The Melody Web what each genre heard, and what it passed on

heard passed on Click or tap a node to recenter. Use a connecting line, or Influence, for the story.

Heard

Medieval polyphony style · 9th century–15th century

Ars antiqua is the umbrella’s thirteenth-century dialect: modal then Franconian measurement, the motet as a separately texted piece on a tenor, and conductus as newly composed syl…

Influence
Organum style · 9th century–1220

The thirteenth-century motet is a Notre-Dame clausula given words.

Influence
Trouvère genre · 1150–1300

The thirteenth-century motet takes trouvère song and refrain as French-texted upper voices over a chant tenor (Adam’s motets as the named hinge).

Influence
Versus genre · 1000–1200

Ars antiqua conductus takes the versus job of newly made Latin strophic song and writes it as measured polyphony with one text in all voices.

Influence

Ars antiqua

style · 1200–1320

Also called Franconian motet

Kind of Medieval polyphony

Thirteenth-century measured polyphony as later writers named the “old art”: the motet grown from Notre-Dame clausulae, plus conductus, and Franco of Cologne’s notation of short values. It is a style of medieval polyphony, not another word for organum and not yet Vitry/Machaut mensural song (Ars nova). It hears Medieval polyphony and Organum for the written-polyphony and chant-tenor jobs, Trouvère for French-texted motet voices, and Versus for the Latin conductus job. It already gives Ars nova. English rota leftover as a cousin on the listen list (Sumer is icumen in), not a Paris parent. Worcester leftover as an English dialect. Franconian notation leftover as pedagogy on this node.

Listen

  1. Plus bele que flor / Quant revient / L'autrier joer / Flos filius eius Montpellier Codex (13th century) YouTube
  2. O mitissima / Virgo / Haec dies Notre-Dame motet (13th century) YouTube
  3. On parole / A Paris / Frese nouvelle Montpellier Codex (13th century) YouTube
  4. Pucelete bele et avenant / Je languis / Domino Montpellier Codex (13th century) YouTube
  5. El mois de mai / De se debent bigami / Kyrie Bamberg Codex (13th century) YouTube
  6. Ave virgo virginum Notre-Dame conductus (13th century) YouTube
  7. Dic Christi veritas Philip the Chancellor / Notre-Dame (13th century)
  8. In seculum viellatoris Bamberg Codex (13th century)
  9. De ma dame vient / Dieus, comment porroie / Omnes Adam de la Halle (1280s) YouTube
  10. Sumer is icumen in Reading Abbey manuscript (1260) YouTube

Passed on

Ars nova style · 1310–1380

Ars nova keeps the motet’s tenor-plus-upper-voices architecture and the clerkly written habit, then changes what notation can do: duple against triple, syncopation, and a repeatin…

Influence

Medieval polyphony → Ars antiqua

form and structurerhythmperformance practicestrength: highscholarly consensus1200–1320notationpedagogyliturgy

Mechanism

Ars antiqua is the umbrella’s thirteenth-century dialect: modal then Franconian measurement, the motet as a separately texted piece on a tenor, and conductus as newly composed syllabic polyphony. Taxonomically a style of Medieval polyphony. Strength high on the child.

Evidence

Montpellier and Bamberg motet collections; Franco’s Ars cantus mensurabilis; Notre-Dame conductus books.

Debate

The name is retrospective (coined against Ars nova). It still names a real repertory and notation stage.

Mediators

community: Parisian clerks; artist: Franco of Cologne

Organum → Ars antiqua

form and structuremelodyrhythmstrength: highscholarly consensus1200–1250notationpedagogyliturgy

Mechanism

The thirteenth-century motet is a Notre-Dame clausula given words. Discant over a chant snippet (already a measured section inside organum) is copied out as a piece; the upper voice, then a third voice, receives a new Latin or French text while the tenor keeps the chant syllables. Conductus is the other Ars antiqua job and does not come from this mechanism. Strength high on the motet wing.

Shared material

Flos filius eiustunechant snippet as repeating tenor

Donor Alleluia Stirps Jesse (Notre-Dame repertory, 12th century) · verse, words Flos filius eius YouTube

Receiver Plus bele que flor / Quant revient / L'autrier joer / Flos filius eius (Montpellier Codex, 13th century) · tenor YouTube

Same tenor cell; the motet adds separately texted upper voices. Not a new chant

Evidence

Surviving clausulae and motets on the same tenors (Flos filius eius, In seculum, Omnes). Montpellier orders pieces by tenor. The notation of short values (Franco) is a later refinement of the same measured discant.

Debate

Whether some motets were conceived as motets without a prior clausula. Many were; the lineage still runs through organum’s tenor-and-discant craft.

Mediators

institution: Notre-Dame cathedral school

Trouvère → Ars antiqua

melodyform and structurestrength: mediumscholarly consensus1250–1290notationpedagogypatronage

Mechanism

The thirteenth-century motet takes trouvère song and refrain as French-texted upper voices over a chant tenor (Adam’s motets as the named hinge). Strength medium. trouvere ars nova is the later formes-fixes hop; this edge is the motet job. Conductus leftover as a Latin-texted sibling job on the Ars antiqua node.

Evidence

Montpellier motets with oïl lyrics; Adam de la Halle motets; Hoppin and Grove on vernacular motet texts.

Debate

Whether every French motet voice is already trouvère song. The hop is the courtly-song repertory entering measured polyphony, not a claim that motet is trouvère.

Mediators

artist: Adam de la Halle

Versus → Ars antiqua

form and structuremelodyfunction and contextstrength: mediumscholarly consensus1160–1240notationliturgypedagogy

Mechanism

Ars antiqua conductus takes the versus job of newly made Latin strophic song and writes it as measured polyphony with one text in all voices. Strength medium. organum ars antiqua is the chant-tenor motet hop; this edge is the freely composed Latin song hop. Aquitanian two-voice versus leftover as a dialect on the versus node, not a second parent of the motet.

Evidence

Notre-Dame conductus repertory (Dic Christi veritas, Ave virgo virginum); Hoppin and Grove on conductus as the other thirteenth-century job; versus as the earlier clerical song school.

Debate

Whether conductus simply is versus. Versus is eleventh- and twelfth-century Latin strophic song; conductus is the Notre-Dame measured recoding.

Mediators

community: Notre-Dame clerks

Ars antiqua → Ars nova

rhythmform and structureperformance practicestrength: highscholarly consensus1310–1350notationpedagogy

Mechanism

Ars nova keeps the motet’s tenor-plus-upper-voices architecture and the clerkly written habit, then changes what notation can do: duple against triple, syncopation, and a repeating rhythmic talea that may not line up with the pitch color. Franco’s note shapes are the immediate teaching donor; Vitry’s motets are the first named new-art pieces. Strength high. The polyphonic chanson is a second Ars nova job and takes more from Troubadour than from the motet.

Evidence

Treatise opposition of ars nova to ars antiqua; Fauvel motets; Machaut motets that still use a chant color under a talea. Hocket continues from thirteenth-century experiments (In seculum pieces) into Machaut’s Hoquetus David.

Debate

How sharp the cut is. Some late-thirteenth-century motets already strain Franconian measure. The edge records a named notational and formal turn, not a claim that clerks forgot the old books.

Mediators

artist: Philippe de Vitry; artist: Franco of Cologne