MUSICAL CULTURE OF ANTIQUITY, MIDDLE AGES, RENAISSANCE

ANTIQUITY

musical culture Ancient Greece forms the first historical stage in the development of the musical culture of Europe. However, it is the highest expression of culture ancient world and discovers undoubted connections with the more ancient cultures of the Middle East - Egypt, Syria, Palestine. However, with all the historical connections of this kind, the musical culture of ancient Greece does not at all repeat the path traversed by other countries: it has its own unique look, its indisputable achievements, which it transfers partly to the European Middle Ages and then - to a greater extent - to the Renaissance.

Unlike other forms of art, the music of the ancient world did not leave in history any creative heritage of any equal value to them. Over a vast historical span of eight centuries - from the 5th century BC. on 111 century n. e.-scattered only eleven samples of ancient Greek music that have been preserved in the notation of that time. True, these are the first recordings of melodies in Europe that have come down to us.

The most important property of the culture of Ancient Greece, outside of which it was almost not perceived by contemporaries and, accordingly, we cannot understand it, is the existence of music in syncretic unity with other arts - at the early stages or in synthesis with them - in the heyday. Music in inseparable connection poetry (hence - lyrics), music as an indispensable participant in tragedy, music and dance - these are the characteristic phenomena of ancient Greek artistic life. Plato, for example, was very critical of instrumental music, independent of dancing and singing, arguing that it is suitable only for quick, unhesitating walking and for depicting an animal cry:

"The use of a separate game on the flute and cithara contains something highly tasteless and worthy only of a conjurer." The origins of Greek tragedy, a high and complex art, come from mythology, from magical actions, from the beliefs of the people. The origins go to ancient times ancient Greek myths about the great musicians - Orpheus, Olympus, Marsyas.

Important Information about the early musical culture in Greece gives us the Homeric epic, itself associated with musical performance: Iliad, Odyssey.

Along with the solo performance of epic works in the 11th-6th centuries, special choral genres. Songs on the island of Crete were combined with plastic movements, with dance (hyporcheme); choral genres from the 7th century were widely cultivated in Sparta. It is known that the Spartans gave music a great state, educational value. Teaching musical art was not of a professional nature for them, but was simply part of the general education of youth. From here grew the theory of ethos, substantiated by Greek thinkers.

A new direction in the musical and poetic art of Ancient Greece, which put forward lyrical themes and images proper, is associated with the names of the Ionian Archilochus (7th century) and the largest "representatives of the lesbian school of Alcaeus and Sappho (the turn of the 1st and 6th centuries). One might think that with the strengthening of the actual the lyrical beginning increased and the role of melody in their works, the very word "lyric" originates from the lyre.

Lyric poetry of the 6th century is represented by several genre varieties: elegies, hymns, wedding songs.

The classical age of tragedy was the 5th century BC. e .: the work of the greatest tragedians Aeschylus (c. 525-456), Sophocles (c. 496-, Euripides (c. 480-406). This was the time of the highest flowering of Greek artistic culture, the age of Phidias and Poliklet, such monuments classical architecture like the Parthenon in Athens, the best age in the art of the entire ancient world. Performances of tragedies were considered public celebrations and, within the boundaries of a slave-owning society, had a relatively broad democratic character: the theater was attended by all citizens, who even received state benefits for this. The choir - the spokesman for common morality - represented the people on the tragic stage and spoke on their behalf.

The playwright was both a poet and a musician; he did everything himself. Aeschylus, for example, himself participated in the performance of his plays. Later, the functions of the poet, musician, actor, director were increasingly divided. The actors were also singers. The singing of the choir was combined with plastic movements.

In the Hellenistic era, art no longer grows out of the artistic activity of citizens: it is completely professionalized.

Everything that was written in ancient Greece about the art of music, and which can be judged with certainty from many surviving materials, was based on ideas about melody (mainly associated with the poetic word). This is obvious not only from the content of special theoretical works, but also from the more general ethical and aesthetic statements of the largest Greek thinkers. Thus, the principle of monophony, which is entirely characteristic of the ancient Greek musical art, is fully confirmed.

The most interesting of the ancient judgments about the art of music is the so-called doctrine of ethos, put forward by Plato, developed and deepened by Aristotle. The ancient tradition connects the unification of questions of politics and music with the name of Domon of Athens, teacher of Socrates and friend of Pericles. From him, as if Plato took the idea of ​​the beneficial effects of music on the education of worthy citizens, developed by him in the books "State" and "Laws". Plato assigns in his ideal state the first (among other arts) role of music in educating a young man into a courageous, wise, virtuous and balanced person, that is, an ideal citizen. At the same time, Plato, on the one hand, connects the impact of music with the impact of gymnastics (“beautiful body movements”), and on the other hand, he claims that melody and rhythm most of all capture the soul and encourage a person to imitate those examples of beauty that musical art gives him.

"Then analyzing what exactly is beautiful in a song, Plato finds that this should be judged by words, mode and rhythm. In accordance with the ideas of his time, he sweeps aside all the modes that are plaintive and relaxing in nature, and calls only Dorian and Phrygian only worthy of the high goals of educating a young warrior. In the same way, the philosopher recognizes among musical instruments only cithara and lyre, denying the ethical qualities of all others. Thus, the bearer of ethos, from the point of view of Plato, is not a work of art, not its imagery, and not even a system expressive means, but only the mode or timbre of the instrument, which, as it were, is assigned a certain ethical quality.

Aristotle judges the purpose of music much more broadly, arguing that it should serve not one, but several purposes and be used with benefit: ... From this it is clear, - Aristotle continues, - that although you can use all the modes, you should not use them in the same way.

“Rhythm and melody contain within themselves the closest approximations to reality of reflections of anger and meekness, courage and moderation, and all the properties opposite to them, as well as other moral qualities. This is clear from experience: when we perceive rhythm and melody with our ear, our spiritual mood also changes. The habit of experiencing a sad or joyful mood when perceiving something that imitates reality leads to the fact that we begin to experience the same feelings when confronted with [worldly] truth” 3 . And finally, Aristotle. comes to the following conclusion: “... Music is capable of exerting a certain influence on the ethical side of the soul; and since music has such properties, then, obviously, it should be included in the number of subjects for the education of young people.

The philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras (VI century BC) has long been assigned the importance of the first of the Greek thinkers who wrote about music. He is credited with the initial development of the theory of musical intervals (consonances and dissonances) on the basis of purely mathematical relationships obtained by dividing a string. In general, the numbers and proportions of the Pythagoreans are modeled after the ancients. oriental cultures(most of all Egypt) - attached magical meaning deriving from them, in particular, the magical healing properties of music. Finally, by means of abstract speculative constructions, the Pythagoreans came to the idea of ​​the so-called "harmony of the spheres", believing that the celestial bodies, being in certain numerical ("harmonic") ratios among themselves, should sound and produce "celestial harmony" when moving.

As for the doctrine of ethos, later the Neoplatonists, especially Plotinus (3rd century), rethought it in a religious and mystical spirit, depriving it of the civic pathos that was once inherent in it in Greece. Direct threads already stretch from here to the aesthetic views of the Middle Ages. The decline of ancient culture in the era of the decay of the slave system just contributes to the successful development of Christian art, which in many respects opposes the aesthetics and musical practice of Rome of the previous centuries. It is also impossible to deny certain connections between the heritage of antiquity and the development of aesthetic thought of the subsequent time, formed at the turn of the two epochs.

MUSICAL CULTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES

In the development of the musical culture of Western Europe, it is difficult to consider a long and wide historical period of the Middle Ages as a single period, even as one large era with a common chronological framework. The first, initial boundary of the Middle Ages - after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 - is usually designated as the VI century. Meanwhile, the only area of ​​musical art that left written monuments was, until the 12th century, only the music of the Christian church. The whole unique complex of phenomena associated with it was formed on the basis of a long historical preparation, starting from the 2nd century, and included distant sources that go beyond Western Europe to the East - to Palestine, Syria, Alexandria. In addition, the church musical culture of the Middle Ages in one way or another did not bypass the heritage of Ancient Greece and ancient rome, although the "fathers of the church", and later theorists who wrote about music, in many respects opposed the art of the Christian church to the pagan art world of antiquity.

The second most important milestone, marking the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, in Western Europe does not take place simultaneously: in Italy - in the 15th century, in France - in the 16th; in other countries, the struggle between medieval and Renaissance tendencies takes place at different times. All of them are approaching the Renaissance with a different legacy of the Middle Ages, with their own emerging conclusions from the vast historical experience. This was largely facilitated by a significant turning point in the development of the artistic culture of the Middle Ages, which occurred in the 11th-12th centuries and was due to new socio-historical processes (the growth of cities, the Crusades, the promotion of new social strata, the first strong centers of secular culture, etc.).

However, with all the relativity or mobility of chronological facets, with the inevitable genetic links with the past and the uneven transition to the future, the musical culture of the Western European Middle Ages is characterized by significant phenomena and processes that are peculiar only to it and are unthinkable in other conditions, and other times. This is, firstly, the movement and existence in Western Europe of many tribes and peoples at different stages of historical development, the multiplicity of ways and various political systems, and with all this, the persistent desire of the Catholic Church to unite the entire vast, stormy, many-sided world, not only common ideological doctrine, but also the general principles of musical culture. This, secondly, is the inevitable duality of musical culture throughout the Middle Ages: church art invariably opposed its canons to the diversity of folk music throughout Europe. In the 1st-13th centuries, new forms of secular musical and poetic creativity were already born, and church music was to a large extent transformed. But these new processes were already taking place under the conditions of developed feudalism.

As is known, special character medieval culture, medieval education, medieval art is largely determined by dependence on the Christian church.

The music of the Christian church took shape in its original forms even in the historical conditions of the high power of the Roman Empire. Belief in the afterlife, in the highest reward for everything done on earth, as well as the idea of ​​atonement for the sins of mankind by the sacrifice of Christ crucified on the cross, were able to captivate the masses.

The historical preparation of Gregorian chant as a ritual singing of the mainstream Christian church was long and varied.

At the end of the 4th century, as is known, the division of the Roman Empire into the western (Rome) and eastern (Byzantium) took place, the historical destinies of which then turned out to be different. Thus, the western and eastern church, since the Christian religion had become the state religion by that time.

With the division of the Roman Empire and the formation of two centers of the Christian Church, the paths of ecclesiastical art, which was in the process of final formation, also largely separated in the West and East.

Rome reworked in its own way everything that the Christian church had at its disposal, and created on this basis its canonized art - the Gregorian chant.

As a result, church tunes, selected, canonized, distributed within the church year, were compiled under Pope Gregory (at least on his initiative). official code - - antiphonary. The choral melodies included in it are called Gregorian chant and became the basis of the liturgical singing of the Catholic Church. The collection of Gregorian chants is huge.

The code of Gregorian chant from the 11th-12th centuries, and then in the Renaissance, served as the initial basis for the creation of polyphonic compositions in which cult melodies received the most diverse development.

The more the Roman Church expanded its sphere of influence in Europe, the further the Gregorian chant spread from Rome to the north and west.

The reform of musical notation was carried out by the Italian musician, theorist and teacher Guido d "Arezzo in the second quarter of the 11th century.

Guido's reform was strong in its simplicity and organicity of the original thought: he drew four lines and, placing neumes on them or between them, gave them all an exact high-altitude value. Another innovation of Guido of Arezzo, essentially also his invention, was the choice of a certain six-step scale. (do-re-mi-fa-sol-la).

From the end of the 11th century, in the 12th and especially in the 13th centuries, signs of a new movement appeared in the musical life and musical creativity of a number of Western European countries - at first less noticeably, then more and more tangibly. From the original medieval forms of musical culture, the development of artistic tastes and creative thought goes to other, more progressive types of music making, to other principles. musical creativity.

In the XII-XIII centuries, historical prerequisites gradually arose not only for the formation of new creative trends, but also for their well-known distribution throughout Western Europe. Thus, the medieval novel or story, which took shape on French soil in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, did not remain only French phenomena. Along with the novel about Tristan and Isolde and the story about Aucassin and Nicolette, Parsifal and Poor Heinrich entered the history of literature. The new, Gothic style in architecture, represented by classical examples in France (the cathedrals in Paris, Chartres, Reims), also found expression in German and Czech cities, in England, etc.

The first flowering of secular musical and poetic lyrics, which began in Provence from the 12th century, then captured Northern France, echoed in Spain, and later found expression in the German minnesang. With all the originality of each of these currents and them, a new regularity was also manifested, characteristic of the era on its large scale. In the same way, the emergence and development of polyphony in its professional forms - perhaps the most important side of musical evolution at that time - took place with the participation of not only the French creative school, and even more so not only one group of musicians from the Notre Dame Cathedral, no matter how great their merit.

Unfortunately, we judge the ways of medieval music to a certain extent selectively. From the state of the sources, it is impossible to trace specific connections, for example, in the development of polyphony between its sources in the British Isles and its forms on the Continent, in particular, in the early stages.

Medieval cities eventually became important centers of culture. The first universities in Europe (Bologna, Paris) were founded. Urban construction expanded, rich cathedrals were erected, and divine services were performed in them with great pomp with the participation of the best choral singers (they were prepared in special schools - metrizas - at large churches). The ecclesiastical spirit characteristic of the Middle Ages (and musical learning in particular) was no longer concentrated only in monasteries. New forms, a new style of church music are undoubtedly connected with the culture of the medieval city. If they were partly prepared by the previous activity of learned musician-monks (such as Huqbald of Saint-Amand and Guido of Arezzo), if the early examples of polyphony come from the monastic schools of France, in particular from the monasteries of Chartres and Limoges, then there is still a consistent the development of new forms of polyphony begins in Paris in the 12th-13th centuries.

Another, also very significant layer of medieval musical culture is associated at first with the activity, range of interests and the peculiar ideology of European chivalry. Crusades to the East, huge movements over long distances, battles, sieges of cities, civil strife, bold, risky adventures, the conquest of foreign lands, contact with various peoples of the East, their customs, way of life, culture, completely unusual impressions - all this left its mark to the new worldview of the crusader knights. When part of the chivalry was able to exist in favorable peaceful conditions, the previously existing idea of ​​knightly honor (of course, socially limited) was combined with the cult of a beautiful lady and knightly service to her, with the ideal of courtly love and the norms of behavior associated with it. Then the musical and poetic art of the troubadours received its early development, which gave the first examples in Europe of recorded secular vocal lyrics in writing.

Other layers of the musical culture of the Middle Ages continued to exist, associated with folk life, with the activities of itinerant musicians, with the upcoming changes in their environment and way of life.

Information about wandering folk musicians of the Middle Ages becomes more and more abundant and definite from the 9th to the 14th century. These jugglers, minstrels, shpilmans - as they were called at different times and in different parts - for a long time were the only representatives of the secular musical culture of their time and thus played an important historical role. .To a large extent, it was on the basis of their musical practice, their song traditions that the early forms of secular lyrics of the 12th - 13th centuries were formed. They, these wandering musicians, did not part with musical instruments, while the church either rejected their participation, or accepted it with great difficulty. In addition to various wind instruments (pipes, horns, pipes, Pan flutes, bagpipes), over time, the harp (from the ancients), the mole (Celtic instrument), varieties of bowed instruments, the ancestors of the future violin - rebab, viela, fidel (perhaps , from the East).

In all likelihood, these medieval actors, musicians, dancers, acrobats (often in one person), called jugglers or other similar names, had their own cultural and historical traditions dating back to ancient times. They could adopt - through a number of generations - the legacy syncretic art ancient Roman actors, whose descendants, called histrions and mimes, wandered for a long time, wandering around medieval Europe. The oldest semi-legendary representatives of the Celtic (bards) and German epic could also somehow pass on their traditions to jugglers, who, although they were not able to remain faithful to them, nevertheless learned something from them for themselves. In any case, by the 9th century, when the previous mentions of histrions and mimes were already being replaced by reports of jugglers, these latter were known in part and as performers of the epic. Moving from place to place, jugglers perform at festivities at courts (where they flock to on certain dates), at castles, in villages, and are sometimes even allowed into the church. In the poems, novels and songs of the Middle Ages, the participation of jugglers in the festive fun, in organizing all kinds of outdoor spectacles is mentioned more than once. As long as these performances, arranged on major holidays in temples or cemeteries, were performed only in Latin, pupils of monastic schools and young clerics could take part in the performances. But by the 13th century, Latin was replaced by local folk languages ​​- and then wandering musicians, claiming to play comic roles and episodes in spiritual performances, somehow managed to break into the number of actors, and then win success with their jokes from viewers and listeners. So it was, for example, in the cathedrals of Strasbourg, Rouen, Reims, Cambrai. Among the "stories" that were presented on holidays were Christmas and Easter "acts", "Lamentations of Mary", "The Story of Wise Virgins and Foolish Virgins", etc. Almost everywhere at the performances, to please their visitors, one or more other comic episodes related to the participation of evil forces or the adventures and remarks of servants. Here open space for acting musical abilities of jugglers with their traditional buffoonery.

Many of the minstrels played a special role when they began to cooperate with the troubadours, accompanying their knight patrons everywhere, participating in the performance of their songs, joining new forms of art.

As a result, the very environment of "wandering people", jugglers, stud men, minstrels, undergoing significant transformations over time, did not at all remain unified in its composition. This was also facilitated by the influx of new forces - literate, but who had lost their stable position in society, that is, in essence, declassed losers from the petty clergy, itinerant scholars, runaway monks. Appearing in the ranks of itinerant actors and musicians in the 11th-12th centuries in France (and then in other countries), they received the names of vagantes and goliards. With them, new life ideas and habits, literacy, sometimes even well-known erudition, came to the layers of juggling.

Since the end of the 13th century, in various European centers, guild associations of spielmans, jugglers, and minstrels have been formed in order to protect their rights, determine their place in society, preserve professional traditions and pass them on to students. In 1288, the Brotherhood of St. Nicholas”, which united musicians, in 1321 “The Brotherhood of St. Julien" in Paris was a guild organization of local minstrels. Subsequently, a guild of "royal minstrels" was formed in England. This transition to the guild way of life, in essence, ended the history of medieval jugglery. But itinerant musicians are far from fully settled in their brotherhoods, guilds, workshops. Their wanderings continued in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, covering a vast territory and eventually creating new musical and domestic ties between distant regions.

TROUBADOURS, TROUVERS, MINNESINGERS

The art of the troubadours, which originated in Provence in the 12th century, was, in essence, only the beginning of a special creative movement, characteristic of its time and almost entirely associated with the development of new, secular forms of artistic creativity. Much favored then in Provence the early flowering of secular artistic culture: relatively lesser ruins and disasters in the past, during the migration of peoples, old handicraft traditions and trade relations that have been preserved for a long time. In such historical conditions, a knightly culture developed.

A peculiar process of development of early secular art, which arises at the artistic initiative of the Provencal chivalry, is largely nourished by the melodic sources of folk songs and spreads to more wide circle townspeople, respectively evolving in terms of the subject of figurative content.

The art of troubadours has been developing within almost two centuries since the end of the 11th century. In the second half of the 12th century, the names of trouvères were already known as poets-musicians in the north of France, in Champagne, in Arras. In the 13th century, the activities of the trouvères become more intense, while the art of the Provencal troubadours completes its history.

Trouvers to a certain extent inherited the creative tradition of the troubadours, but at the same time, their works were more clearly connected not with the knightly, but with the urban culture of their time. However, among the troubadours were representatives of various social circles. So, the first troubadours were: Guillaume VII, Count of Poitiers, Duke of Aquitaine (1071 - 1127) - and poor Gascon Markabrun.

The Provencal troubadours, as is known, usually cooperated with the jugglers who traveled with them, performed their songs or accompanied their singing, as if combining the duties of a servant and an assistant at the same time. The troubadour acted as a patron, the author of a musical work, and the juggler acted as a performer.

In the musical and poetic art of the troubadours, several characteristic genre varieties of the poem-song stood out: alba (dawn song), pasturel, sirventa, crusader songs, dialogue songs, laments, dance songs. This enumeration is not a strict classification. Love lyrics are embodied in albs, pastures, and dance songs.

Sirventa - the designation is not too clear. In any case, this is not lyric song. Sounding on behalf of a knight, warrior, courageous troubadour, it can be satirical, accusatory, directed at the whole class, at certain contemporaries or events. Later, the genres of ballads and rondos arose.

As can be judged on the basis of the material of special studies, the art of the troubadours is ultimately not isolated either from the traditions of the past or from other contemporary forms of musical and poetic creativity.

The art of the troubadours served as an important link between the first forms of musical and poetic lyrics in Western Europe, between the musical and everyday tradition and highly professional areas of musical creativity in the 13th -. XIV centuries. The later representatives of this art themselves already gravitated towards musical professionalization, mastering the basics of a new musical skill.

Takov Adam de la Al ( 1237-1238 - 1287), one of the last trouveurs, a native of Arras, a French poet, composer, playwright of the second half of the 13th century. Since 1271, he was in the service at the court of Count Robert d "Artois, with whom in 1282 he went to Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily, in Naples. During his stay in Naples, the "Game of Robin and Marion" was created - the largest and significant work poet-composer.

Such works are the prehistory of the birth of the French musical comedy of the 16th century. and operettas of the 19th century.

Samples of troubadour art come to Germany in the 12th-13th centuries, attracting interested attention there; the lyrics are translated into German, even the tunes are sometimes subtexted with new words. The development from the second half of the 12th century (up to the very beginning of the 15th century) of the German minnesing as an artistic embodiment of the local knightly culture makes this interest in the musical and poetic art of the French troubadours quite understandable - especially among the early minnesingers.

The art of the minnesingers developed almost a century later than the art of the troubadours, in a slightly different historical situation, in a country where at first there were no such solid foundations for building a new, purely secular worldview.

Walther von der Vogelweide, the poet and author of Parsifal Wolfram von Eschenbach, was the largest representative of the minnesang. Thus, the legend underlying Wagner's Tannhäuser is based on historical facts.

However, the activities of German minnesingers were by no means limited to service and performances at courts: it was the most prominent of them who spent a significant part of their lives in distant wanderings.

So, the art of minnesang is not so monotonous: it combines various trends, and the melodic side is generally more progressive than the poetic side. genre variety The songs of the Minnesingers are in many ways similar to those cultivated by the Provençal troubadours: songs of the crusaders, love-lyrical songs of various kinds, dance melodies.

The spiritual music of the late Middle Ages continues its development. The polyphonic musical presentation has been widely developed.

The development of polyphonic writing, which was initially characteristic of church art, also led to the formation of new musical genres, both spiritual and secular. The most common genre of polyphony is motet.

Motet, which had a very great future, developed very intensively in the 13th century. Its origin dates back to the previous century, when it arose in connection with the creative activity of the Notre Dame school and at first had a liturgical purpose.

A motet of the 13th century is a polyphonic (usually three-voiced) work of small or medium size. The genre feature of the motet was the initial reliance on a ready-made melodic sample (from church tunes, from secular songs) on which other voices of a different nature and sometimes even of different origin were layered. It turned out as a result a combination of different melodies with different texts.

Instruments (viels, psalterium, organ) could participate in the performance of certain motets. Finally, in the 13th century, a peculiar form of everyday polyphony became popular, which received the names rondel, company, ru (wheel). This is a comic canon, which was also known to medieval spiermen.

By the end of the 13th century, the musical art of France to a large extent set the tone in Western Europe. The musical and poetic culture of the troubadours and trouveurs, as well as important stages in the development of polyphony, partly influenced the musical art of other countries. In the history of music, the 13th century (from about the 1230s) received the designation "Ars antiqua" ("old art").

ARS NOVA IN FRANCE. GUILLAUME MASHOT

Around 1320, a musical-theoretical work by Philippe de Vitry called Ars nova was created in Paris. These words - "New Art" - turned out to be winged: they gave rise to the definition of "epoch Ars nova", which is still commonly attributed to French music of the 14th century. The expressions "new art", "new school", "new singers" were often encountered during the time of Philippe de Vitry, not only in theoretical works. Whether the theoreticians supported the new trends or condemned them, whether the Pope condemned them, everywhere they meant something new in the development of musical art, which was not there before the appearance of developed forms of polyphony.

The largest representative of Ars nova in France was Guillaume de Machaux- the famous poet and composer of his time, whose creative heritage is also studied in the history of literature.

No matter how complicated in the XIV century further development polyphonic forms, the line of musical and poetic art, coming from the troubadours and trouveurs, was not completely lost in the atmosphere of the French Ars nova. If Philippe de Vitry was above all a learned musician and Guillaume de Machaux became master of French poets, then nevertheless both of them were poets-musicians, that is, in this sense, as it were, they continued the traditions of the trouvers of the 13th century. After all, not so much long time separates the creative activity of Philippe de Vitry, who began to compose music around 1313-1314, and even the activity of Machault (from 1320-1330) from recent years the creative life of Adam de la Halle (d. 1286 or 1287).

The historical role of Guillaume ds Machaux is much more significant. Without him, there would be no Ars nova in France at all. It was his musical and poetic creativity, abundant, original, multi-genre, that concentrated main features this era. In his art, as it were, lines are collected, passing, on the one hand, from the musical and poetic culture of the troubadours and trouvers in its long-standing song basis, on the other hand, from French schools polyphony of the 11th-111th centuries.

O life path Macho until 1323, we, unfortunately, do not know anything. It is only known that he was born around 1300 in Masho. He was a highly educated poet of wide erudition and a true master of his craft as a composer. With an indisputably high giftedness, he had, of course, to receive a thorough preparation for literary and musical activity The first date associated with the fact of Masho's biography is 1322-1323, when he began his service at the court of King John of Luxembourg of Bohemia (first as a clerk, then as royal secretary). For more than twenty years, Masho was at the court of the King of Bohemia, sometimes in Prague, sometimes constantly participating in his campaigns, travels, festivities, hunting, etc. In the retinue of John of Luxembourg, he had a chance to visit the major centers of Italy, in Germany in Poland. In all likelihood, all this gave Guillaume de Machaut a lot of impressions and completely enriched him. life experience. After the death of the King of Bohemia in 1346, he was in the service of the French kings John the Good and Charles V, and received a canon in Notre Dame Cathedral in Reims. This contributed to his fame as a poet. Masho was highly valued during his lifetime, and after his death in 1377 he was glorified by his contemporaries in magnificent epitaphs. Machaux had a significant influence on French poetry, created a whole school, which is characterized by the forms of poetic lyrics he developed.

The scale of Machaux's musical and poetic creativity with the multilateral development of genres, the independence of his positions, which had a strong influence on French poets, the high skill of the musician - all this makes him the first such a major personality in the history of musical art.

creative legacy Masho is vast and varied. He created motets, ballads, rondos, canons, etc.

After Machaux, when his name was highly honored by poets and musicians, and his influence was felt in one way or another by both, he did not find really great successors among French composers. They learned a lot from his experience as a polyphonist, mastered his technique, continued to cultivate the same genres as he did, but somewhat crushed, overcomplicating the details, their art.

RENAISSANCE

The enduring significance of the Renaissance for the culture and art of Western Europe has long been recognized by historians and has become well known. Renaissance music is represented by a number of new and influential creative schools, the glorious names of Francesco Landini in 14th-century Florence, Guillaume Dufay and Johannes Okeghem in the 15th century, Josquin Despres at the beginning of the 16th century, and a galaxy of classics strict style as a result of the Renaissance - Palestrina, Orlando Lasso.

Start in Italy new era came for musical art in the XIV century. The Dutch school took shape and reached its first heights by the 15th century, after which its development expanded, and the influence in one way or another captured the masters of other national schools. Signs of the Renaissance were clearly manifested in France in the 16th century, although its creative achievements were great and indisputable even in previous centuries. By the 16th century, the rise of art in Germany, England and some other countries included in the orbit of the Renaissance.

So, in the musical art of Western European countries, obvious features of the Renaissance appear, albeit with some unevenness, within the limits of the XIV-XVI centuries. The artistic culture of the Renaissance, in particular the musical culture, no doubt did not turn away from the best creative achievements of the late Middle Ages. The historical complexity of the Renaissance era was rooted in the fact that the feudal system was still preserved almost everywhere in Europe, and significant shifts took place in the development of society, preparing the onset of a new era in many ways. This was expressed in the socio-economic sphere, political life, in expanding the horizons of contemporaries - geographic, scientific, artistic, in overcoming the spiritual dictatorship of the church, in the rise of humanism, the growth of self-awareness of a significant personality. With particular brightness, the signs of a new worldview emerged and then became firmly established in artistic creativity, in forward motion various arts, for whom the “revolution of minds” that the Renaissance produced was extremely important.

There is no doubt that humanism in its "revivalist" understanding poured tremendous fresh energy into the art of its time, inspired artists to search for new themes, and largely determined the nature of the images and the content of their works. For musical art, humanism meant, first of all, deepening into the feelings of a person, recognizing a new aesthetic value behind them. This contributed to the identification and implementation of the strongest properties of musical specificity.

The entire era as a whole is characterized by a clear predominance of vocal genres, in particular vocal polyphony. Only very slowly, gradually, instrumental music acquires some independence, but its direct dependence on vocal forms and everyday sources (dance, song) will be overcome only somewhat later. Major musical genres remain associated with verbal text.

The great path of musical art, traversed from the 14th to the end of the 16th century, was by no means simple and straightforward, just as the entire spiritual culture of the Renaissance did not develop only and solely along an ascending straight line. In the art of music, as well as in related areas, there was also its own "Gothic line", and its own, stable and tenacious, legacy of the Middle Ages.

The musical art of Western European countries reached a new frontier in the diversity of Italian, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, English and other creative schools and at the same time with clearly expressed general trends. The classics of strict style had already been created, a kind of “harmonization” of polyphony was underway, the movement towards homophonic writing was also intensifying, the role of creative individuality artist, the importance of everyday music and its impact on professional art grew stronger high level, secular musical genres (especially the Italian madrigal) were figuratively enriched and individualized, young instrumental music was approaching the threshold of independence. The 17th century took all this directly from the 16th century as a legacy of the Renaissance.

ARS NOVA IN ITALY. FRANCESCO LANDINI

The Italian musical art of the 14th century (Trecento) on the whole produces an amazing impression of freshness, as if the youth of a new, only emerging style. The music of Ars is new in Italy, just attractive and strong in its purely Italian nature and in its differences from the French art of the same time. Ars nova in Italy is already the dawn of the Renaissance, its significant harbinger. It was no coincidence that Florence became the center of creative activity of the Italian representatives of Ars nova, the importance of which was of paramount importance for new literature humanistic direction, and - to a large extent - for the fine arts.

The Ars nova period covers the 14th century from about the 20s to the 80s and is marked by the first genuine | flourishing of secular musical creativity in Italy. The Italian Ars novaa is characterized by the indisputable predominance of secular compositions over spiritual ones. In most cases, these are samples of musical lyrics or some kind of genre pieces.

At the center of the Ars nova movement, the figure of Francesco Landini rises high, a richly and versatilely gifted artist who made a strong impression on advanced contemporaries.

Landini was born in Fiesole, near Florence, in the family of a painter. After suffering from smallpox in childhood, he became blind forever. According to Villani, he took up music early (singing first and then playing strings and organ). His musical development proceeded with wonderful speed and amazed those around him. He excellently studied the design of many instruments, made improvements and invented new designs. Over the years, Francesco Landini surpassed all contemporary Italian musicians.

He was especially famous for playing the organ, for which, in the presence of Petrarch, he was crowned with laurels in Venice in 1364. Modern scholars attribute it early works to 1365-1370 years. In the 1380s, Landini's fame as a composer had already overshadowed the success of all his Italian contemporaries. Landini died in Florence and is buried in the church San Lorenzo; the date on his tombstone is September 2, 1397.

Today, 154 compositions by Landini are known. Ballads predominate among them.

Creativity Landini, in essence, completes the period of Ars Nova Italy. There is no doubt that the general level of Landini's art and its characteristic qualities do not allow us to consider it provincial, primitive, purely hedonistic.

In the last two decades of the 11th century, changes are taking place in the musical art of Italy, which first violate the integrity of the position of Ars nova, and then lead to the end of his era. The art of the 15th century already belongs to a new historical period.

The Middle Ages is a great era of human history, the time of the domination of the feudal system.

Periodization of culture:

Early Middle Ages - 5th - 10th centuries

Mature Middle Ages - XI - XIV centuries.

In 395, the Roman Empire split into two parts: Western and Eastern. In the western part on the ruins of Rome in the 5th-9th centuries there were barbarian states: Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, etc. In the 9th century, as a result of the collapse of the empire of Charlemagne, three states were formed here: France, Germany, Italy. The capital of the Eastern part was Constantinople, founded by Emperor Constantine on the site of the Greek colony of Byzantium - hence the name of the state.

§ 1. Western European Middle Ages

The material basis of the Middle Ages was feudal relations. Medieval culture is formed in the conditions rural estate. In the future, the social basis of culture becomes urban environment - burghers. With the formation of states, the main estates are formed: the clergy, the nobility, the people.

The art of the Middle Ages is closely connected with church . christian creed- the basis of philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, the entire spiritual life of this time. Filled with religious symbolism, art aspires from the earthly, transient to the spiritual, eternal.

Along with official church culture (high) existed secular culture (grassroots) - folklore(lower social classes) and knightly(courtly).

Main foci professional music early medieval- cathedrals, singing schools attached to them, monasteries - the only centers of education of that time. They studied Greek and Latin, arithmetic and music.

The main center of church music in Western Europe in the Middle Ages was Rome. At the end of VI - beginning of VII century. the main variety of Western European church music is being formed - Gregorian chant , named after Pope Gregory I, who carried out the reform of church singing, bringing together and streamlining various church hymns. Gregorian chant - monophonic Catholic chant, in which the centuries-old singing traditions of various Middle Eastern and European peoples (Syrians, Jews, Greeks, Romans, etc.) have merged. It was the smooth monophonic unfolding of a single melody that was intended to personify a single will, the focus of attention of the parishioners in accordance with the tenets of Catholicism. The nature of music is strict, impersonal. The chorale was performed by the choir (hence the name), some sections by the soloist. Stepwise movement based on diatonic modes prevails. Gregorian chant allowed many gradations, ranging from severely slow choral psalmody and ending anniversaries(melismatic chanting of a syllable), requiring virtuoso vocal skills for their performance.

Gregorian singing alienates the listener from reality, causes humility, leads to contemplation, mystical detachment. The text on latin, incomprehensible to the majority of parishioners. The rhythm of singing was determined by the text. It is vague, indefinite, due to the nature of the accents of the recitation of the text.

The diverse types of Gregorian chant were brought together in the main worship service of the Catholic Church - mass, in which five stable parts were established:

Kyrie eleison(Lord have mercy)

Gloria(glory)

Credo(believe)

Sanctus(holy)

Agnus Dei(Lamb of God).

Over time, elements of folk music begin to seep into the Gregorian chant through hymns, sequences and tropes. If the psalmody was performed by a professional choir of singers and clergy, then the hymns at first were performed by parishioners. They were inserts into the official worship (they had the features of folk music). But soon the hymn parts of the mass began to supplant the psalmodic ones, which led to the appearance polyphonic mass.

The first sequences were a subtext to the melody of the anniversary so that one sound of the melody would have a separate syllable. The sequence becomes a common genre (the most popular « Veni, sancte spiritus» , « Dies irae», « Stabat mater» ). "Dies irae" was used by Berlioz, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov (very often as a symbol of death).

The first samples of polyphony come from monasteries - organum(movement in parallel fifths or fourths), gimel, foburdon(parallel sixth chords), conductor. Composers: Leonin and Perotin (12-13 centuries - Notre Dame Cathedral).

carriers secular folk music in the Middle Ages mimes, jugglers, minstrels in France, shpilmans- in the countries of German culture, hoglars - in Spain, buffoons - in Russia. These itinerant artists were universal masters: they combined singing, dancing, playing various instruments with magic tricks, circus art, and puppet theater.

the other side secular culture was knightly (courtly) culture (culture of secular feudal lords). Almost all noble people were knights - from poor warriors to kings. A special knightly code is being formed, according to which a knight, along with courage and valor, had to have refined manners, be educated, generous, magnanimous, faithfully serve beautiful lady. All aspects of knightly life are reflected in the musical and poetic art troubadours(Provence - southern France) , trouvers(northern France), minnesingers(Germany). The art of troubadours is associated mainly with love lyrics. Most popular genre love lyrics was canzone(among the minnesingers - "Morning Songs" - albs).

Trouvers, widely using the experience of troubadours, created their own original genres: « weaving songs», « May songs". An important area of ​​musical genres of troubadours, trouvers and minnesingers was song and dance genres: rondo, ballad, virele(refrain forms), as well as heroic epic(French epic "Song of Roland", German - "Song of the Nibelungs"). Minnesingers were common crusader songs.

Characteristic features of the art of troubadours, trouvers and minnesingers:

monophony- is a consequence of the inseparable connection between the melody and the poetic text, which follows from the very essence of musical and poetic art. The monophony also corresponded to the attitude towards the individualized expression of one's own experiences, to a personal assessment of the content of the statement (often the expression of personal experiences was framed by the depiction of pictures of nature).

Mainly vocal performance. The role of the instruments was not significant: it was reduced to the performance of introductions, interludes and postludes framing the vocal melody.

It is still impossible to speak of chivalrous art as professional, but for the first time in conditions secular music-making, a powerful musical and poetic direction was created with a developed complex of expressive means and relatively perfect musical writing.

One of the important achievements mature middle ages starting from the X-XI centuries, was urban development(burgher culture) . The main features of urban culture were anti-church, freedom-loving orientation, connection with folklore, its comical and carnival character. The Gothic architectural style develops. New polyphonic genres are being formed: from the 13th-14th to the 16th centuries. - motet(from French - “word”. For a motet, a melodic dissimilarity of voices is typical, intoning different texts at the same time - often even in different languages), madrigal(from Italian - “song on mother tongue”, i.e. Italian. Texts are love-lyrical, pastoral), caccha(from Italian - “hunting” - a vocal piece based on a text depicting hunting).

Folk wandering musicians are moving from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one, populating entire city blocks and forming a kind of "musician workshops". Starting from the XII century, folk musicians joined vagants and goliards- declassed people from different classes (school students, runaway monks, wandering clerics). Unlike illiterate jugglers - typical representatives of the art of oral tradition - vagants and goliards were literate: they owned Latin and the rules of classical versification, composed music - songs (the circle of images is associated with school science and student life) and even complex compositions such as conducts and motets.

A significant center of musical culture has become universities. Music, more precisely - musical acoustics - together with astronomy, mathematics, physics was part of the quadrium, i.e. a cycle of four disciplines studied at universities.

Thus, in the medieval city there were centers of musical culture, different in character and social orientation: associations of folk musicians, court music, music of monasteries and cathedrals, university musical practice.

Musical theory of the Middle Ages was closely associated with theology. In the few musical-theoretical treatises that have come down to us, music was considered as a "servant of the church." Among the prominent treatises of the early Middle Ages, 6 books “On Music” by Augustine, 5 books by Boethius “On the Establishment of Music”, etc. stand out. A large place in these treatises was given to abstract scholastic issues, the doctrine of the cosmic role of music, etc.

The medieval fret system was developed by representatives of church professional musical art - therefore, the name "church modes" was assigned to the medieval frets. Ionian and Aeolian became established as the main modes.

The musical theory of the Middle Ages put forward the doctrine of hexachords. In each fret, 6 steps were used in practice (for example: do, re, mi, fa, salt, la). Xi was then avoided, because. formed, together with the F, a move to an enlarged quart, which was considered very dissonant and was figuratively called the "devil in music."

Non-mandatory notation was widely used. Guido Aretinsky improved the system of musical notation. The essence of his reform was as follows: the presence of four lines, a tertiary relationship between individual lines, a key sign (originally literal) or coloring of lines. He also introduced syllabic notation for the first six steps of the mode: ut, re, mi, fa, salt, la.

Introduced mensural notation, where a certain rhythmic measure was assigned to each note (Latin mensura - measure, measurement). Names of durations: maxim, longa, brevis, etc.

XIV century - the transitional period between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The art of France and Italy of the XIV century was called " Ars nova"(from Latin - new art), and in Italy it had all the properties of the early Renaissance. Main features: refusal to use exclusively church music genres and turning to secular vocal and instrumental chamber genres (ballad, kachcha, madrigal), rapprochement with everyday song, use of various musical instruments. Ars nova is the opposite of the so-called. ars antiqua (lat. ars antiqua - old art), implying the art of music before the beginning of the XIV century. The largest representatives of ars nova were Guillaume de Macho (14th century, France) and Francesco Landino (14th century, Italy).

Thus, the musical culture of the Middle Ages, despite the relative limited means, represents a higher level in comparison with the music of the Ancient World and contains the prerequisites for the flourishing of musical art in the Renaissance.

Music of the Middle Ages

The musical culture of the Middle Ages is an extremely voluminous and versatile historical phenomenon, chronologically located between the eras of antiquity and the Renaissance. It is difficult to imagine it as a single period, because in different countries the development of art followed its own special paths.

A specific feature of the Middle Ages, which left its mark on all spheres of human life at that time, was the leading role of the church in politics, ethics, art, etc. Music also did not escape such a fate: it was not yet separated from religion and was mainly spiritual function. Its content, imagery, all its aesthetic essence embodied the denial of the values ​​of earthly life for the sake of retribution after death, the preaching of asceticism, detachment from external blessings. Folk art, which continued to bear the imprint of pagan beliefs, was often attacked by the "official" art of the Catholic Church.

The first period - the early Middle Ages - is usually calculated from the era that followed immediately after the fall of the Roman Empire, that is, from the 6th century AD. e. At that time, many tribes and peoples at different stages of historical development existed and migrated on the territory of Europe. However, the surviving monuments of the musical art of this period are only the music of the Christian church (mainly in later notation), inheriting, on the one hand, the culture of the Roman Empire, on the other hand, the music of the East (Judea, Syria, Armenia, Egypt). It is assumed that the performing traditions of Christian singing are antiphon (the opposition of two choral groups) and responsories (alternating solo singing and "answers" of the choir) - developed on the basis of oriental patterns.

By the 8th century, a tradition of liturgical singing was gradually formed in European countries, the basis of which was the Gregorian chant, a set of monophonic choral chants systematized by Pope Gregory I. Here we should dwell in more detail on the personality of Gregory himself, who, due to the significance of his figure in history, was awarded the title of Great.

He was born in Rome in 540 into a family of noble birth, who did not experience financial difficulties. After the death of his parents, Gregory received a rich inheritance and was able to found several monasteries in Sicily and one in Rome, on the Caelian hill, in his family home. The last monastery, called the monastery of St. Andrew the Apostle, he chose as a place to live.

In 577, Gregory was ordained a deacon, in 585 he was elected abbot of the monastery he founded, in 590, by unanimous decision of the Roman Senate, clergy and people, he was elected to the papal throne, which he held until his death, which followed in 604. .

Even during his lifetime, Gregory enjoyed great respect in the West, and he was not forgotten even after his death. There are many stories about miracles performed by him. He also became famous as a writer: biographers equate him in this respect with the great philosophers and sages. In addition, Gregory the Great is one of the most important figures in the development of church music. He is credited with expanding the Ambrian-Rosian mode system and creating a special singing school called cantus gregorianus.

For many years, Gregory collected tunes from various Christian churches, subsequently making a collection of them called Antiphonary, which was chained to the altar of St. Peter's Church in Rome as an example of Christian singing.

The Pope introduced an octave system to replace the Greek system of tetrachords, and designated the names of the previously Greek tones with the Latin letters A, B, C, etc., with the eighth tone again receiving the name of the first. The entire scale of Gregory the Great consisted of 14 tones: A, B, c, d, e, f, g, a, b, c 1, d 1, e 1, f 1, g 1. The letter B (b) had a double meaning: B round (B rotundum) and B square (B quadratum), that is, B-flat and B-becar, depending on the need.

But let us return to Pope Gregory, who, among other things, became the founder of the singing school in Rome, zealously followed the training and even taught himself, severely punishing students for negligence and laziness.

It should be noted that gradually the Gregorian chant, consisting of chants of two types - psalmody (measured recitation of the text of the Holy Scripture, mainly at the same sound height, in which there is one note of the tune per syllable of the text) and hymns-anniversaries (free chants of the syllables of the word "Hallelujah"), ousted Ambrosian singing from the church. It differed from the latter in that it was even, independent of the text. This, in turn, made it possible for the melody to flow naturally and smoothly, and the musical rhythm from now on became independent, which was the most important event in the history of music.

The impact of choral singing on parishioners was enhanced by the acoustic possibilities of churches with their high vaults, reflecting sound and creating the effect of the Divine presence.

In subsequent centuries, with the spread of the influence of the Church of Rome, Gregorian chant was introduced (sometimes forcibly implanted) in worship services in almost all European countries. As a result, by the end of the 11th century, the entire Catholic Church was united. general forms divine services.

Musical science at that time developed in close connection with the monastic culture. In the VIII - IX centuries, on the basis of the Gregorian chant, a system of church modes of the Middle Ages was formed. This system is associated with a monophonic musical warehouse, with monody, and represents eight diatonic scales (Dorian, Hypodorian, Phrygian, Hypophrygian, Lydian, Hypolydian, Mixolydian, Hypomixolydian), each of which was perceived by medieval theorists and practitioners as a combination of certain expressive possibilities (the first fret - "dexterous", the second - "serious", the third - "swift", etc.).

In the same period, notation begins to form, at first represented by the so-called neumes - signs that clearly showed the movement of the melody up or down. Musical signs subsequently developed from neumes. The reform of musical notation was carried out in the second quarter of the 11th century by the Italian musician Guido D'Arezzo, who was born in 990. Little is known about his childhood years. Having reached a mature age, Guido became a monk of the Benedictine monastery of Pomposa near Ravenna.

Guido D'Arezzo

Nature generously endowed him with various talents, which made it possible for him to easily surpass his comrades in learning. The latter envied his success and how well Guido showed himself as a singing teacher. All this entailed a sharply negative, and partly even hostile, attitude of others towards Guido, and he was eventually forced to move to another monastery - to Arezzo, from whose name he received his nickname Aretinsky.

So, Guido was one of the outstanding musicians of his time, and his innovations in the field of teaching spiritual singing gave brilliant results. He drew attention to the notation and invented a four-line system, on which he accurately located the semitones (the characteristic features of one or another mode, as well as the melody based on this mode, depended on them, which fell between the steps of the Gregorian modes).

In an effort to record the melody as accurately as possible, Guido came up with various rules, which were framed by him in a complex and intricate system with new tone names: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. In spite of various difficulties caused by the use of such a system, it lasted a very long time, and traces of it are found among the theorists of the eighteenth century.

Interestingly, at first Guido D'Arezzo was persecuted for his innovations. But since the system of a talented musician greatly facilitated the recording and reading of melodies, the Pope returned him with honors to the monastery of Pomposa, where Guido D'Arezzo lived until his death, that is, until 1050.

In the 11th-12th centuries, a turning point was outlined in the development of the artistic culture of the Middle Ages, due to new socio-historical processes (the growth of cities, the Crusades, the promotion of new social strata, including chivalry, the formation of the first centers of secular culture, etc.). New cultural phenomena spread throughout Europe. There is a folding and distribution of the medieval novel, the Gothic style in architecture, the development of polyphonic writing in music, the formation of secular musical and poetic lyrics.

The main feature of the development of musical art during this period was the establishment and development of polyphony, which was based on the Gregorian chant: the singers added a second voice to the main church melody. In the early examples of two-voice, recorded in musical samples of the 9th-11th centuries, the voices move in parallel in a single rhythm (in intervals of a quart, fifth or octave). Later, examples of non-parallel movement of voices appear (“One singer leads the main melody, the other skillfully wanders through other sounds,” writes the theorist Guido D’Arezzo). This type of two- and polyphony is called an organum by the name of the attached voice. Later, the attached voice began to be decorated with melismas, it began to move more freely in a rhythmic sense.

The development of new forms of polyphony was especially active in Paris and Limoges in the 12th-13th centuries. This period entered the history of musical culture as the "epoch of Notre Dame" (by the name of the world-famous monument of architecture, where the singing chapel worked). Among the authors whose names history has preserved are Leonin and Perotin, the writers of organums and other polyphonic works. Leonin created the "Big Book of Organums", designed for the annual cycle of church singing. The name of Perotin is associated with the transition to three- and four-voice, further enrichment of melodic writing. At the same time, it should be noted that the significance of the Notre Dame school is significant not only for France, but for everything. European art that time.

The formation of secular genres during this period was prepared by the work of itinerant folk musicians - jugglers, minstrels and shpilmans. Rejected and even persecuted by the official church, wandering musicians were the first carriers of secular lyrics, as well as a purely instrumental tradition (they used various wind and bowed instruments, harp, etc.).

At that time, artists were actors, circus performers, singers and instrumentalists all rolled into one. They traveled from city to city, performed at festivities at courts, at castles, at fairgrounds, etc. The jugglers, stud men and minstrels were also joined by vagants and goliards - unfortunate students and fugitive monks, thanks to which the "artistic" environment spread literacy. Gradually, specialization emerged in these circles, itinerant artists began to form workshops and settle in cities.

In the same period, a kind of “intellectual” stratum was put forward - chivalry, among which (during periods of truces) interest in art also flared up. In the XII century, the art of troubadours was born in Provence, which became the basis of a special creative movement. The troubadours for the most part came from the highest nobility and were literate in music. They created musical and poetic works of complex form, in which they sang earthly joys, the heroism of the Crusades, etc.

The troubadour was primarily a poet, but the melody was often borrowed by him from everyday life and creatively rethought. Sometimes the troubadours hired minstrels to provide instrumental accompaniment to their singing, and involved jugglers in performing and composing music. Among the troubadours whose names have come down to us through the veil of centuries are Juafre Rudel, Bernart de Ventadorn, Bertrand de Born, Rambout de Vaqueiras and others.

The poetry of the troubadours had a direct influence on the formation of the creativity of the trouvers, which was more democratic, since the majority of the trouvers came from the townspeople. Some trouveurs created pieces to order. The most famous of them was Adam de la Alle, a native of Arras, a French poet, composer, playwright of the second half of the 13th century.

The art of troubadours and trouveurs spread throughout Europe. Under his influence in Germany a century later (XIII century) the traditions of the Minnesinger school were formed, whose representatives, gifted musicians and composers, mainly served at courts.

The XIV century can be considered a kind of transition to the Renaissance. This period in relation to French music is commonly referred to as Ars Nova (New Art), after the name of a scientific work created around 1320 by the Parisian theorist and composer Philippe de Vitry.

It should be noted that fundamentally new elements really appear in art at the indicated time: for example, there is an assertion (including at the theoretical level) of new principles of rhythmic division and voice leading, new modal systems (in particular, alterations and tonal gravitations - i.e. "sharps" and "flats"), new genres, reaching a new level of professional skill.

In addition to Philippe de Vitry, who created motets to his own texts, one should put Guillaume de Machaux, who was born in the city of Machaux, in Champagne, around 1300, among the greatest musicians of the 14th century.

Guillaume de Machaux at one time served at the court of Joanna of Navarre, wife of Philip the Handsome, later became the personal secretary of the King of Bohemia, John of Luxembourg, and at the end of his life was at the court of Charles V of France. Contemporaries revered him as an extraordinary musical talent, thanks to which he was not only a brilliant performer, but also an excellent composer who left behind a huge number of works: his motets, ballads, rondos, canons and other song (song and dance) forms have come down to us.

The music of Guillaume de Machaux is distinguished by refined expressiveness, grace and, according to researchers, is an expression of the spirit of the Ars Nova era. The main merit of the composer is that he wrote the first author's mass in history on the occasion of the accession to the throne of Charles V.