| The history of music recognizes the intense musical activity at the beginning of the fourteenth century as the inception of a new art form, the Ars Nova. The previous century had seen important achievements that were to prepare the way for this, one of which was undoubtedly the appearance of a new musical form that was to dominate all others in the second half of the fourteenth century. Thus the motet, derived from the original clausulae (sections of the organum composed in the note-against-note style progressing the melismas of cantus firmus) forming part of the organa, (a polyphonic piece for two, three or four voices, the principal one of which is known as the tenor; it developed from Gregorian chant) was to see its survival and independence safeguarded despite the decline of the Notre Dame School. The tenor began to gain independence from the clausula, the themes gradually abandoned their almost exclusively religious nature and polytextuality and linguistic diversity became central characteristics of the genre. |
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