Wiedergeburt der Ars subtilior?

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-214
Author(s):  
Hannes Schütz
Keyword(s):  
Gyorgy Ligeti ◽  
Ars Nova ◽  
Ars Subtilior

Kennzeichnend für die Ars subtilior im späten 14. Jahrhundert sind die im Vergleich zur Ars nova größere Bandbreite an verschiedenen Notenwerten, die Gleichzeitigkeit verschiedener Mensuren in den einzelnen Stimmen und die damit in engem Zusammenhang stehende manierierte Notation. In der rhythmischen Konstruktion der Étude pour piano Nr. 2 - <Cordes Vides> von György Ligeti entsteht durch die vielfältige Kombination einfacher Konfliktrhythhmen ein hohes Maß an Komplexität, wobei die Möglichkeiten einer Rezeption der Techniken der Ars subtilior sichtbar werden. Die Notierung verschiedener Mensuren in den beiden Händen im traditionellen Notationssystem erlaubt es, die Gleichzeitigkeit verschiedener Geschwindig-keitsschichten für einen einzelnen Interpreten spielbar zu machen.

Old, New, and Newer Still in Book 7 of the Speculum musice

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Zayaruznaya
Keyword(s):  
Long Span ◽  
Ars Nova ◽  
Ars Subtilior

In chapter 27 of the last book of his Speculum musice, Jacobus faults an unnamed theorist for misattributing some ars nova doctrine to the ars antiqua; he then excuses the offense by explaining that the oldest ars nova theory might already seem old to current practitioners. This passage and several others suggest that Jacobus was writing at a time when the ars nova was hardly new. And yet the earliest ars nova theory dates from 1319, while the completion of the Speculum musice is often placed in the mid-1320s or ca. 1330. Since the Speculum cites a range of ars nova treatises that in turn cite a repertoire of motets, Jacobus's comments serve as a terminus ante quem for the ars nova writ large. This study reconsiders the date of completion for the last, seventh book of the Speculum musice. It is clear that Jacobus was older than the moderni and finished his treatise as an old man, but he also reveals that he wrote over a long span of time and revised his work repeatedly. His notational proclivities are those of a musician who came of age in a post-Franconian idiom prevalent until ca. 1320, but the latest notational developments he mentions include semiminims, dragmas, and even note shapes otherwise associated with the so-called ars subtilior. In light of this, I suggest that the Speculum musice could have been finished as late as the 1350s by an author in his mid- to late seventies. This redating, in turn, invites broad reconsideration of the transition between ars antiqua and ars nova.

scholarly journals The Legacy of the “Cyprus Codex” (MS. Torino J.II.9): Creating New Technologies and Compositions through a Collaborative Process

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-82
Author(s):  
Evis Sammoutis ◽  
Peter Sheppard Skaerved ◽  
Timothy Hsu
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Music Technology ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Collaborative Process ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Ars Nova ◽  
Ars Subtilior

MS. J.II.9 (also known as the “Cyprus Codex”) is an anonymous Codex composed in the court of Nicosia in the first part of the 15th century during Cyprus’s Frankish period and the Lusignan Dynasty. It is the only known Codex of Western music in the region and one of the few exclusively French codices known from that time. Its style lies in the threshold between Ars Nova and Ars Subtilior with unique features. Composer Evis Sammoutis, violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Music technology professor Timothy Hsu have built a collaboration inspired by the legacy of MS. J.II.9. This resulted in the creation of new bows and techniques of performing the violin and the creation of new compositions based both on the material from MS. J.II.9 and technological advancements.

AN ‘EPISODE IN THE SOUTH’? ARS SUBTILIOR AND THE PATRONAGE OF FRENCH PRINCES

2003 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 103-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Plumley
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
The South ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Ars Nova ◽  
Ars Subtilior

Scholars have long been aware of the intriguing fact that the late fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century French song repertory survives almost exclusively in non-French sources. Most of the principal collections of chansons copied between c.1380 and 1420 – that is, in the period corresponding roughly to the reign of Charles VI, sources like PR, Pit, ModA and FP – derive from Italy; further witness to the circulation of this repertory south of the Alps is found in additional, fragmentary sources, such as Lu, SL and GR. In comparison, the number of French songs preserved in manuscripts of northern provenance is remarkably slight. Moreover, those works that do survive in such sources (and these are mostly Flemish fragments) are generally simple works in classic Ars nova style; hardly any songs from the repertory we associate with Ars subtilior feature in these collections at all.

Creating with Constraints

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Hasegawa
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Georges Perec ◽  
Gyorgy Ligeti ◽  
Raymond Queneau ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
Musical Creativity ◽  
Process Constraints

Musicians have long framed their creative activity within constraints, whether imposed externally or consciously chosen. As noted by Leonard Meyer, any style can be viewed as an ensemble of constraints, requiring the features of the artwork to conform with accepted norms. Such received stylistic constraints may be complemented by additional, voluntary limitations: for example, using only a limited palette of pitches or sounds, setting rules to govern repetition or transformation, controlling the formal layout and proportions of the work, or limiting the variety of operations involved in its creation. This chapter proposes a fourfold classification of the limits most often encountered in music creation into material (absolute and relative), formal, style/genre, and process constraints. The role of constraints as a spur and guide to musical creativity is explored in the domains of composition, improvisation, performance, and even listening, with examples drawn from contemporary composers including György Ligeti, George Aperghis, and James Tenney. Such musical constraints are comparable to self-imposed limitations in other art forms, from film (the Dogme 95 Manifesto) and visual art (Robert Morris’s Blind Time Drawings) to the writings of authors associated with the Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle) such as Georges Perec and Raymond Queneau.

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