The Chantilly Codex (''Chantilly, Musée Condé MS 564'') is a manuscript of

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred music, sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the Dates of classical music eras, first and longest major era of Western class ...

containing pieces from the style known as the '' Ars subtilior''. It is held in the museum at the

Château de Chantilly The Château de Chantilly () is a historic French château located in the town of Chantilly, Oise, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Paris. The site comprises two attached buildings: the Petit Château, built around 1560 for Anne de Montmore ...

Chantilly, Oise Chantilly ( , ; Picard language, Picard: ''Cantily'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Oise Departments of France, department in the Nonette (river), Valley of the Nonette in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region of Northern Franc ...

. Most of the compositions in the Chantilly Codex date from c. 1350–1400. There are 112 pieces total, mostly by French composers, and all of them

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...

. The codex contains examples of many of the most popular courtly dance styles of its time, such as ballades, rondeaus,

virelai A ''virelai'' is a form of medieval French verse used often in poetry and music. It is one of the three '' formes fixes'' (the others were the ballade and the rondeau) and was one of the most common verse forms set to music in Europe from the ...

s, and

isorhythm Isorhythm (from the Greek for "the same rhythm") is a musical technique using a repeating rhythmic pattern, called a ''talea'', in at least one voice part throughout a composition. ''Taleae'' are typically applied to one or more melodic patterns o ...

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

s. Some of the motets are

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

ically extremely complex, and are written in intricately exact

musical notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proce ...

. Two pieces by Baude Cordier were added at a slightly later date at the front of the manuscript, and use unusual shapes to reflect their musical contents. The piece "Belle, Bonne, Sage, Plaisant" (image right) was written to a special lady for the New Year, and reflects the shape of the notation with the text (Lovely, good, wise, and pleasant). The graphic layout of the notation is a play on words on the "Cor" ("heart") in "Cordier". The Chantilly Codex is known to contain music from the composers Johannes Symonis, Jehan Suzay, P. des Molins, Goscalch, Solage, Baude Cordier, Grimace,

Guido Guido is a given name. It has been a male first name in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Argentina, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal and Latin America, as well as other places with migration from those. Regarding origins, there ...

Guillaume de Machaut Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...

, Jehan Vaillant, F. Andrieu, Magister Franciscus, Johannes Cuvelier, Rodericus, Trebor, and Jacob Senleches.

Editions

The majority of the 112 pieces are found in Willi Apel, ed., ''French Secular Compositions of the Fourteenth Century'' ( American Institute of Musicology, 1970)

Selected recordings

The following recordings include selections from the 112 pieces: * Ensemble Organum (Marcel Pérès, dir.). ''Codex Chantilly: Airs de cour du XIVe siècle''. Arles: Harmonia Mundi, 1987. CD recording HMC 901252. * Ensemble P. A. N. ''Ars Magis Subtiliter: Secular Music of the Chantilly Codex'. San Francisco: New Albion, 1989. CD recording NA 021. * Medieval Ensemble of London (Peter Davies and Timothy Davies, dir. ''Ce diabolic chant: Ballades, Rondeaus & Virelais of the Late Fourteenth Century''). Florilegium Series. London: Éditions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1983. LP recording DSDL 704; Reissued 2007 on L'Oiseau-Lyre CD 475 9119. * New London Consort (Philip Pickett, dir.). ''Ars subtilior''. Glasgow, Scotland: Linn Records, 1998. CD recording CKD 039. * De Caelis ''Codex Chantilly'' dir. Laurence Brisset. Aeon 2010. *Figures of Harmony, ''Songs of Codex Chantilly, c. 1390'', 2015. 4-CD box set.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Medieval music manuscript sources Music illuminated manuscripts 15th-century illuminated manuscripts Ars subtilior

Editions

Selected recordings

References

Further reading

External links