Music History: Ars Nova, Madrigal, and Baroque Music
Ars Nova
New Techniques and Innovations
Ars Nova, meaning “new things,” refers to the academic techniques emphasizing technical skill, development, innovation, and mastery of musical complexity. This era saw a flourishing of secular art, including genres like the motet and French chanson, while liturgical music maintained its central position. Innovations included shorter note values (semibreve and minim), barlines, and metrical systems (tempus perfectum). Rhythmic changes allowed composers to switch between tertiary and binary meters, and syncopation became more common.
Motets and Chansons
Composers focused on the motet and polyphonic, profane French chanson (cantilena). The motet featured isorhythm, a technique where the tenor was organized according to specific rhythmic (talea) and melodic (color) patterns. Motet texts were often didactic, sometimes political and polemical. Philippe de Vitry was a key composer of isorhythmic motets.
Guillaume de Machaut mastered the French chanson with his treble-dominated style. The tenor moved slowly, providing a harmonic foundation, while the upper voice was ornamented, flexible, varied, and often syncopated. Three formes fixes (fixed forms) of chanson existed: Virelai, Ballade, and Rondeau.
Transition to Renaissance
Dufay’s generation used three voices and formes fixes, avoiding harsh dissonance. Chansons evolved in their treatment of text, moving towards four voices and equality among them using imitation techniques. The relationship between text and music became increasingly important.
Italian Madrigal
Birth and Characteristics
The 16th-century Italian Madrigal emerged in the 1520s within the de Medici family circles in Florence. It featured contrasts between homophony and polyphony, with a close link between text and music. Madrigals were composed without repetitive structures, becoming a field of experimentation where extreme emotions were expressed through extreme musical techniques. Gesualdo’s madrigals, for example, conveyed strong feelings like sorrow and pain.
Late Renaissance and Transition to Baroque
Late Renaissance music aimed to affect the listener and reinforce the poetry. This expressive ideal became central to the Baroque period. Monodic and polyphonic madrigals focused on the affective expression of the text. Monteverdi’s monodic and concertato madrigals exemplify the transition from Renaissance to Baroque, integrating elements like basso continuo, recitation style, accompanied monody, the concertato principle, and solo instruments.
Baroque Music
Basso Continuo and Accompanied Monody
A defining feature of Baroque music is the basso continuo—an independent instrumental bass line. Upper voices sustained the melody, lower voices provided harmonic support, and middle voices formed a harmonic fabric. The bass line was written with figured bass, indicating chords for the continuo player (typically a melodic instrument like cello or bassoon and a chordal instrument like harpsichord or organ). Basso continuo is linked to accompanied monody—a single melody with harmonic accompaniment.
Tonal System and Recitative Style
The tonal system emerged from vertical, harmonic thinking, made explicit by accompanied monody and basso continuo. Recitative style emphasized the poetic text, with the rhythm of the text determining the rhythm of the sung part. The vocal range was generally limited, close to the speaking voice.
Concertato Style and Stile Antico/Moderno
Concertato style involved musical dialogue between two or more voices or groups, usually in alternation, over a basso continuo. Two stylistic tendencies existed: stile antico (old style) and stile moderno (modern style). Claudio Monteverdi used both. Stile antico was common in religious music, while stile moderno was preferred for secular genres like the monodic madrigal and opera.