AVIGNON, SYMBOLIC SCORES,

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CHAPTER 13

• AVIGNON, SYMBOLIC SCORES,
• AND THE ARS SUBTILIOR

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PAPAL AVIGNON

• For much of the Middle Ages the papacy did not
  reside in Rome but moved from city to city.
  During most of the fourteenth century it was
  resident in Avignon, a city in southern France,
  which swelled, after the arrival of the papacy,
  from roughly 5,000 to 120,000 souls. The period
  in which the popes resided in Avignon (1309-1403)
  is called the Babylonian Captivity, for the
  streets of Avignon were deemed as sinful as those
  of ancient Babylon. In 1378 two popes were
  elected, one French the other Italian, one
  choosing to reside in Avginon, the other in Rome.
  This division in church authority is called the
  Great Western Schism (1378-1417).

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The Palace of the Popes

• The Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France, which
  contemporaries called the most beautiful and
  most fortified house in the world. Its
  fortress-like façade correctly suggests that the
  medieval papacy was often under siege.

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The chapel built between 1345 and 1352 by Pope
Clement VI and thus called the Clementine Chapel

• During this time the word cappella (chapel), came
  to mean not only a building consecrated for
  religious worship, but also the organized group
  of highly trained musicians who sang at these
  services.

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BAUDE CORDIER AND SYMBOLIC SCORES

• Cordier in French means String Man, and it
  apparently served as the professional nickname of
  Baude Fresnel (c1365-1398), a harper employed by
  Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy. In 1391 and
  1395 Cordier traveled with Duke Philip to
  Avignon. His three-voice rondeau Tout par compas
  suy composés (All with a compass am I composed)
  is a symbolic score because the layout of the
  notation suggests the meaning of the piecethat
  this is a circular canon that can go around
  endlessly, or at least through all four stanzas
  of the text. Finally, Cordiers rondeau is full
  of proportions (time signatures written as
  fractions) that, when applied to a single voice
  create complex polymeter (two or more meters
  sounding simultaneously).

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Baude Cordiers Tout par compas suy composés
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PHILIPPUS DE CASERTA THE ARS SUBTILIOR

• Philipppus de Caserta was an Italian composer
  working in Avignon during the reign of Pope
  Clement VII (1378-1394). His music, too, makes
  use of the sincopa (syncopation), as well as
  proportions and polymeters, and it is accordingly
  very complex rhythmically. This sort of
  rhythmically difficult music has been dubbed the
  Ars subtilior (the more subtle art)a style of
  music radiating out from Avignon to other parts
  of southern France and into northern Italy during
  the late fourteenth century.

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• A portion of Casertas Par les bon Gedeons (By
  the Good Gideon) showing complex syncopation that
  extends over many bars.

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Passages from an Ars subtilior composition
showing the use of sincopa (syncopation) and
proportions