Isorhythmic Motet in the Fourteenth Century

The motet was the most important form of vocal music during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. It was polyphonic and usually for three voices, although many examples of two- and four-part motets are known (Hughes, 353). Used in both court and church, it also penetrated into the sphere of popular music.

The thirteenth-century motet still bore, to modern ears, a great resemblance to Gregorian chant. Even though the motets are polyphonic and the Gregorian chant monophonic, most motets of the Ars Antiqua move with such solemnity and present such a bland concordance that their kinship with the Gregorian chant is self-evident: they constitute the beginning and end points of the great era of medieval church music.

The music of the Ars Nova era represents a great step toward what is now understood as modern European music. The name for this era derives from the great treatise, Ars Nova, of Philippe de Vitry, in which he sets forth the principles for a reform of European music. Following his guidelines, in tempo, in harmonic and rhythmic structure, in choice of text, the motet of the Ars Nova displayed a new freedom and creativity, reaching out to a new audience, breaking free of the d

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ng to birth--that of the variation of a melody by setting it out in a new rhythm. This develops by the time of the Roman de Fauvel (ca. 1310) into what is now known as ôisorhythmö--the laying down of an artificial and often elaborate rhythmical pattern, with the cutting up of a melodic figure to fit it. . . . The rhythmical pattern in this process is called talea; the melodic, color. There could be three or four repetitions of the talea against two of the color; again there is a certain similarity to West African music, with its overlays of multiple rhythm patterns. Although it seems unclear exactly who invented the technique of isorhythm, its first great exponent was Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300 to 1377). With his prolific output of motets and songs, Machaut was the most important figure of the Ars Nova movement. He followed and developed the guidelines of de VitryÆs Ars Nova and accepted de VitryÆs advocacy of duple time by using it in many of his works, even his settings of the Mass. His rhythmic style was novel in its use of variety and motifs, especially by means of syncopation, and in his development of isorhythmic techniques, which he often extended to all voices. Of his 23 motets, all but three are isorhythmic. S
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1589
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)