Church music was not simply about the music—its text was paramount. And having two-, three-, or four-voiced works made a variety of texts possible as well. Remember Notker Balbulus’s idea of the sequence, or trope? The idea of adding new words was spread to organum voices, and words were added to the duplum, triplum, and (if there were one) quadruplum voices. The cantus firmus still had its original Latin, but the other voices might be in Latin or French. Further, one line might have a sacred text and another a secular text. These multi-texted offerings became known as motets, from […]

French music at around 1300 became known as ars nova musicae – the art of the new music The wheel of history turned rather quickly from the thirteenth to the fourteenth century. Several major events turned the fourteenth century into a more cynical era. Life itself, cheapened by the slaughter and political upheaval of the Hundred Years’ War, was even more uncertain thanks to the terrifying pandemic of the Black Death. And in the daily face of death and destruction, even belief in life everlasting was badly shaken by the Babylonian Captivity and Great Schism. Both earthly and heavenly kingdoms […]