Ars antiqua is a term which refers to the music of Europe of the late Middle Ages between approximately 1170 and 1310, covering the period of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the subsequent years which saw the early development of the motet. Usually the term is restricted to sacred music, excluding the secular song of the troubadors and trouvères; however sometimes the term is used more loosely to mean all European music of the thirteenth century and slightly before. The term ars antiqua is used in opposition to ars nova, which refers to the period of musical activity after about 1310. Europe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Events December 29: Assassination of Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury, in Canterbury cathedral Eleanor of Aquitaine leaves the court of Henry II because of a string of infidelities. ... Events Abulfeda becomes governor of Hama. ... The group of composers working at or near the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1170 to 1250, along with the music they produced, is referred to as the Notre Dame school, or the Notre Dame School of Polyphony. ... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of several independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ... A troubador (or troubadour) was a composer and performer of songs in particular styles during the Middle Ages in Europe. ... Trouvère is the Northern French (langue doïl) version of troubador (langue doc), and refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadors but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France. ... The ars nova was a stylistic period in music of the late Middle Ages, centered in France, which encompassed the period from the publication of the Roman de Fauvel (1310 and 1314) until the death of Machaut (1377). ... Events Abulfeda becomes governor of Hama. ...

Almost all composers of the ars antiqua are anonymous. Léonin (fl. late 12th century) and Pérotin (fl. c.1180 – c.1220) were the two composers known by name from the Notre Dame school; in the subsequent period, Petrus de Cruce, a composer of motets, is one of the few whose name has been preserved. Léonin (fl. ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ... Pérotin was a European composer, believed to be French, who lived around the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century. ... Events April 13 - Frederick Barbarossa issues the Gelnhausen Charter November 18 - France Emperor Antoku succeds Emperor Takakura as emperor of Japan Afonso I of Portugal is taken prisoner by Ferdinand II of Leon Artois is annexed by France Prince Mochihito amasses a large army and instigates the Genpei War between... Centuries: 12th century - 13th century - 14th century Decades: 1170s 1180s 1190s 1200s 1210s - 1220s - 1230s 1240s 1250s 1260s 1270s Years: 1215 1216 1217 1218 1219 - 1220 - 1221 1222 1223 1224 1225 See also: 1220 state leaders The world in 1220 Middle Ages in Europe Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) Events Mongols... Petrus de Cruce (Pierre de la Croix) was active as a cleric, composer and theorist in the late part of the 13th century. ...

In music theory the ars antiqua period saw several advances over previous practice, most of them in conception and notation of rhythm. The most famous music theorist of the first half of the 13th century, Johannes de Garlandia, was the author of the De mensurabili musica (about 1240), the treatise which defined and most completely elucidated the rhythmic modes. A German theorist of a slightly later period, Franco of Cologne, was the first to describe a system of notation in which differently shaped notes have entirely different rhythmic values (in the Ars Cantus Mensurabilis of approximately 1260), an innovation which had a massive impact on the subsequent history of European music. Most of the surviving notated music of the 13th century uses the rhythmic modes as defined by Garlandia. Music theory is the name for a branch of study that includes many different methods for analyzing, classifying, and composing music and the elements of music. ... Johannes de Garlandia (Johannes Gallicus) (fl. ... In medieval music, the rhythmic modes were patterns of long and short durations (or rhythms) imposed on written notes which otherwise appeared to be identical. ... Franco of Cologne (fl. ... Events End of the reign of Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan Emperor Kameyama ascends to the throne of Japan September 3 - Mongols defeated by Mameluks at Battle of Ain Jalut Samogatians and Curonians defeats Teutonic knights in Battle of Durbe Births Maximus Planudes, Byzantine grammarian and theologian Deaths Monarchs/Presidents...

The ars antiqua is sometimes divided into two rough periods, known as the early Gothic and the high Gothic. The early Gothic includes the French music composed in the Notre Dame school up until about 1260, and the high Gothic all the music between then and about 1310 or 1320, the conventional beginning of the ars nova. The forms of organum and conductus reached their peak development in the early Gothic, and began to decline in the high Gothic, being replaced by the motet. The Western (Royal) Portal at Chartres Cathedral ( 1145). ... Events January 20 - Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland April 6 - The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath. ... This article is about a style of music. ... In medieval music, conductus is a type of liturgical vocal composition for one or more voices. ...

Though the style of the ars antiqua went out of fashion rather suddenly in the first two decades of the fourteenth century, it had a late defender in Jacques of Liège, who wrote a violent attack on the "irreverent and corrupt" ars nova in his Speculum Musicae (c.1320), vigorously defending the old style in a manner suggestive of any number of music critics from the Middle Ages to the present day. To Jacques, the ars antiqua was the musica modesta, and the ars nova was a musica lasciva—a kind of music which he considered to be indulgent, capricious, immodest, and sensual. Events January 20 - Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland April 6 - The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath. ...

References and further reading

• Article "ars antiqua", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742
• Richard H. Hoppin, Medieval Music. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1978. ISBN 0393090906
• Harold Gleason and Warren Becker, Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Music Literature Outlines Series I). Bloomington, Indiana. Frangipani Press, 1986. ISBN 089917034X
• Franco of Cologne, Ars cantus mensurabilis, tr. Oliver Strunck, in Source Readings in Music History. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1950.