# Ars Nova and Ars Subtilior in Religious Music



## Rhombic

Music, especially that of Baroque and pre-Baroque eras, has been strongly associated to religion. In fact, much of the 14th and 15th Century compositions are either religiously functional or functionally religious. Before plunging into the Renaissance, music had a few different innovative approaches.
The first one is Ars Nova, as opposed to the "old" method to compose music.
Ars Subtilior came up a bit later and virtually disappeared once the Renaissance began. Its intricate compositional devices, especially those related to polyphony, make it quite difficult for it to accommodate vocal works, but it definitely had some sort of societal niche related to religion that would be exploited by composers.
Gregorian chants by themselves, as monophonic music, were already phased out and could be regarded as very old, but the general modal compositional approach is directly related to the Gregorian scales. It is evident that the musical style of the 15th Century is already very different to that of the 12th Century (and before), so the texts may be more difficult to understand with the polyphony and the increasing complexity of music itself.
Do you have opinions on how Ars Subtilior and/or Ars Nova differ in relation to how they are used in religious contexts or how religion appears in the compositions? Do you consider that Renaissance is a take-back (in a religious sense) in the functionality of vocal music?


----------



## EdwardBast

The Ars Subtilior was a style that flourished in the papal court at Avignon during the schism. It had a short lifespan of less than half a century. All of the music I know from this period is secular, songs in the traditional formes fixes (rondeau, ballade, virelai). I don't think the style was appropriate for sacred music. The subtlety alluded to is primarily in rhythm and rhythmic notation, which attained a peak of complexity not reached again until the mid-20th century.


----------



## regenmusic

I'm no expert on Medieval music, but the research I've done into it found a huge assortment
of different styles. Much of it seemed secular. I think the view of it that many have is that
it basically is often a type of acapella style, with barely any accompaniment but an organ, but I 
found the opposite. Some of it has percussion and sounds like rock.

Codex Rossi XIV century_ Ballata - Amor Mi Fa Cantar A La Francesca






Here is a favorite. I'm not sure what style this would be in.
It may be a little later than Medieval, which is usually said
to end in 1500. I wonder if music was this sweet in the Medieval
times or moreso in the Renaissance?

Heinrick Finck (1444-1527) Wer ich eyn falck - Invicto regi jubilo


----------



## EdwardBast

regenmusic said:


> I'm no expert on Medieval music, but the research I've done into it found a huge assortment
> of different styles. Much of it seemed secular. I think the view of it that many have is that
> it basically is often a type of acapella style, with barely any accompaniment but an organ, but I
> found the opposite. Some of it has percussion and sounds like rock.


The most common way of performing medieval secular music in France and Italy would have been with solo voice and instrumental accompaniment - lute, viols, or winds like shawms and sackbuts. But this was probably quite flexible; no particular instruments specified, and if one only had singers, secular songs could well have been performed a capella.

Performance practice in some of this music is pretty loose and incompletely understood, so modern performers often make suppositions to fill in the blanks. We know drums and such existed, but no one knows that drums and percussion would actually have been used for the particular ballata you posted. There was certainly no indication in the score to use them, but who is to say whether it is appropriate or not?


----------



## Mandryka

One question I've never been clear about is whether Johannes Ciconia is really writing in Ars Subtilior style, whether it has the complexity which seems a hallmark of this style.

Anyway, Ciconia is a high point of something, even if it's not Ars Subtilior.


----------

