Periodic Reporting for period 4 - ArsNova (European Ars Nova: Multilingual Poetry and Polyphonic Song in the Late Middle Ages)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-07-01 bis 2024-12-31
Dante Alighieri in Italy and, one century later, Eustache Deschamps in France conceived and defined poetry as music in itself, as a text with its own proportional harmony. Both authors specify that each poem is structured so that it can be set to music. At the end of the thirteenth century Romance lyric poetry met polyphony and in the early decades of the fourteenth century a new notational system, called Ars Nova, was introduced in response to the need to write a kind of music that was melodically and rhythmically more complex.
The complexity of Ars Nova polyphony, with its melodic ornamentation and its elaborate rhythmic patterns, can be an obstacle to the proper comprehension of the lyrics. This new form of coexistence between poetry and music, in which the latter seems to predominate over the former, has led scholars to believe that the lyrics should be regarded as subordinate to the music, and that, consequently, the poems set to music by Ars Nova polyphonists constitute a secondary and negligible repertoire. As a matter of fact, however, many of these poetic texts manifest a refined symbolism and an elegant pursuit of technical virtuosity, which contradict the current historico-critical evaluation. In the light of these considerations, the project's first line of research re-evaluated and interpreted the poetic repertoire of the Ars Nova (around 1100 texts, in Latin, Italian and French), contributing significantly to a better understanding of what becomes of poetry when it is involved in the complex architecture of polyphonic music.
Many Ars Nova polyphonists were churchmen or monks working in the principal cultural centres of Europe, at the service of high prelates, lords and rulers who used music also as a means of personal and institutional propaganda. Nonetheless, most of the poetic texts set to music follow the great tradition of Romance love poetry and have nothing to do, at least apparently, with morals or politics. But what kind of love do they express, exactly? The second research line of the project verified how the ideology of courtly love, which permeates this poetry, could be compatible with the status of the polyphonists who set it to music and whether it is possible to attribute to these love texts a moral and political meaning and a militant function.
The most important sources of the Ars Nova repertoire are multilingual anthologies produced in ecclesiastical environments between the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century, when the highest secular and religious authorities attempted to put an end to the Western Schism. So far analysed for their musical content, the Ars Nova anthologies are the result of elaborate editorial projects developed and enriched over time, and their ideological orientation cannot be fully understood without considering the poetic texts. For these reasons, the project's third line of research addressed the study of the manuscript tradition ‘from the side of poetry’, reconstructing the ideological orientation of the musical anthologies by reading them as collections of poetry.
The complexity of Ars Nova polyphony, with its melodic ornamentation and its elaborate rhythmic patterns, can be an obstacle to the proper comprehension of the lyrics. This new form of coexistence between poetry and music, in which the latter seems to predominate over the former, has led scholars to believe that the lyrics should be regarded as subordinate to the music, and that, consequently, the poems set to music by Ars Nova polyphonists constitute a secondary and negligible repertoire. As a matter of fact, however, many of these poetic texts manifest a refined symbolism and an elegant pursuit of technical virtuosity, which contradict the current historico-critical evaluation. In the light of these considerations, the project's first line of research re-evaluated and interpreted the poetic repertoire of the Ars Nova (around 1100 texts, in Latin, Italian and French), contributing significantly to a better understanding of what becomes of poetry when it is involved in the complex architecture of polyphonic music.
Many Ars Nova polyphonists were churchmen or monks working in the principal cultural centres of Europe, at the service of high prelates, lords and rulers who used music also as a means of personal and institutional propaganda. Nonetheless, most of the poetic texts set to music follow the great tradition of Romance love poetry and have nothing to do, at least apparently, with morals or politics. But what kind of love do they express, exactly? The second research line of the project verified how the ideology of courtly love, which permeates this poetry, could be compatible with the status of the polyphonists who set it to music and whether it is possible to attribute to these love texts a moral and political meaning and a militant function.
The most important sources of the Ars Nova repertoire are multilingual anthologies produced in ecclesiastical environments between the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century, when the highest secular and religious authorities attempted to put an end to the Western Schism. So far analysed for their musical content, the Ars Nova anthologies are the result of elaborate editorial projects developed and enriched over time, and their ideological orientation cannot be fully understood without considering the poetic texts. For these reasons, the project's third line of research addressed the study of the manuscript tradition ‘from the side of poetry’, reconstructing the ideological orientation of the musical anthologies by reading them as collections of poetry.
To ensure the quality and reliability of the results, the project had to address the lack of foundational resources and research tools. A complete and updated catalogue of Ars Nova compositions was unavailable, and many existing editions, particularly of poetic texts, were unreliable. Additionally, the absence of comprehensive studies or repertories of poetic and musical formal structures posed a major challenge for analysing the relationship between words and music. To overcome these obstacles, the project developed the ArsNova database (ArsNova DB), which reflects its interdisciplinary and multicultural approach (https://www.europeanarsnova.eu/arsnova-database/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)).
The primary objective of the ArsNova project was therefore the design, implementation, and publication of the ArsNova DB, conceived as both a working tool and a foundation for the project’s three research lines. The database includes a catalogue of authors, texts, and manuscripts (CANT), a repository of poetic and musical texts (ANT), and a repertory of formal structures (ANS). It also provides multilingual concordances of word forms and lemmas available in the Corpus ArsNova (http://arsnovaweb.ovi.cnr.it(öffnet in neuem Fenster)).
The data contained in the ArsNova DB were crucial in advancing the project's three research strands. The study of poetic and musical intertextuality, carried out in collaboration with the MiMus project (PI Anna Alberni), has revealed key to understanding medieval musical and poetic texts. Moreover, the team introduced new interpretive perspectives by investigating the influence of Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarch on the Ars Nova repertoire, exploring the interplay between erotic and political themes in Ars Nova poetry, and emphasizing the pivotal role of Ars Nova genres in Petrarch's Canzoniere. Finally, the team conducted an interdisciplinary analysis of one of the most important musical anthologies of the Ars Nova period, the Codex of San Lorenzo. The main results of these three research paths are presented in three collective volumes and approximately forty articles.
The primary objective of the ArsNova project was therefore the design, implementation, and publication of the ArsNova DB, conceived as both a working tool and a foundation for the project’s three research lines. The database includes a catalogue of authors, texts, and manuscripts (CANT), a repository of poetic and musical texts (ANT), and a repertory of formal structures (ANS). It also provides multilingual concordances of word forms and lemmas available in the Corpus ArsNova (http://arsnovaweb.ovi.cnr.it(öffnet in neuem Fenster)).
The data contained in the ArsNova DB were crucial in advancing the project's three research strands. The study of poetic and musical intertextuality, carried out in collaboration with the MiMus project (PI Anna Alberni), has revealed key to understanding medieval musical and poetic texts. Moreover, the team introduced new interpretive perspectives by investigating the influence of Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarch on the Ars Nova repertoire, exploring the interplay between erotic and political themes in Ars Nova poetry, and emphasizing the pivotal role of Ars Nova genres in Petrarch's Canzoniere. Finally, the team conducted an interdisciplinary analysis of one of the most important musical anthologies of the Ars Nova period, the Codex of San Lorenzo. The main results of these three research paths are presented in three collective volumes and approximately forty articles.
The development of the project’s three research lines posed a significant methodological challenge, requiring the adoption of a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. In this context, the ArsNova project has played a pivotal role in bridging the divide that often separates musical studies from literary studies, as well as research on Italian Ars Nova from that on French Ars Nova. This ambitious goal has been achieved by the design, implementation, and publication of the ArsNova DB, which in itself represents a major advancement beyond the current state of the art.
The new philological and interpretive criteria developed by the team for the critical edition of Ars Nova compositions are rooted in this interdisciplinary and intercultural approach. This perspective also informed the creation of a new digital edition model and a repertoire of metrical and musical structures. The digital edition was specifically designed to accommodate texts in multiple languages and facilitate the understanding of the interaction between poetry and music, while the repertoire enables the analysis of strophic structures and the rhythmic features of individual verses in relation to their associated music.
The new philological and interpretive criteria developed by the team for the critical edition of Ars Nova compositions are rooted in this interdisciplinary and intercultural approach. This perspective also informed the creation of a new digital edition model and a repertoire of metrical and musical structures. The digital edition was specifically designed to accommodate texts in multiple languages and facilitate the understanding of the interaction between poetry and music, while the repertoire enables the analysis of strophic structures and the rhythmic features of individual verses in relation to their associated music.