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{{short description|Musical style of the Late Middle Ages}}
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[[Image:Roman de Fauvel.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Page of the French manuscript ''[[Roman de Fauvel]]'', Paris, [[Bibliothèque Nationale de France|B.N. Fr.]] 146 ({{circa|1318}}), "the first practical source of {{lang|la|Ars nova}} music".<ref name="Earp">[https://books.google.com/books?id=4qFY1jpF2JAC&dq=%22ars+nova%22&pg=PA72 Earp 1995], 72.</ref>]]
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'''''Ars nova''''' ({{langnf|la||new art}})<ref name="NG">Fallows, David. (2001). "Ars nova". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (professor of music)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan.</ref> refers to a musical style which flourished in the [[Kingdom of France]] and its surroundings during the [[Late Middle Ages]]. More particularly, it refers to the period between the preparation of the ''[[Roman de Fauvel]]'' (1310s) and the death of composer [[Guillaume de Machaut]] in 1377. The term is sometimes used more generally to refer to all European [[polyphony|polyphonic]] music of the fourteenth century. For instance, the term "Italian {{lang|la|ars nova}}" is sometimes used to denote the music of [[Francesco Landini]] and his compatriots, although [[music of the Trecento|Trecento music]] is the more common term for the contemporary 14th-century music in Italy. The "ars" in "ars nova" can be read as "technique", or "style".<ref>Schrade 1956, 331.</ref> The term was first used in two musical treatises, titled ''Ars novae musicae'' (New Technique of Music) ({{circa|1320}}) by [[Johannes de Muris]], and a collection of writings (c. 1322) attributed to [[Philippe de Vitry]] often simply called "''Ars nova''" today.<ref name="Fuller">Fuller, Sarah. "A Phantom Treatise of the Fourteenth Century? The ''Ars Nova''", ''Journal of Musicology'' 4 (1985–6), pp. 23–50.</ref> Musicologist [[Johannes Wolf (musicologist)|Johannes Wolf]] first applied to the term as description of an entire era (as opposed to merely specific persons) in 1904.<ref name="NG"/>

The term {{lang|la|ars nova}} is often used in juxtaposition to two other periodic terms, of which the first, {{lang|la|[[ars antiqua]]}}, refers to the music of the immediately preceding age, usually extending back to take in the period of [[Notre Dame school|Notre Dame]] [[polyphony]] (from about 1170 to 1320). Roughly, then, {{lang|la|ars antiqua}} refers to music of the thirteenth century, and the {{lang|la|ars nova}} that of the fourteenth; many music histories use the terms in this more general sense.<ref name="NG"/>

The period from the death of Machaut (1377) until the early fifteenth century, including the rhythmic innovations of the {{lang|la|[[ars subtilior]]}}, is sometimes considered the end of, or late, {{lang|la|ars nova}} but at other times an independent era in music.<ref name="NG"/> Other musical periods and styles have at various times been called "new art." [[Johannes Tinctoris]] used the term to describe [[John Dunstaple|Dunstaple]];<ref>Schrade, Leo. "The Chronology of the Ars Nova in France", in ''Les Colloques de Wégimont II—1955, L'Ars nova: Recueil d'études sur la musique du XIVe siècle'' (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1959), 37–62.</ref> however, in modern [[music history|historiographical]] usage, it is restricted entirely to the period described above.<ref name="NG"/>

== Versus {{lang|la|ars antiqua}} ==

Stylistically, the music of the {{lang|la|ars nova}} differed from the preceding era in several ways. Developments in notation allowed notes to be written with greater rhythmic independence, shunning the limitations of the [[rhythmic mode]]s which prevailed in the thirteenth century; secular music acquired much of the polyphonic sophistication previously found only in sacred music; and new techniques and forms, such as [[isorhythm]] and the isorhythmic [[motet]], became prevalent. The overall aesthetic effect of these changes was to create music of greater expressiveness and variety than had been the case in the thirteenth century.<ref>[http://www.musiwall.ulg.ac.be/spip.php?page=fiche&id_article=51 Musique en Wallonie '''En un gardin''' (Old French for ''Dans un jardin'' = in a garden) see the video (in English) under the few sentences commenting on the ''fiche détaillée"''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170045/http://www.musiwall.ulg.ac.be/spip.php?page=fiche&id_article=51 |date=2016-03-03 }}.</ref>{{failed verification|date=July 2012}}<!-- Linked source mentions none of this. --> Indeed, the sudden historical change which occurred, with its startling new degree of musical expressiveness, can be likened to the introduction of [[perspective (graphical)|perspective]] in painting, and it is useful to consider that the changes to music in the period of the {{lang|la|ars nova}} were contemporary with the great early [[Renaissance]] revolutions in painting and literature.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ars Nova Music Style |url=http://novashreds.com/ars-nova-music-style/ |website=novashreds.com |access-date=25 August 2019}}</ref>

The most famous practitioner of the new musical style was [[Guillaume de Machaut]], who also had a distinguished career as a canon at Reims Cathedral and as a poet. The ars-nova style is evident in his considerable body of motets, [[lai (poetic form)|lai]]s, [[virelai]]s, [[rondeau (forme fixe)|rondeaux]] and [[ballade (forme fixe)|ballades]].<ref name="LCS Productions">{{cite web |title=The Music of Guillaume de Machaut |url=http://www.lcsproductions.net/MusicHistory/MusHistRev/Articles/MachautMusic.html |website=LCS Productions |access-date=25 August 2019}}</ref>

Towards the end of the fourteenth century, a new stylistic school of composers and poets centered in [[Avignon]] in southern France developed; the highly mannered style of this period is often called the {{lang|la|[[ars subtilior]]}}, although some scholars have chosen to consider it a late development of the {{lang|la|ars nova}} rather than separating it into a separate school.  This strange but interesting repertory of music, limited in geographical distribution (southern France, [[Aragon]] and later [[Cyprus]]), and clearly intended for performance by specialists for an audience of connoisseurs, is like an "end note" to the entire Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Plumley |first1=Yolanda |title=A More Subtle Art? Six Ars Subtilior Recordings |journal=Early Music |date=August 1998 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=499–502|doi=10.1093/earlyj/XXVI.3.499 }}</ref>

== List of composers ==

{| class = "wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+ Composers of the {{lang|la|ars nova}} style
! scope="col" |Name
! scope="col" |Lifetime
! scope="col" |Works that survive
! scope="col" class="unsortable"|{{Abbr|Ref(s)|Reference(s)}}
|-
| [[Philippe de Vitry]]
| 1291–1361
| [[Philippe de Vitry#Works|Many works]]
| <ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Bent |first=Margaret |author-link=Margaret Bent |others=Revised by Andrew Wathey |editor1-first=Andrew |editor1-last=Wathey |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Vitry, Philippe de |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |access-date=7 October 2020 |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.29535 |isbn=9781561592630 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000029535 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>
|-
| [[Jehan de Lescurel]]
| {{fl|early 14th century}}
| Many [[Ballade (forme fixe)|ballades]] and [[Rondeau (forme fixe)|rondeaus]]; two "Diz entez"
| <ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=:de:Wulf Arlt |author=Arlt, Wulf |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Jehannot de l'Escurel |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |access-date=10 October 2020 |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.14242 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000014242 |ref={{sfnRef|Arlt|2001}} }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>
|-
| [[Guillaume de Machaut]]
| {{circa|1300}} – 1377
| [[List of compositions by Guillaume de Machaut|Substantial amount in various forms]]

: Notably ''[[Messe de Nostre Dame]]'', ''Ma fin est mon commencement'' and ''Rose, liz, printemps, verdure''

| <ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=:de:Wulf Arlt |author=Arlt, Wulf |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Machaut [Machau, Machault], Guillaume de |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |access-date=10 October 2020 |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.51865 |isbn=9781561592630 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051865 |ref={{sfnRef|Arlt|2001}} }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>
|-
| [[P. des Molins]]
| {{fl|mid 14th century}}
| The [[Ballade (forme fixe)|ballade]] ''De ce que fol pensé'' and the [[Rondeau (forme fixe)|rondeau]] ''Amis, tout dous vis''
| <ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Reaney |first=Gilbert |author-link=Gilbert Reaney |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Molins, P(ierre) des |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |access-date=10 October 2020 |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.18887 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000018887 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>
|-
| [[Jehan Vaillant]]
| {{fl|1360–1390}}
| Three [[Rondeau (forme fixe)|rondeau]] a [[Ballade (forme fixe)|ballades]] and [[virelai]]

: Notably ''Par maintes foys''

| <ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Günther |first=Ursula |author-link=Ursula Günther |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Vaillant, Jehan |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |access-date=10 October 2020 |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.28894 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000028894 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>
|-
| [[Grimace (composer)|Grimace]]
| {{fl|mid-to-late 14th century}}
| Three [[Ballade (forme fixe)|ballades]], a [[virelai]] and [[Rondeau (forme fixe)|rondeau]]

: Notably ''A l'arme A l'arme'' and ''Se Zephirus/Se Jupiter''

| <ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Günther |first=Ursula |author-link=Ursula Günther |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Grimace |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |access-date=10 October 2020 |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.11784 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000011784 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>
|-
| [[F. Andrieu]]
| {{fl|late 14th century}}
| The (double) [[Ballade (forme fixe)|ballade]] [[F. Andrieu#Music|''Armes amours'']]
| <ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Reaney |first=Gilbert |author-link=Gilbert Reaney |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Andrieu, F. |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |access-date=10 October 2020 |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.00904 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000000904 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>
|-
| {{anchor|Briquet}}Briquet
| {{fl|early 15th century}}
| The [[Rondeau (forme fixe)|rondeau]] ''Ma seule amour et ma belle maistresse''
| <ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Fallows |first=David |author-link=David Fallows |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Briquet |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |access-date=10 October 2020 |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04004 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000004004 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>
|}

== Discography ==

* ''Chants du XIV<sup>ème</sup> siècle''. Mora Vocis Ensemble. France: Mandala, 1999. CD recording MAN 4946.
* ''Denkmäler alter Musik aus dem Codex Reina (14./15. Jh.)''. Syntagma Musicum (Kees Otten, dir.). Das Alte Werk. [N.p.]: Telefunken, 1979. LP recording 6.42357.
* ''Domna''. Esther Lamandier, voice, harp, and portative organ. Paris: Alienor, 1987. CD recording AL 1019.
* ''La fontaine amoureuse: Poetry and Music of Guillaume de Machaut''. Music for a While, with Tom Klunis, narrator. Berkeley: [[1750 Arch Records]], 1977. LP recording 1773.
* Guillaume de Machaut. ''Je, Guillaumes Dessus Nommez''. Ensemble Gilles Binchois (Dominique Vellard, dir.). [N.p.]: Cantus, 2003. CD recording 9804.
* Guillaume de Machaut. ''La Messe de Nostre Dame und Motetten''. James Bowman, Tom Sutcliffe, countertenors; Capella Antiqua München (Konrad Ruhland, dir.). Das Alte Werk. Hamburg: Telefunken, 1970. LP recording 6.41125 AS.
* Guillaume de Machaut. ''La messe de Nostre Dame; Le voir dit''. Oxford Camerata (Jeremy Summerly, dir.). Hong Kong: Naxos, 2004. CD recording 8553833.
* Guillaume de Machaut. ''Messe de Notre Dame''. [[Ensemble Organum]] ([[Marcel Pérès]], dir.). Arles: Harmonia Mundi, 1997. CD recording 901590.
* Guillaume de Machaut. ''Messe de Notre Dame; Le lai de la fonteinne; Ma fin est mon commencement''. [[Hilliard Ensemble]] ([[Paul Hillier]], dir.). London: Hyperion, 1989.
* Guillaume de Machaut. ''Motets''. [[Hilliard Ensemble]]. Munich: ECM Records, 2004.
* ''Philippe De Vitry and the Ars Nova—Motets''. Orlando Consort. Wotton-Under-Edge, Glos., England: Amon Ra, 1990. CD recording CD-SAR 49.
* Philippe de Vitry. ''Motets & Chansons''. [[Sequentia (music group)|Sequentia]] ([[Benjamin Bagby]] and Barbara Thornton, dir.) Freiburg: Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, 1991. CD recording 77095-2-RC.
* ''Roman de Fauvel''. Jean Bollery (speaker), Studio der Frühen Musik (Thomas Binkley, dir.). Reflexe: Stationen europäischer Musik. Cologne: EMI, 1972. LP recording 1C 063-30 103.
* ''Le roman de Fauvel''. Anne Azéma (soprano, narration), Dominique Visse (countertenor, narration), Boston Camerata and Ensemble Project Ars Nova ([[Joel Cohen (musician)|Joel Cohen]], dir.). France: Erato, 1995. CD recording 4509-96392-2.
* ''The Service of Venus and Mars: Music for the Knights of the Garter, 1340–1440''. [[Gothic Voices]] ([[Christopher Page]], dir.). London: Hyperion, 1987. CD recording CDA 66238.
* ''The Spirit of England and France I: Music of the Late Middle Ages for Court and Church''. Gothic Voices (Christopher Page, dir.). London: Hyperion Records, 1994. CD recording CDA66739.
* ''The Study of Love: French Songs and Motets of the 14th Century''. Gothic Voices (Christopher Page, dir.). London: Hyperion Records, 1992. CD recording CDA66619.

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==

* Earp, Lawrence (1995). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=4qFY1jpF2JAC&q=Ars+nova&pg=PR7 Ars nova]". In ''Medieval France: An Encyclopedia'', edited by William W. Kibler, Grover A. Zinn, Lawrence Earp, and John Bell Henneman, Jr., 72–73. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 932; Garland Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages 2. New York: Garland Publishers. {{ISBN|978-0-8240-4444-2}}.
* Schrade, Leo (1956). "Philippe de Vitry: Some New Discoveries". ''The Musical Quarterly'' 42, no. 3 (July): 330–54.

== Further reading ==

* {{cite journal |author-link=:de:Wulf Arlt |author=Arlt, Wulf |date=1973 |title=The Development of French Secular Music during the Fourteenth Century |journal=[[American Institute of Musicology#Musica Disciplina|Musica Disciplina]] |volume=27 |pages=41–59 |jstor=20532157 |ref={{sfnRef|Arlt|1973}} }}
* {{author missing|date=June 2008}} (1980). "Ars nova". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', edited by Stanley Sadie. 20 vols. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd.  {{ISBN|1-56159-174-2}}.
* Fuller, Sarah (1985–86). "A Phantom Treatise of the Fourteenth Century? The ''Ars Nova''". ''The Journal of Musicology'' 4, no. 1 (Winter): 23–50.
* Gleason, Harold, and Warren Becker (1986). ''Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance''. Music Literature Outlines Series 1. Bloomington, Indiana: Frangipani Press.  {{ISBN|0-89917-034-X}}.
* {{cite book |last=Hoppin |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Hoppin |year=1978 |title=Medieval Music |series=The Norton Introduction to Music History |edition=1st |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |location=New York, New York |isbn=978-0-393-09090-1 }}
* Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel (1990). "Ars Antiqua—Ars Nova—Ars Subtilior". In ''Antiquity and the Middle Ages: From Ancient Greece to the 15th Century'', edited by James McKinnon, 218–40. Man and Music. London: Macmillan Publishers. {{ISBN|0-333-51040-2}} (cased); {{ISBN|0-333-53004-7}} (pbk).
* {{cite journal |last=Leech-Wilkinson |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Leech-Wilkinson |year=1995 |title=The Emergence of ars nova |journal=[[The Journal of Musicology]] |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=285–317 |jstor=764132 |doi=10.2307/764132 }}
* {{cite book |last=Wilkins |first=Nigel |year=1979 |title=Music in the age of Chaucer |publisher=[[D.S. Brewer]] |location=Cambridge, England |isbn=978-0-85991-052-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/musicinageofchau0000wilk/mode/2up }}
* Philippe de Vitry, ARS NOVA (1320) French: http://centrebombe.org/livre/Ars.Nova.html
* Snellings, Dirk (2003). "[https://web.archive.org/web/20111002094045/http://www.capilla.be/podcast/FoiDirkSnellings.pdf Ars Nova and Trecento Music in 14th Century Europe]" (retrieved on 2008-06-14), translated by Stratton Bull, 12. CD Booklet CAPI 2003.

{{Ars nova|state=open}}

{{Medieval music}}

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