-1377

1. courtly, complex, chivalric

Form of the Virelai

Arefrain

Phrases: 4

asymmetrical8+8+8+12

bb’astanza

A bb’a Arefrain stanza refrain

Music of A w/ new words

Form of the Viralai:

III. Isorhythmic Motet (Quant en moy) (central musical genre of Ars nova)

A. Polyphonic (usually 3 voices)

B. Polytextual

C. Employs Isorhythmic Technique (usually in Tenor)

1. Borrowed Pitches = Color (30)2. Rhythmic Pattern = Talea (5)

Tenor: lowest voice, least active, based on chant

Triplum: top voice: poem #2, most active

2 poems (triplum/motetus) + chant text (implied)

Motetus: middle voice, poem #1 moderate speed

=compositional technique of Ars nova

Falsetto voice

viol

based on the separability of pitch & rhythm

L L L LR S R

Talea or Rhythmic Pattern:

D. Other Features: triple meter; dissonance

E. Hocket (Hoquet) (= lit. hiccup)

•Short rest in one voice filled by notes in another

She’s _____ up ______ dress-ing. she’ll be down in a jiffy

Look_____ her_____ face could launch 1000 ships

Espoir________d’avoir To hope to have

Doubter________celerFearing pretending

L L L LR S

F. Layers of meaning in Quant en moy:•Mathematical pattern/proportion

•Complex interplay of 3 poetic texts

•Biblical references in tenor (chant)

Purely musical interest: Musical counterpoint of 3 voices/3 speeds

Dissonance and hollow 5ths at cadences

•Text = Advice on chivalric love

R

•Hocket (more double meaning)

•Poems that are structurally complex