Editing Ars nova (section)

== Versus {{lang|la|ars antiqua}} ==

Stylistically, the music of the {{lang|la|ars nova}} differed from the preceding era in several ways. Developments in notation allowed notes to be written with greater rhythmic independence, shunning the limitations of the [[rhythmic mode]]s which prevailed in the thirteenth century; secular music acquired much of the polyphonic sophistication previously found only in sacred music; and new techniques and forms, such as [[isorhythm]] and the isorhythmic [[motet]], became prevalent. The overall aesthetic effect of these changes was to create music of greater expressiveness and variety than had been the case in the thirteenth century.<ref>[http://www.musiwall.ulg.ac.be/spip.php?page=fiche&id_article=51 Musique en Wallonie '''En un gardin''' (Old French for ''Dans un jardin'' = in a garden) see the video (in English) under the few sentences commenting on the ''fiche détaillée"''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170045/http://www.musiwall.ulg.ac.be/spip.php?page=fiche&id_article=51 |date=2016-03-03 }}.</ref>{{failed verification|date=July 2012}}<!-- Linked source mentions none of this. --> Indeed, the sudden historical change which occurred, with its startling new degree of musical expressiveness, can be likened to the introduction of [[perspective (graphical)|perspective]] in painting, and it is useful to consider that the changes to music in the period of the {{lang|la|ars nova}} were contemporary with the great early [[Renaissance]] revolutions in painting and literature.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ars Nova Music Style |url=http://novashreds.com/ars-nova-music-style/ |website=novashreds.com |access-date=25 August 2019}}</ref>

The most famous practitioner of the new musical style was [[Guillaume de Machaut]], who also had a distinguished career as a canon at Reims Cathedral and as a poet. The ars-nova style is evident in his considerable body of motets, [[lai (poetic form)|lai]]s, [[virelai]]s, [[rondeau (forme fixe)|rondeaux]] and [[ballade (forme fixe)|ballades]].<ref name="LCS Productions">{{cite web |title=The Music of Guillaume de Machaut |url=http://www.lcsproductions.net/MusicHistory/MusHistRev/Articles/MachautMusic.html |website=LCS Productions |access-date=25 August 2019}}</ref>

Towards the end of the fourteenth century, a new stylistic school of composers and poets centered in [[Avignon]] in southern France developed; the highly mannered style of this period is often called the {{lang|la|[[ars subtilior]]}}, although some scholars have chosen to consider it a late development of the {{lang|la|ars nova}} rather than separating it into a separate school.  This strange but interesting repertory of music, limited in geographical distribution (southern France, [[Aragon]] and later [[Cyprus]]), and clearly intended for performance by specialists for an audience of connoisseurs, is like an "end note" to the entire Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Plumley |first1=Yolanda |title=A More Subtle Art? Six Ars Subtilior Recordings |journal=Early Music |date=August 1998 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=499–502|doi=10.1093/earlyj/XXVI.3.499 }}</ref>