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CHAPTER 13
AVIGNON, SYMBOLIC SCORES,
AND THE ARS SUBTILIOR
PAPAL AVIGNON
For much of the Middle Ages the papacy did not reside in Rome but
moved from city to city. During most of the fourteenth century it
was resident in Avignon, a city in southern France, which swelled,
after the arrival of the papacy, from roughly 5,000 to 120,000 souls.
The period in which the popes resided in Avignon (1309-1403) is
called the Babylonian Captivity, for the streets of Avignon were
deemed as sinful as those of ancient Babylon. In 1378 two popes
were elected, one French the other Italian, one choosing to reside in
Avginon, the other in Rome. This division in church authority is
called the Great Western Schism (1378-1417).
The Palace of the Popes
The Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France, which contemporaries
called “the most beautiful and most fortified house in the world.” Its
fortress-like façade correctly suggests that the medieval papacy was
often under siege.
The chapel built between 1345 and 1352 by Pope
Clement VI and thus called the Clementine Chapel
During this time the
word cappella
(chapel), came to
mean not only a
building consecrated
for religious worship,
but also the organized
group of highly trained
musicians who sang at
these services.
BAUDE CORDIER AND SYMBOLIC SCORES
• “Cordier” in French means “String Man,” and it
apparently served as the professional nickname of
Baude Fresnel (c1365-1398), a harper employed by
Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy. In 1391 and 1395
Cordier traveled with Duke Philip to Avignon. His
three-voice rondeau Tout par compas suy composés
(All with a compass am I composed) is a symbolic
score because the layout of the notation suggests the
meaning of the piece—that this is a circular canon
that can go around endlessly, or at least through all
four stanzas of the text. Finally, Cordier’s rondeau is
full of proportions (time signatures written as
fractions) that, when applied to a single voice create
complex polymeter (two or more meters sounding
simultaneously).
Baude Cordier’s
Tout par compas suy composés
PHILIPPUS DE CASERTA: THE ARS SUBTILIOR
• Philipppus de Caserta was an Italian composer
working in Avignon during the reign of Pope
Clement VII (1378-1394). His music, too, makes
use of the sincopa (syncopation), as well as
proportions and polymeters, and it is accordingly
very complex rhythmically. This sort of rhythmically
difficult music has been dubbed the Ars subtilior
(the more subtle art)—a style of music radiating out
from Avignon to other parts of southern France and
into northern Italy during the late fourteenth
century.
A portion of Caserta’s Par les bon Gedeons (By the Good Gideon)
showing complex syncopation that extends over many bars.
Passages from an Ars subtilior composition showing
the use of sincopa (syncopation) and proportions