Philippe de Vitry

Philippe de Vitry was born on 31 October 1291, probably in Paris, into a family of clerics. He studied at the University of Paris, where he became a master of arts, and entered the service of the Church and the court early on. A man of immense learning, he was at once poet, composer, theorist, diplomat and prelate: his contemporaries regarded him as one of the most brilliant minds of his century.

His earliest known works appear in a famous manuscript, the Roman de Fauvel, completed around 1317. This satirical verse narrative tells of the rise of an ambitious donkey, an image of the vices of the court. A richly illuminated version inserts many pieces of music, including several motets attributed to Vitry, such as Garrit gallus / In nova fert, which ironically denounces abuses of power.

His name remains linked to the expression Ars nova, “the new art”, the title of a treatise drawn from his teaching around 1322. Musicians of this generation developed a more precise notation, able to show shorter durations and to choose between dividing notes by three or by two. This opened the door to much more varied and supple rhythms. Pope John XXII was alarmed: in 1324–25 he condemned singers who “chop up melodies” in church.

Vitry also perfected the isorhythmic motet, in which the lowest voice repeats the same rhythmic pattern several times, like a hidden framework on which the upper voices hang. His motets often layer several different Latin texts sung at once, commenting on one another. About a dozen motets are attributed to him with some confidence, including Vos qui admiramini / Gratissima and Tribum que non abhorruit.

Alongside this he pursued a brilliant administrative career. Secretary and counsellor to kings Charles IV, Philip VI and John the Good, he carried out diplomatic missions, notably to the papal court at Avignon. The Italian poet Petrarch, who met him, described him as “the only true poet of France”. In 1351 Vitry was appointed Bishop of Meaux, a post he held until his death on 9 June 1361, amid the turmoil of the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death.

To appreciate Vitry’s contribution, remember that before him notation allowed only a limited number of rhythmic combinations, almost all based on groups of three, the symbol of the Trinity. The Ars nova now accepted duple division, introduced the minim, a shorter value, and invented signs, ancestors of our time signatures, to tell the singer which system to use. Manuscripts even began to use red notes to signal a change of rhythm. These tools made it possible to write syncopations, shifted accents and off-beats that gave music an unprecedented liveliness. Contemporaries felt the break so clearly that they soon set the Ars nova against the Ars antiqua, the “old art” of the Notre-Dame school, a distinction historians still use today.

His influence was considerable: Guillaume de Machaut and the following generation adopted his techniques, and the isorhythmic motet remained in use until the mid-fifteenth century, as late as Guillaume Du Fay. Vitry thus embodies the passage from medieval music to a more learned, precise and personal style of writing.