Ars antiqua
Ars antiqua, also called ars veterum or ars vetus, is the name scholars use for medieval European music from about 1170 to 1310. This period includes the Notre-Dame school, where several independent melodic lines were sung at the same time (polyphony), and the early development of the motet, a varied choral work. Usually ars antiqua refers to sacred, polyphonic music, not the secular monophonic songs of the troubadours and trouvères. Sometimes people use the term more loosely to mean much of 13th-century European music.
Ars antiqua is contrasted with ars nova, meaning "new art." The move from ars antiqua to ars nova was gradual, not a sudden change, and some scholars place the boundary in the 13th–14th centuries. Early in medieval times, the term described the period of Franco of Cologne; but that narrow use is rare today.
Most ars antiqua composers are anonymous. We know a few names from the Notre-Dame school, such as Léonin and Pérotin. Petrus de Cruce is one of the later composers whose name is known. In theory, this era brought key advances in rhythm notation. Early music showed pitches but not rhythm. The major theorists were Johannes de Garlandia, who around 1240 wrote De Mensurabili Musica explaining rhythmic modes. Franco of Cologne, a bit later, described a system with different shaped notes having different rhythmic values in Ars cantus mensurabilis around 1280, which greatly influenced later music. Most surviving 13th-century music uses Garlandia's rhythmic modes.
The ars antiqua style faded in the early 14th century, but Jacques of Liège (Jacob of Liège) defended it in his Speculum Musicae around 1320, arguing that ars antiqua was modest and proper, while ars nova was too indulgent and worldly.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 06:56 (CET).