Ars Antiqua

Timeline

1. c. 1198–1220Notre Dame de Paris · ParisPerotin wrote three- and four-voice works building on Léonin's two-voice organum tradition, making rhythmic modes and florid counterpoint an international model for Notre Dame liturgical music.
2. c. 1220–1260Paris · ParisClausula passages were supplied with independent texts, developing into early motets; polyphonic textures and rhythmic modes spread via manuscripts to churches and universities across Western Europe.
3. c. 1260–1280Paris · ParisFranco of Cologne distinguished long and short durations by note shapes, allowing polyphony to be written more precisely; the theoretical framework of Ars Antiqua was thus fixed, and was subsequently superseded by the rhythmic innovations of Ars Nova.