Ars nova

Ars nova was a 14th-century musical style that expanded rhythmic notation and enabled more complex rhythms, especially in French music.

Mensural notation: A system of musical notation that indicated note durations through relationships among note shapes and context. Ars nova composers used it to represent rhythmic distinctions unavailable in earlier notation.
Ars nova notation: The 14th-century innovations in mensural notation that distinguished additional note values and rhythmic divisions. It made the style’s new rhythmic possibilities legible in written music.
Ars antiqua: A label for earlier medieval European polyphonic practices, especially those associated with the 12th and 13th centuries. Its rhythmic conventions provide the historical contrast for Ars nova’s expanded notation.
Philippe de Vitry motets: Motets attributed to Philippe de Vitry, notable for intricate rhythmic organization and isorhythmic structures. They exemplify the learned polyphonic writing associated with early French Ars nova.
Mensuration: The system governing how note values divide into smaller and larger durations in mensural music. Ars nova notation clarified divisions such as two or three notes within a beat.
Minim: A short note value introduced into mensural notation during the 14th century. The minim gave composers a smaller unit for articulating rapid rhythmic detail.
Ars subtilior: A late 14th-century style of exceptionally intricate rhythm and notation, developed after Ars nova. It pushed Ars nova’s rhythmic and notational experimentation toward greater intricacy.
Guillaume de Machaut: A 14th-century French poet and composer whose surviving works span motets, songs, and a complete mass setting. His music is the most extensive and influential surviving body of French Ars nova composition.
Tempus: In mensural notation, the relationship determining whether a breve divides into two or three semibreves. Ars nova notation made duple tempus more readily available alongside triple division.
Syncopation: The placement of musical accents or events in positions that disrupt an expected beat or grouping. Ars nova rhythms used displaced accents to create rhythmic tension and complexity.

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