EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
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C O U R S E
Western Music History through Performance
Jonathan Coopersmith, Curtis Institute of Music
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Ars Nova, New Rhythm in the 14th Century Notes taken on January 20, 2016 by Edward Tanguay |
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at the beginning of the 14th century
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there was finally a system of musical notation which
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showed exact pitches
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but durations were relative
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music before this had been rhythmically grouped always into threes
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same note shape could be given two or three beats, but depending on context
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confusing
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limiting
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Philippe de Vitry
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credited with creating the ars nova
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Latin for "new art"
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the last line of his treatise is "This is the new art."
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ars nova is a name for the era of music in the 1300s
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innovations in notation
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breaking with the idea of a "perfection", i.e. that music needed to be grouped into threes
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allowed for several levels of division
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breves could be broken into groups of two or three semibreves
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semibreves could be broken up into 2 or 3 smaller units called minims
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a radical shift
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for the first time, note durations were fixed
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and no longer confined to groups of three
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definitions
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breve = double whole note
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semibreve = whole note
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four distinct time signatures or meters
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9/8 time signature
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breve into 3 semibreves into 9 minims
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this is like three groups of triplets which wasn't such a big change from what had come before
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if a breve is divided into three semibreves, as before, but each breve is divided into only two minims
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a new feature of ars nova
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3/4 signature
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if a breve is divided into only two semibreves, and each breve into three minim
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this gives us a 6/8 signature
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sounds like two groups of triplets
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not a big change
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but if a breve is divided into only two semibreves, and each breve into only two minims
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this gives us a 2/4 signature
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a completely new sound
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the most radical of all new time signatures since there were no groups of three at all
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the real innovation is fixed note shapes
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notes were no longer relative
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both triple and duple meter (2/4) are possible
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syncopation is possible for the first time
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the shift of a musical accent in which emphasis is given to weak beats instead of strong beats
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since note shapes retain their rhythmic value regardless of the context
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allowed composers to exploit combinations of rhythm
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some of the most complex music was composed during this time
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combining syncopations, mixed meters, and different voices and meters at the same time
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without this new notation, the innovations that occurred in the Renaissance would not have been possible