The document provides an overview of the historical development of polyphony in Western music from the 9th to 14th centuries. It describes early styles such as organum and conductus, and the emergence of polyphonic genres like the motet and ars nova under composers such as Perotin and Machaut. Key developments included the growing independence of voice parts, expanded use of rhythmic modes and isorhythm, and the rise of secular topics in motets and songs in the vernacular.
61. ROMAN DE FAUVEL (STORY OF FAUVEL) is an allegorical poem that captures the spirit of the era as it satirizes corrupt politicians and church officials.
The church of San Martín de Frómista, Spain, which lies on the pilgrims ’ route to Santiago de Compostela, dates from about the middle of the eleventh century and is a fine example of the Romanesque style. (Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.)
The church of San Martín de Frómista, Spain, which lies on the pilgrims ’ route to Santiago de Compostela, dates from about the middle of the eleventh century and is a fine example of the Romanesque style. (Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.)
Part of the nave and transept of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, built about 1163–ca. 1250. Its great height and elaborate interior have parallels in the unprecedented length, intricacy, and carefully worked-out structure of the vocal music that singers collectively created to resound through its vast space. (Alamy.)
Parallel organum at the fifth below, from Musica enchiriadis
Mixed parallel and oblique organum, from Musica enchiriadis
Free organum, from Ad organum faciendum (ca. 1100)
Aquitanian (florid) organum and discant in Jubilemus, exultemus, Verse 2
Aquitanian (florid) organum and discant in Jubilemus, exultemus, Verse 4
We have no images of Leoninus or Perotinus. This illumination from an early fourteenth-century French manuscript shows a class at the University of Paris from their era. (British Library.)
Performance textures of organum duplum
First section of Viderunt omnes, in organum duplum
Discant clausula on “ do- ” of Viderunt omnes
Two substitute clausulae on “Dominus” from Viderunt omnes
Opening of the setting of Viderunt omnes in organum quadruplum. The upper three voices are in modal rhythm over a sustained tenor note. (For a transcription, see Example 3.8 and NAWM 19.) (Biblioteca Medica-Laurenziana, Florence.)
Perotinus, Viderunt omnes, opening, with repeating elements indicated by letter
Detail of the Twenty-four Elders and their instruments from the Pórtico de la Gloria, cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, ca. 1158 (compare Figure 3.7). (Bridgeman Art Library.)
Factum est salutare/Dominus
Fole acostumance/Dominus
Super te Ierusalem/Sed fulsit virginitas/Dominus
A composite of Examples 3.9, 3.10, and 3.11, all on the same tenor or cantus firmus, “Dominus”
Adam de la Halle, De ma dame vient/Dieus, comment porroie/Omnes
The Last Supper depicted under the tympanum arch of a mid-twelfth-century church in Charlieu, in the Loire district of France. The modular, multilayered structure of the arch ’ s sculptural elements is typical of Romanesque and Gothic church portals and resembles the layered texture of a medieval motet. (Alinari/Art Resource, NY.)
Giotto (ca. 1266–1337), The Wedding Procession. This fresco (painting on wet plaster) is one of a series on the life of the Virgin Mary painted around 1305 in the Chapel of the Madonna della Carità de Arena, also known as the Scrovegni Chapel after the banker Enrico Scrovegni, who built the chapel on the site of a Roman amphitheater. Mary (with halo) leads a group of virgins, while a vielle player and two brass players provide music. The large leafy branch jutting from the window is an allusion to the Virgin ’ s pregnancy. Giotto created a sense of depth by placing the figures on different planes of the picture. (Padua, Italy. Cameraphoto Arte/Art Resource, NY.)
A charivari, or noisy serenade, awakens Fauvel and Vaine Gloire after their wedding in the Roman de Fauvel (1310–1314), a poem by Gervais du Bus with many musical interpolations. Fauvel, an allegorical ass, embodies the sins represented by the letters of his name. (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MS Fr. 146.)
In this miniature from the last manuscript of Guillaume de Machaut ’ s works prepared during his lifetime (ca. 1372), the elderly Machaut is visited in his study by Love, who introduces his three children—Sweet Thoughts, Pleasure, and Hope. (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.)
Guillaume de Machaut, Messe de Nostre Dame, beginning of Christe
A miniature from the earliest manuscript of Machaut ’ s collected works (ca. 1350), showing five couples dancing in a circle. The dancer farthest to the right is singing to accompany the dance. The singer resembles Machaut as pictured in the later manuscript in Figure 4.5, at a younger age. The music under the picture is a monophonic virelai by Machaut. (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.)
A page from the richly illustrated Squarcialupi Codex, an early fifteenth-century manuscript named for its fifteenth-century owner, Antonio Squarcialupi, showing Francesco Landini wearing a laurel crown and playing a portative organ. The portrait is set inside the initial letter M of Landini ’ s madrigal Musica son (I am music). The decorative border depicts (counterclockwise from the upper left) a lute, vielle, cittern or citole, harp, psaltery, three recorders, a portative organ, and three shawms. (Biblioteca Medica-Laurenziana.)
Francesco Landini, beginning of Non avrà ma ’ pietà
Alteration at cadences
Tapestry from the Low Countries (ca. 1420) showing a man in courtly dress singing from a manuscript. He is accompanied by a woman playing a positive organ, which is portable but must be placed on a table to be played, rather than resting on a lap like the portative organ played by Landini in Figure 4.8. A boy stands behind the organ, pumping the bellows to force air through the pipes and produce the sounds. (Musée des Tapisseries, Angers, France. Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, NY.)
Philippus de Caserta ’ s En remirant vo douce pourtraiture in a manuscript from ca. 1410. The texted cantus (staves 1–4) is followed by the textless tenor (starting middle of the fourth staff) and contratenor (staves 7–9, though 8 and 9 are not visible). The red notation indicates changes from triple to duple subdivision, such as from a dotted quarter to a quarter. Changes of meter and proportion are indicated by mensuration signs—small circles or partial circles with or without dots between the staff lines. (Biblioteca Estense Universitariaa.M.5.24, fol. 35v.)
The relationship of time and prolation.
The four combinations of time and prolation with modern equivalents.
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