Ars nova

Ars nova (Latin: new art) refers to a musical style which flourished in France and the Burgundian Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages: more particularly, in the period between the preparation of the Roman de Fauvel (1310s) and the death of the composer Guillaume de Machaut in 1377. The term is sometimes used more generally to refer to all European polyphonic music of the 14th century. For instance "Italian ars nova" is sometimes used to denote the music of Francesco and his compatriots; however, Trecento music is the more common term for music in Italy). The "ars" in "ars nova" can be read as "technique", or "style". The term was first used in two musical treatises, titled Ars novae musicae (New Technique of Music) (c. 1320) by Johannes de Muris, and a collection of writings attributed to Philippe de Vitry often simply called "Ars nova" today (c. 1322). However, the term was only first used to describe an historical era by Johannes Wolf in 1904.