The End of the Ars Nova in Italy. The San Lorenzo Palimpsest and Related Repertories, eds. Antonio Calvia, Stefano Campagnolo, Andreas Janke, Maria Sofia Lannutti, John Nádas, Firenze 2020

Book Review of: The End of the Ars Nova in Italy. The San Lorenzo Palimpsest and Related Repertories, eds. Antonio Calvia, Stefano Campagnolo, Andreas Janke, Maria Sofia Lannutti, John Nádas, Firenze 2020

Wiedergeburt der 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.

Computer-aided Analysis of Sonority in the French Motet Repertory, ca. 1300–1350

This article analyzes the distribution of three- and four-voice vertical sonorities in a repertoire of French ars antiqua and ars nova motets. Rather than selecting the subjectively important sonorities within a piece—an effort that would rely on the analyst’s judgment of the overarching contrapuntal goals—this study uses computational musicological methods to analyze and categorize the distribution of sonorities across individual motets and groups of motets that occur at regular time intervals across the course of the compositions. This study offers some preliminary observations and conclusions about sonority usage in the late medieval French motet repertoire.

The non-Italian Ars Nova: how to read the madrigal Povero zappator by Lorenzo da Firenze

The label ‘Ars Nova’ is not easily applicable to Italian 14th-century music, since its main characteristics, such as isorhythm, diminution, pre-existing tenors, and so on, are practically absent, with a few exceptions, from Italian musical compositions, even Italian motets. Yet, isorhythm and diminution were used in the madrigal Povero zappator by Lorenzo da Firenze. What was the reason for using these devices just in this madrigal, whose poetic text about a lone sailor in a tempestuous sea at first glance seems to be a poem typical of Trecento madrigals? This article contends that this text, which so far has attracted little scholarly attention, is derived from Petrarch’s canzone Ne la stagion che ’l ciel rapido inchina. This provides not only a clue to understanding Lorenzo’s intentions, but, in a larger perspective, it also discloses the perception by Italian Trecento musicians of the musical thinking of their transalpine colleagues.