This class will start off by discussing the musical, notational, and theoretical developments that were all the rage in the fourteenth century. This time period saw the invention of things that modern notation takes for granted: individual note shapes to tell a performer how to read rhythms, specific rhythmic or metric relationships between these note values, signs to tell a performer what "time" or measure a piece was in, and more. Not everyone agreed on how these ideas were to be used, though, or even if they should be allowed! Class participants will get to try their hands at some of the basics of fourteenth-century notation, compare the results against earlier and later practices, and even wrestle with some scribal mistakes! Today, modern scholars have continued to dig further into what the "ars nova" really was—it seems that, then as now, the "ars nova" is a hotbed of activity, so the class will conclude with a discussion of some of the exciting new discoveries, speculations, and disagreements by expert musicologists.
Please visit sfems.org for the full summer calendar and livestream concerts.