Ars nova (Music in Medieval Europe)

The French polyphonic tradition of the fourteenth century blossomed earlier than the Italian, perhaps because of its long tradition of polyphony in previous centuries, many sources of which were being copied in the early 1300s. The contemporary view that a 'new art' was being forged was formed by the theorists of the time such as Philippe de Vitry. He, along with Johannes de Muris, and the more conservative Jacques de Liege, popularized the idea of an ars nova, thereby being among the first musical thinkers to establish the music of the present as a clean break from that of the past.Contradictions and gaps in understanding abound in the ars nova of the fourteenth century (a period we usually expand until approximately 1420 when new ideas of song and Mass composition dominate post-Schism Europe), although these are well met by the ingenuity of the approaches and solutions found by scholars. The 27 articles brought together in this volume reflect a broad methodological and chronological span of analysis on the ars nova.