Variorum Collected Studies: French and English Polyphony of the 13th and 14th Centuries

The articles collected and updated in this volume constitute the results of the author's research in the area of medieval polyphony. The most significant advance in music during the period of the High Gothic was the development of a system of rhythm and of its notation, the understanding of which was, according to the author, obscured during the 20th century because of an undue emphasis on the so-called rhythmic Latin poetry from the time of St Augustine to the High Middle Ages. The essays survey the accomplishments of Europe's first great composers, the flourishing of the medieval polyphony and the remains of the motets by Philippe de Vitry, a major figure in the Parisian intelligentsia of the 14th century.