Chantilly Codex and music from the Ars Subtilior (1370-1395), Medieval French avant-garde

The French composers of the late 14th century were the direct descendants of men and women who had witnessed and survived the Black Plague which, by any measure, was the worse calamity to have ever struck the European continent. It is difficult to imagine the terror that people of the Middles Ages suffered when they saw more than half the population of their cities perish within hours to days within days of exposure to an invisible enemy. We have only tiny glimpses of that time in the poetic musings of Guillaume de Machaut and Giovanni Boccaccio. How the Great Pestilence may have influenced a radical new movement in music now known as Ars Subtilior, we will never know.

The music of the late 1300s projected a bold inventiveness that was filled with whimsical outbursts, odd dissonances, bizarre chromatic passages and playful musical notations. Examples of this strangeness abound. We see, for example, Baude Cordier's puzzle canon "Tout pas compas" which was transcribed onto a circular musical staff while his love ballade "Belle, bonne, sage" was written on a heart shaped outline. In "Ma tredol rosignol," (and its variation "He tres doulz roussignol") one can hear the chirping and twitter of birds in a rhythm different from the rest of the piece. Nearly all of the songs in this video were collected from the so-called Chantilly Codex, a Northern Italian anthology of mostly French music. The only exception is Borlet's "Ma tredol" which can be found in separate Italian manuscript from the same decade (Biblioteca del Monumento Nazionale, Grottaferrata, Kript.Lat.219).

Listed below are the musical selections, manuscript crops and artwork clippings in the video. The digital files from which I produced this soundtrack were modified from MIDI files uploaded by Mr. N. Nakamura to Maucamedus.com. In my arrangements, I tried to emulate the sounds of lute, harp, psaltery, vielle, recorders and flute -- all of which were available in the 14th century according to the iconography of that period. In this second version of this video, I corrected one of my musical selections which terminated abruptly due to an editing error. I also added one additional piece by Borlet. To skip ahead to the next piece, please click on the time stamp.

Abbreviations:
GHJB: Grandes Heures Jean de Berry, c1400
PJB: Psautier Jean de Berry, Bibl.Nat.Fr.13091, c1386
LTRH: Les Très Riches Heures Jean de Berry, c1412
JdRB: Jugement du roi de Bohème, Machaut, c1355

0:10 Ma tredol rossignol joly (Borlet)
a. Angel playing organetto, GHJB, c1400
b. Goldfinch, Sherborne Missal, England, c1400
c. Harp, cittern & psaltery, PJB, c1386
d. Christine de Pizan and Sibyl, Brit.Lib.Harley MS 4431, c1410
e. La Virgen (detail of a recorder player), Pere Serra, c1395
f. Influence of Venus, Christine de Pizan, c1406
g. Bluetit, Royal 3 D VI f.116, c1300
3:42 Tous pas compas (Baude Cordier)
a. Tout pas compas, Chantilly Codex, c1395
b. Monks singing, Brit.Lib.Stowe 12, c1325
c. Courtly scenes, Louvre Mus. Paris, c1330
d. Romance of Alexander, Bodlein Lib.264, 1344
e. Coronation of the Virgin, Nicola di Buonaccorso, c1380
f. September, LTRH, c1412
6:42 Hé, tres doulz roussignol (Borlet)
a. Hé, tres doulz roussignol, Chantilly Codex, c1395
b. Robin, Sherborne Missal
c. Helen of Troy, Christine de Pisan, Brit.Lib. Harley 4431
d. Caladrius, Bibliothèque Municipale de Reims ms. 993, c1410
e. Medieval musical ensemble,
9:17 La harpe de melodie (Jacob Senleches)
a. La harpe de melodie, Chantilly Codex
b. "Wolkenstein" a.k.a. Wartburg harp, c1400
c. Angel with harp, Pere Serra, c1380
d. La harpe de melodie, Newberry Library Ms. 54.1 f.10r
e. King David with harp, Lansdowne 1175, c1364
f. Angel with harp, Cathédrale Saint Julien du Mans, 14th c
g. Angel with harp, GHJB, c1400
14:09 Playsance or tost (Anonyme)
a. Playsance or tost, Chantilly Codex
b. Angel with vielle, Paolo Veneziano, c1350
c. Angel with rebec, GHJB, c1400
15:33 Belle, bonne, sage (Baude Cordier)
a. Belle, bonne, sage Chantilly Codex
b. Siege of the Castle of Love, c1370
c. Chorus of angels, Paolo Veneziano, c1350
d. Angel with psaltery, GHJB, c1400
e. Courtly love, Bodleian Lib. c1360
f. Harp of King David, Rouen, 14th c
g. Coronation of the Virgin, Bartolo di Fredi, 1388
h. King David with harp, Royal 13 D I, c1375
i. King David, Jean Pucelle, c1345
20:18 Armes, amours (Franciscus Andrieu), or
Memorial to the death of Guillaume de Machaut
a. Armes, amour, Chantilly Codex
b. Flute and vielle players, Manesse Codex, c1340
c. Courtly love, LdRB, Machaut, c1355
d. Lady of the castle, LdRB
e. Composer with lady, LdRB
f. Guillaume de Machaut with audience
g. Rheims cathedral
(where Machaut began and ended his musical career)