This paper discusses the rise of the isorhythmic motet in the fourteenth century, as exemplified in the works of Guillaume de Machaut and John Dunstable. It will also consider the relationship of this motet form to the shift from the Ars Antiqua to the Ars Nova 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 domination of the church. Soon after its introduction, the Ars Nova was condemned by the church for being new-fangled, subverting the morals of the youth, ignoring traditional family values, etc. This is a pattern that, sadly, has been repeated over and over in Western history (did anybody say rock and roll?).
The motet of the Ars Antiqua was in certain ways quite close to modern popular music. Although polyphonic, its two or more voices were not truly...