A presentation by students in Music Appreciation, Spring 2010.

1. Guillaume de Machaut

3. From: The Enjoyment of Music • The Enjoyment of Music pg. 80 • The music of the French Ars nova is more refined and complex than music of the Ars antiqua (old art), which it displaced. • Writers such as Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Chaucer were turning to human subjects: painters soon discovered the beauty of nature and the attractiveness of the human form. • Composers turned increasingly from religious to secular themes. The Ars nova ushered in developments in rhythm, meter, harmony, and counterpoint that transformed the art of music • The later 14th century was a period during which the French style dominated secular composition throughout Europe. It was modified to reflect local tastes in Italy and England, but remained largely French in inspiration for some decades. However, Italian composers continued to develop a more native idiom, combining French Ars Nova ideas with indigenous genres