Ars Nova

ARS NOVA. - This was the name given to the current of renewal in sacred composition that animated polyphonic music from the early years of the 14th century to the early years of the 15th, and which, if on the one hand it benefited the progress of notation (v.) with the introduction of binary time in place of ternary and the creation of small note values — minim, semiminim, quaver and semiquaver — originating from the instrumental practice of dance pieces and from the technical virtuosity of vocal pieces, on the other hand marked the beginning of that secularization of church music which, expressed in an ever deeper detachment from Gregorian chant, culminated later in the rich Flemish contrapuntal architecture of the 15th century built on popular themes, checked only two centuries later by the Council of Trent, with the hoped-for return to Gregorian chant, whether as direct performance or as inspiration of polyphony.

Of the two great groups of sources — theoretical treatises and monuments of practical music — the first is notably scarce in comparison with the second, especially if one considers the vast harvest of treatises from the preceding period, that is, of the ars antiqua (v.). The first decisive move toward the a. n. is given by the writings of Marchetto da Padova who, after the Lucidarium in arte musicae planae (1274), wrote, around 1309, the Pomerium artis musicae mensurabilis where, among other things, he illustrates the new Italian notation. After a short time, that is around 1325, we find the celebrated treatise of Philippe de Vitry entitled A. n., an expression which, used also in the writings of his friend Joannes de Muris: Ars novae musicae, gave its name to the whole movement. Apart from other small treatises still unpublished by some masters of musical practice (among them Jacopo, Paolo, Zaccharias), we cite finally the great fellow citizen of Marchetto, Prodocimo de Beldemandia, who in his Tractatus practicae de musica mensurabili ad modum Italicorum written about a century later (around 1410), gives a retrospective glance at the notation of the Italian 14th century heralded by Marchetto. The two Paduan theorists can therefore be considered, in a broad sense, as the boundary points between which the musical world of the Italian a. n. moves and operates.

From the practical point of view, sacred music in this period suffers from the lack of the great liturgical cycles that in the ars antiqua accompanied the unfolding of the ecclesiastical year, and the same mere 5-6 parts of the Ordinarium Missae that are now set to music appear to us composed under the direct influence of the five forms in vogue: motet, French « ballade », « conductus », madrigal and caccia. Thus there are 3 important cycles of « Ordinarium »: the Mass of Tournai, for 3 voices, still very close to the 13th century in its modal rhythm and notation, the Mass of G. Machaut for 4 voices, which are among the oldest examples of the genre, both composed in the style of the « conductus », and finally a collection of authors from northern and central Italy (Paris, ital. 568) which, with another smaller one of Romagnol origin (Vat. Urb. 1419), gives us some significant examples of Italian art of the 14th century. Of the religious production of the French a. n. there remain to us two famous manuscripts originating from Avignon (1st half of the 14th century), now at Ivrea and at Apt, which contain motets and masses on the model of the secular motet, of the « conductus », of the French ballade, and, among other things (at Ivrea), a Credo in that isorhythmic form which the great musician-poet Machaut preferred in order to realize, in his motets, the postulates of Ph. de Vitry. The ecclesiastical music of this period, although present and rich in the various countries to accompany the ceremonies of worship, is nevertheless too pervaded by the secular elements that invade the field of music, so as to compel Pope John XXII (1324-25) to raise his voice against the abuses that distance sacred chant from its true office of liturgical homage and invitation to prayer.

Luisa Cervelli