Philippe de Vitry

"de Vitry" redirects here. For other uses, see Vitry.

Philippe de Vitry (31 October 1291 – 9 June 1361) was a French composer-poet, bishop and music theorist in the ars nova style of late medieval music. An accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, he was widely acknowledged as a leading musician of his day; the early Renaissance scholar Petrarch wrote a glowing tribute, calling him: "... the keenest and most ardent seeker of truth, so great a philosopher of our age." The important music treatise Ars nova notandi (1322) is usually attributed to Vitry.

It is thought that few of Vitry's compositions survive; though he wrote secular music, only his sacred works are extant.

Life and career

Details of Philippe de Vitry's early life are vague. While some medieval sources claim that he was born in the Champagne region, modern researchers have found that he may have originated from Vitry-en-Artois near Arras. Given that he is often referred to in documents as "Magister," he is thought likely to have studied at the University of Paris. Later he was prominent in the courts of Charles IV, Philippe VI and Jean II, serving as a secretary and advisor; perhaps aided by these Bourbon connections, he also held several canonries, including Clermont, Beauvais and Paris, also serving for a time in the papal retinue at Avignon starting with Clement VI. In addition to all this, he was a diplomat and a soldier, known to have served at the siege of Aiguillon in 1346. In 1351 he became Bishop of Meaux, east of Paris. Moving in all the most important political, artistic and ecclesiastical circles, he was acquainted with many lights of the age, including Petrarch and the famous mathematician, philosopher and music theorist Nicole Oresme. He died in Paris on 9 June 1361.

Music

Manuscript of Vitry's Aman novi/Heu Fortuna/Heu me, tristis est anima mea from F-Pnm Français 146, a version of the Roman de Fauvel

Philippe de Vitry is most famous in music history for the Ars nova notandi (1322), a treatise on music attributed to him that lent its name to the music of the entire era. While his authorship and the very existence of this treatise have recently come into question, a handful of his musical works do survive and show the innovations in musical notation, particularly mensural and rhythmic, with which he was credited within a century of their inception. Such innovations as are exemplified in his stylistically attributed motets for the Roman de Fauvel were particularly important, and made possible the free and quite complex music of the next hundred years, culminating in the Ars subtilior. In some ways the "modern" system of rhythmic notation began with the Ars Nova, during which music might be said to have "broken free" from the older idea of the rhythmic modes, patterns which were repeated without being individually notated. The notational predecessors of modern time meters also originate in the Ars Nova.

He is reputed to have written chansons and motets, but only some of the motets have survived. Each is strikingly individual, exploiting a unique structural idea. He is also often credited with developing the concept of isorhythm (an isorhythmic line consists of repeating patterns of rhythms and pitches, but the patterns overlap rather than correspond; e.g., a line of thirty consecutive notes might contain five repetitions of a six-note melody or six repetitions of a five-note rhythm).

Five of his three-part motets have survived in the Roman de Fauvel; an additional nine can be found in the Ivrea Codex.

Works

While there is still debate about what Vitry did and did not compose, the first 16 works here, all motets, are widely considered to be his. Few of Vitry's compositions survive. He wrote secular music, but only his sacred works are extant.

Attributed on strong historical evidence

1. Aman novi / Heu Fortuna / Heu me, tristis est anima mea
2. Cum statua / Hugo / Magister invidie
3. Douce playsence / Garison / Neuma quinti toni
4. Floret / Florens / Neuma
5. Garrit gallus / In nova fert / Neuma
6. Impudenter circuivi / Virtutibus / Contratenor / Tenor
7. O canenda / Rex quem / Contratenor / Rex regum
8. Petre clemens / Lugentium / Tenor
9. Tribum / Quoniam secta / Merito hec patimur
10. Tuba sacre fidei / In arboris / Virgo sum
11. Vos quid admiramini / Gratissima / Contratenor / Gaude gloriosa

Note: The motet Phi millies / O creator / Iacet granum / Quam sufflabit and the ballade De terre en grec Gaulle appellee are securely attributed to Vitry, but no music for the latter survives, whilst the former survives only fragmentarily (see Zayaruznaya, 2018).

Attributed on a combination of weaker historical evidence and stylistic grounds

1. Colla iugo / Bona condit / Libera me Domine
2. Firmissime / Adesto / Alleluya, Benedictus
3. Flos ortus / Celsa cedrus / Tenor
4. Orbis orbatus / Vos pastores / Fur non venit (less widely accepted)
5. Quid scire proderit / Dantur officia (less widely accepted)

Attributed on stylistic grounds alone (not widely accepted)

1. Almifonis / Rosa / Tenor
2. Amer / Durement / Dolor meus
3. Apta caro / Flos / Alma redemptorisa mater
4. In virtute / Decens carmen / Clamor meus / Contratenor
5. O Philippe / O bone
6. Per grama protho paret
7. Scariotis / Jure
8. Se cuers / Rex
9. Se paour / Diex / Concupisco
10. Servant regem / O Philippe / Rex regum

Recordings

2009 – En un gardin. Les quatre saisons de l'Ars Nova. Manuscrits de Stavelot, Mons, Utrecht, Leiden. Capilla Flamenca. MEW 0852. Contains recordings of "Vos quid admiramini virginem / Gratissima virginis / Gaude gloriosa" and "Adesto sancta trinitas / Firmissime fidem / Alleluia Benedicta" by Philippe de Vitry.

Sources

• Bent, Margaret (2018) [2001]. "Vitry, Philippe de". Grove Music Online. Revised by Andrew Wathey. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.29535. ISBN 978-1-56159-2-630.
• Robertson, Anne Walters (1998). "Which Vitry? The Witness of the Trinity Motet from the Roman de Fauvel"". In Pesce, Dolores (ed.). Hearing the Motet: Essays on the Motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-01953-5-165-1.
• Sanders, Ernest H. "Philippe de Vitry". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• Wilkins, Nigel (2001). "Chanson". Grove Music Online. Revised by David Fallows, Howard Mayer Brown and Richard Freedman. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40032. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. Retrieved 20 June 2021. (subscription or UK public library membership required)

Further reading

• Fuller, Sarah (1986). "A Phantom Treatise of the Fourteenth Century? The Ars Nova". The Journal of Musicology. 4 (1). University of California Press: 23–50 – via JSTOR.
• Hoppin, Richard (1978). Medieval Music. A Norton Introduction To Music History (1st ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-09090-1.
• Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel (1995). "The Emergence of ars nova*". The Journal of Musicology. 13 (3). University of California Press: 285–317.
• Zayaruznaya, Anna (2015). The Monstrous New Art: Divided Forms in the Late Medieval Motet. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107039667.

External links

• Free scores by Philippe de Vitry in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• List of compositions by Philippe de Vitry at the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
• Free scores by Philippe de Vitry at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Works by Philippe de Vitry in the Medieval Music Database from La Trobe University