Ars nova. Page of the French manuscript Livres de Fauvel, Paris, B.N.
Fr. 146 (ca. 1318), "the first practical source of Ars nova music".[1] Ars nova refers to a musical style which flourished in France and the Burgundian Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages: more particularly, in the period between the preparation of the Roman de Fauvel (1310–1314) and the death of the composer Guillaume de Machaut in 1377 (whose poems were a large inspiration for Johannes Ciconia).
Sometimes the term is used more generally to refer to all European polyphonic music of the 14th century, thereby including such figures as Francesco Landini, who was working in Italy. Occasionally the term "Italian ars nova" is used to denote the music of Landini and his compatriots (see Music of the Trecento for the concurrent musical movement in Italy). Controversial in the Roman Catholic Church, the music was starkly rejected by Pope John XXII, but embraced by Pope Clement VI.
Ars nova versus Ars antiqua[edit] Guillaume de Machaut. Machaut (at right) receiving Nature and three of her children. From an illuminated Parisian manuscript of the 1350s (sometimes spelled ) (c. 1300 – April 1377) was a Medieval French poet and composer . He is one of the earliest composers on whom significant biographical information is available. According to Daniel Leech-Wilkinson , Machaut was "the last great poet who was also a composer". Well into the 15th century, Machaut's poetry was greatly admired and imitated by other poets, including Geoffrey Chaucer .
Machaut composed in a wide range of styles and forms. Guillaume de Machaut was born c. 1300 and educated in the region around Rheims . He was employed as secretary to John I , Count of Luxemburg and King of Bohemia , from 1323 to 1346 and also became a canon (1337). Machaut survived the Black Death that devastated Europe and spent his later years living in Rheims composing and supervising the creation of his complete-works manuscripts. . [ edit ] Poetry [ edit ] Example 1987 - .
Francesco Landini. Life[edit] Details of Landini's life are sketchy and few facts can be established with certainty, but the general outline has begun to take shape as more research has been done, especially into Florentine records.
Most of the original biographical data on him comes from a 1385 book on famous Florentine citizens by chronicler Filippo Villani, who was also born approximately 1325. Landini was most likely born in Florence, though his great-nephew, humanist Cristoforo Landino, gave his birthplace as Fiesole. His father, Jacopo del Casentino, was a noted painter in the school of Giotto. Blind from childhood (an effect of contracting smallpox), Landini became devoted to music early in life, and mastered many instruments, including the lute, as well as the art of singing, writing poetry, and composition. He was employed as organist at the Florentine monastery of Santa Trinità in 1361, and at the church of San Lorenzo from 1365 onward. He is buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. Philippe de Vitry.
Philippe de Vitry (31 October 1291 – 9 June 1361) was a French composer, music theorist and poet.
He was an accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, and may also have been the author of the Ars Nova treatise. He was widely acknowledged as the greatest musician of his day, with Petrarch writing a glowing tribute, calling him: "...the keenest and most ardent seeker of truth, so great a philosopher of our age. "[1] Life[edit] Details of his early life are vague. Works[edit] Philippe de Vitry is most famous in music history for the Ars nova notandi (1322), a treatise on music attributed to him which lent its name to the music of the entire era. He is reputed to have written chansons and motets, but only some of the motets have survived. Five of his three-part motets have survived in the Roman de Fauvel; an additional nine can be found in the Ivrea Codex.